GAMBIER, Ohio – Cody Phillippi scored all of his game-high 17 points in the second half as Wittenberg University (11-5, 6-3 NCAC) prevailed over Kenyon College (7-9, 4-5 NCAC) by a 78-70 count Wednesday night at Tomsich Arena.
 
The Tigers out-scored the Lords 42-18 in the paint while connecting on 55.8% from the field and 87.5% from the free throw line.
 
Kenyon was led by Tim Connolly who tallied 16 points, six steals, five rebounds and five assists. Coming off the bench to aid the Lords' efforts were sophomores Phillip Crampton and Alexander Powell. Crampton scored a season-high 10 points while Powell contributed 11 points and three assists.
 
Early in the contest the Tigers raced out to a 16-4 lead a little over five minutes in as Chad Roy scored six points to lead Witt. The run was finished off by Jaelin Williams who buried a three-ball from the right wing.
 
The Lords shook off the slow start to get back into the game though. From the 14:43 mark to the 9:09 mark, Kenyon rattled off an 18-7 run to cut the deficit to one point (23-22) following a corner three-pointer from Crampton. He tallied a team-high five points during that stretch.
 
Witt went back up seven (31-24) following a layup from Roy but once again Kenyon responded and took its first lead courtesy of Powell's long-ball at the 2:02 mark which brought the score to 32-31 Lords. By the end of the first half, Kenyon went down 37-35 but found themselves right in the thick of things as they went to the locker room.
 
Second-half action saw the Tigers open the period on fire hitting 5-of-8 including a pair of three-pointers from Phillipi. That moved the tally to 51-40, Wittenberg.
 
The Lords found themselves down 11 points on three more occasions throughout the second half before rallying another time.
 
Down 63-52 with 7:12 left, the home team hit a 10-0 run capped off by a Powell jumper in the paint to bring the deficit to one with 4:29 left.
 
Unfortunately for Kenyon, they never did get over that one-point deficit. The Tigers closed the latter stages of the game with seven points from Phillip in the final minute to prevail.
 
Next up for the Lords is a trip to Hiram College this Saturday for a 3 p.m. conference title. The Terriers defeated Kenyon 88-78 earlier in the season.