GAMBIER, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University (1-0, 1-0 NCAC) used an 11-1 run early in the second half to pull away from Kenyon College (0-3, 0-1 NCAC) en route to a 95-86 victory Tuesday night in a North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball game at Tomsich Arena.

The Battling Bishops were led by Nick Felhaber and Ben Simpson who each scored 17 points and combined to great eight rebounds in the game. Freshman Nate Axelord scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting while Zak Davis came off the bench to score 16 of his own. All-NCAC performer from a year ago Claude Gray chipped in with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Kenyon was led by Tim Connolly who scored 23 points including a 9-of-12 line at the charity stripe. He also corralled eight rebounds, dished out three assists, and collected three steals. Cooper Handlesman, Brien Comey, and John Bray each scored 13 points for the Lords.  

In a highly competitive first half, there were 10 ties and neither team had a lead bigger than six points.

Connolly gave the Lords an early three-point advantage after he drained a long ball 95 seconds in bringing the score to 5-2. The Battling Bishops got their biggest lead (22-16) after Joey Kinsley hit a three-pointer with 8:14 left.

There were three ties after that before OWU scored the final five points of the half. Ohio Wesleyan led 44-39 at the break. They were aided by 7-of-16 (43.8%) shooting from beyond the arc and a 12-5 bench points advantage.

The start of the second half was dominated by Kenyon. About three minutes in, the Lords had hit their first five shots, three of which came from Cooper Handelsman. They led 49-44 with 17:43 left.

But the slow second-half start from OWU didn't last long. After Axelrod hit a layup to bring the score to 49-all, the Battling Bishops reeled off 11 of the next 12 points to take a 60-50 lead.

Kenyon cut the deficit to five points (61-56) after a Connolly jumper with just under 10 minutes left, but that's the closest they got the rest of the game.

OWU finished the game hitting 50% (29-of-58) from the field and its bench out-scored Kenyon's 31-16.

The Lords dominated the paint scoring 42 compared to 24 for the Battling Bishops.

Kenyon returns to action November 23 at Muskingum University. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.