Wabash 69, Ohio Wesleyan 63

Feb. 25, 2003

	2003 NCAC Men's Basketball Tournament. Quarterfinals -- at home sites (1) Wooster 73, (8) Hiram 51 (4) Wabash 69, (5) Ohio Wesleyan 63 (3) Allegheny 92, (6) Earlham 90 (OT) (2) Wittenberg 80, (7) Denison 74 Semifinals -- Friday, Feb. 28 at Wooster Allegheny 73, Wittenberg 72 Wooster 76, Wabash 66 Championship -- Saturday, March 1 at Wooster Wooster 93, Allegheny 71

Senior center Travis Schwab (Medina) converted a 3-point play to tie the game at 59-59 with 5:07 to play, but Wabash held the Bishops scoreless for the next 4:40 and sealed the game at the free throw line to nip Ohio Wesleyan in quarterfinal action of the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament on Tuesday at Crawfordsville, Ind.

With the score tied at 59-59, the Little Giants took the lead when Brady Claxton hit the second of 2 free throws with 4:54 to play.

Neither team was able to score for nearly 4 minutes, with Wabash finally breaking the drought when Joe DesJean converted a 3-point play with 1:10 remaining, giving the Little Giants a 63-59 lead.

Ohio Wesleyan missed on its next possession, but the Bishops got the ball back on a steal by sophomore forward Brandon Cole (Sidney). Cole later hit a lay-in that cut the deficit to 63-61 with :27 left.

Wabash's Chris Waters got loose for a lay-in with :18 remaining, and the Little Giants added a pair of free throws by Claxton with :13 to play, raising the margin to 67-61.

Freshman guard Ross Rybarczyk (Oberlin/Elyria Catholic) drew a foul immediately thereafter and sank both free throws to slice the deficit to 67-63, and the Bishops stole the ball back, but senior guard Jason Dopoulos (Strongsville) misfired on a 3-point attempt and Wabash cleared the rebound. Waters was fouled in the closing seconds and hit both free throws to account for the 69-63 final.

Wabash had jumped to an early 10-4 lead, but Ohio Wesleyan responded to tie the game at 14-14 and 21-21. From there, Rybarczyk hit a lay-in, junior center Charlie Smith (Centerburg) converted a 3-point play and Cole sank 2 free throws to give Ohio Wesleyan its biggest lead of the game at 28-21.

But the Little Giants answered with a 12-3 run to end the first half, with the exclamation point coming on Matt Storm's 3-pointer at the buzzer. That bucket gave Wabash a 33-31 halftime lead.

The second half kept fans on the edge of their seats, with play going back and forth. Ohio Wesleyan broke a 40-40 tie with baskets by sophomore guard Bryan King (Sidney) and Cole to take a 44-40 lead, but Wabash answered with a pair of Claxton free throws and a DesJean lay-in.

All told, the second half featured 9 ties, the last coming when Schwab's 3-point play evened the game at 59-59.

Schwab led the Bishops with 20 points and 4 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds. Cole added 11 points and led the Bishops with 9 rebounds.

DesJean led Wabash with 21 points and 9 rebounds, while Claxton finished with 16 points and a team-high 6 boards and Storm added 10 points.

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