Box Score NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The Kenyon College men's basketball team overcame a sluggish first half Wednesday night and jumped on the shoulders of Julian Pavlin and John Bray to rally for a 67-63 non-conference win over the host Muskingum University Muskies.

Bray scored five early points and guided the Lords to a quick 7-0 lead. At that point, it looked like the Kenyon men would stroll to victory. Their shooting, however, took a turn for the worse. The Lords shot just 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) for the remainder of the half and entered intermission trailing the Muskies, 31-24.

After the break, Kenyon made the right adjustments and put together a solid run. Cooper Handelsman and Ikenna Nwadibia drained a couple of layups and Pavlin followed with a three-pointer to move the Lords within two points (33-31) with 17:54 left. Over the next three minutes, Bray converted a pair of layups, Pavlin buried another three-ball, and the Lords took back the lead at 40-38.

It was a dogfight the rest of the way. Kenyon (3-2) went ahead by as many as five points, but Muskingum (0-5) tied the score once and reclaimed the lead two more times. The second of the two lead changes came with just 2:55 left in the game. That's when Muskingum's Christian Keller knocked down a bucket to give the Muskies a 62-61 lead. Kenyon quickly responded with another layup from Nwadibia and the Lords again took over the lead, this time for good.

With roughly one minute left, Muskingum's Dave Brown hit a free throw to get the Muskies within two (65-63). Kenyon then turned the ball over on its next possession, but Muskingum misfired on a three-point attempt with eight seconds left. Handelsman grabbed the important rebound and got the ball to Pavlin, who was fouled. Pavlin then went to the line and sank both of his free throws to put the game away.

Pavlin ended up shooting 3-of-5 from three-point territory and 5-of-6 at the free throw line. In addition to his game-high 16 points, which tied a career-best, he also chalked up seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks, and a steal. Bray scored 14, also tying a career-high, while Nwadibia tossed in another 14 points and snared eight boards.

After shooting a combined 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) in the first half, Kenyon closed out the game by shooting 16-of-31 (51.5 percent) in the second half.