Box Score
GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College men's basketball team knocked off rival Denison University, 73-61, Wednesday night at Tomsich Arena and took one more giant step toward securing a top-four spot in the standings and earning home-court advantage in the first round of the upcoming North Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament.
The win over the Big Red puts Kenyon's overall record at 14-10 and its conference mark at 8-7, which is the same mark held by both DePauw University and Wittenberg University. All three teams currently share third place in the NCAC standings. The Lords hold tie-breaker decisions over DePauw, a team they defeated twice this season. Wittenberg, which met Kenyon just once this season, holds the tie-breaker over the Lords via a 71-64 home win.
The conference's standings will not be finalized until Saturday, the last day of the regular season. On that day, Kenyon will host Allegheny College (9-15, 3-12 NCAC). DePauw will host Wooster (21-3, 14-1 NCAC) and Wittenberg will travel to Hiram (11-12, 5-9 NCAC).
The Lords launched themselves into the third-place tie by getting off to a tremendous start against Denison. Sophomore
Jonathan Amador began things with a pair of three-pointers and junior
Julian Pavlin followed up with another to give Kenyon a quick 9-4 lead. The hot shooting continued throughout the first half, as the Lords pumped in field goals at a scorching rate of 67.9 percent (19-of-28).
Before the Big Red (9-15, 7-8 NCAC) could get a break at halftime, they were already looking at a 46-25 deficit.
John Bray led the Lords into intermission with 11 points.
In the second half, Kenyon's shooting took a big dip (25.0 percent) and allowed for a bit of a rally from Denison, which closed to within eight points (65-57) with 1:11 left in the game. Pavlin stopped the surge, however, by closing things out with six free throws. Amador added a pair of charity tosses, too, and the Lords slammed the door by converting all ten of their final free throw attempts.
Pavlin finished with a team-high 17 points. He also had six rebounds, four assists two steals, and two blocked shots. Bray added 13 points and two other Kenyon starters,
Ikenna Nwadibia and
Brian Lebowitz, each pitched in with a dozen. Nwadibia also grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds, leading Kenyon to a significant 46-33 advantage on the boards.
Overall, Kenyon ended up shooting 45.0 percent (27-of-60) from the field and 77.8 percent (14-of-18) at the free throw line.
