Otterbein 84, Ohio Wesleyan 78

Dec. 30, 2005

Junior post Ben Chojnacki (Medina) scored 18 points to help Ohio Wesleyan take a 48-35 halftime lead, but Otterbein scored the last 13 points of the game to pull out a win in the championship game of the Otterbein "O" Club Classic on Friday in Westerville.

In the consolation game, Nazareth defeated Thomas More, 89-83, in overtime.

Otterbein took an early lead in the championship game, going ahead 10-6 on a jumper by Ross Banaszak with 15:50 left in the first half.

Ohio Wesleyan answered with a 15-4 run that included a pair of 3-pointers by Chojnacki as well as a 3-point play and a lay-in by freshman wing Kyle Holliday (Van Wert). After Eric Murphy scored for Otterbein, Holliday sank another lay-in and sophomore guard Casey Teeters (Westerville/Columbus St. Charles) drilled a 3-pointer to increase the Bishop lead to 26-16 with 9:24 left in the half.

The Cardinals whittled away at the deficit, closing to within 37-35 on Kevin King's lay-in with 2:48 left, but Ohio Wesleyan finished off the first half with 11 straight points. Chojnacki buried a pair of 3-pointers, senior wing Bryan King (Sidney) hit another long-range bomb and senior guard Ross Rybarczyk (Oberlin/Elyria Catholic) hit a lay-in in the closing seconds to give the Bishops a 48-35 lead going into the locker room.

Otterbein rallied in the second half, closing to within 59-57 on a 3-pointer by Banaszak and a lay-in by Kevin King with 12:29 left in regulation time, and later sliced the deficit to a single point when Tyler Ousley hit back-to-back lay-ins to make it a 66-65 game with 9:18 remaining.

Ohio Wesleyan led, 68-67, when sophomore post Jesse Jean (Alexandria, Va./Hyde (Conn.) School) hit a lay-in and Bryan King followed with a 3-pointer. After Will Parker scored for Otterbein, Chojnacki converted a 3-point play to give the Bishops a 76-69 lead with 5:36 to play. Banaszak followed with a bucket for Otterbein, but Chojnacki countered for the Bishops to make it 78-71 with 4:15 to go, but Ohio Wesleyan would not score again.

The Cardinals hit 6 straight free throws during the next minute-plus, coming within 78-77 with 3:05 remaining. Ousley hit a lay-in to put Otterbein ahead, 79-78, with 1:17 to go, and hit 2 more free throws with :50 left for an 81-78 Cardinal lead. Banaszak added a free throw with :14 remaining and Ousley finished off the scoring with a pair of free throws with :01 left.

Chojnacki led the Bishops with 27 points and 9 rebounds. Freshman guard Tim Patten (Mechanicsburg) kicked in a season-high 12 points and Holliday finished with 10 points. Bryan King led the Bishops with 5 assists.

Banaszak led Otterbein with 20 points and 6 assists, Ousley had 19 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, Kevin King scored 18 points, Tommy Young had 13 points and Will Parker scored 10 points.

Chojnacki represented the Bishops on the all-tournament team. He was joined by Banaszak and Kevin King of Otterbein, Joe Canori of Nazareth and E.J. Haynes of Thomas More. Ousley was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

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