DELAWARE, Ohio – The Ohio Wesleyan University men's basketball team drained 18-of-34 three-point attempts Saturday and posted a 102-93 North Coast Athletic Conference win over the visiting Kenyon College Lords. The 18 treys were a Branch Rickey Arena single-game record.

Kenyon (6-15, 4-10 NCAC) put together its second straight quality shooting game, only to be outdone by its competition. Wednesday, the Lords fired in shots at a season-high 58.5 percent, but dropped a two-point decision to Wooster, which shot 58.3 percent. Against the Battling Bishops, Kenyon made buckets at a rate of 51.4 percent (36-of-70) and fell victim to a 57.4 percent showing (35-of-61) from the host squad.

Ohio Wesleyan (17-4, 12-2 NCAC), which holds the top spot in the conference standings, didn't waste any time in pulling the trigger. Claude Gray heaved a pair of three-pointers in the game's first three minutes. He missed both of them, but the Battling Bishops converted 12-of-17 shots from long range during the remainder of the half.

Nate Axelrod's three-ball at the 16:44 mark broke a 6-6 tie and gave the Battling Bishops a lead they would never relinquish. Matt Jeske gave Ohio Wesleyan its largest lead of the half when he nailed a three-pointer that sent his team into the intermission with a 56-43 advantage. Jeske had 14 points in the first half alone and both Gray and Axelrod contributed a dozen.

Kenyon went the opposite route and bypassed long-range shooting to feed senior John Bray down low. The forward responded with a 16-point half that included perfect shooting from the floor (7-of-7) and from the free throw line (2-of-2).

Ohio Wesleyan ran its lead out to as many as 20 points early in the second half. The large deficit forced the Lords to start launching treys. Junior Tim Connolly, who made a pair of three-pointers in the first half and had 13 points, wound up going 4-of-7 from distance and finished with 19.

Bray tacked on eight more points in the second half and finished with a team-best 24. Alexander Powell and Cooper Handelsman rounded out the Lords' double-digit scorers with 15 and 11 points, respectively.

Handelsman also set the Kenyon single-game record, as well as the Branch Rickey Arena record, for assists as he rang up 14 against the Bishops. He held the previous Kenyon mark of 13, which he set at Muskingum University earlier this season. The previous arena record was also 13, which was reached by two different Bishop players. Additionally, Handelsman had nine rebounds and came up one board shy of posting a triple-double.

Despite the great offensive effort, Kenyon never pulled closer than eight points in the second half. Axelrod led all scorers with 25 points. Gray and Ben Simpson scored 23 apiece and Jeske finished with 18.

The Lords will try to get back on the winning track Wednesday, when they travel to Denison University to take on the Big Red at 8 p.m.