Box Score
GAMBIER, Ohio – All five Kenyon College starters rang up double-digit scoring marks and guided the Lords basketball team to a 76-71 non-conference victory over the Albion College Britons on Friday night at Tomsich Arena. Those same five combined to score 64 of Kenyon's 76 points and steered the Lords into the winter break on a four-game win streak.
Senior
Ikenna Nwadibia led the way for Kenyon with team-highs of 15 points and 11 rebounds, marking his seventh double-double of the season. It didn't come easy for Nwadibia, who had just one point in the first half. He'll now enter the break with team-best season averages of 18.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game.
Fellow senior
Brian Lebowitz scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and 5-of-6 shooting from the free throw line. He's made a habit lately of drawing fouls, getting to the line, and making opponents pay. During the team's four-game win streak, Lebowitz went a combined 17-of-21 (80.9 percent) at the line.
Kenyon's other three starters all dumped in a dozen points apiece. Guards
Julian Pavlin and
Jonathan Amador each knocked down a pair of three-pointers to boost their totals, while junior center
John Bray connected on 6-of-8 shots down low. Pavlin also padded his stat line with six assists and three blocked shots.
Kenyon's only bench points came from
Brien Comey, who tossed in nine, and
Tim Connolly, who canned the Lords' only other three-pointer of the game.
The Lords trailed just twice within the game's first five minutes. At the 14:58 mark of the first half, Bray scored his first field and gave Kenyon a lead (11-10) it would never relinquish. Both of Pavlin's three-pointers came early and helped the Lords build their lead to 17-10. Albion pulled within five points twice, but Kenyon got to the break with a 36-30 advantage.
The difference between the two teams remained between six and ten points for the majority of the second half. It wasn't until the 3:51 mark that Kenyon built its biggest lead of 17 points (73-56). A 7-1 spurt that was fueled by two Nwadibia field goals and three-ball from Amador got the Lords to that point.
Albion (5-3) chipped away at that lead, but never got closer than the final five-point margin. Outside of 20 points and 11 rebounds from Jordan Herron, the Britons didn't get much production from their starters. While Kenyon had just 12 points from its bench, Albion got 36 from its non-starters.
Kenyon (5-4) will not see game action again until January 3, when the Lords face the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in the opening round of the two-day New York University Holiday Classic.