GAMBIER, Ohio – Clinging to a one-point lead ten minutes into Wednesday night's basketball game, the Kenyon College Lords' offense shifted to a higher gear and cruised through an 81-69 North Coast Athletic Conference victory over the Allegheny College Gators.

Back-to-back layups from freshman Ben Stern opened up that Kenyon one-point and sparked a Lords' 14-4 run that spanned a little more than four minutes. During that game-changing run, senior Ethan Shapiro pumped in seven points and pushed Kenyon to a 39-25 advantage with 3:57 left in the half.

Thanks to the play of Jordan Rawls, who tossed in 17 points in 15 minutes of first-half work, Allegheny (3-5, 0-2 NCAC) cut into the Kenyon lead, but the Lords managed to get to the half with a 45-37 edge.

The fast-paced play continued in the second half and the Lords never lost their rhythm. Kenyon shot 51.5 percent (34-of-66) from the field, including 33.3 percent (8-of-24) from long range. The 34 field goals and the eight three-pointers were both season-highs for the Lords, who are now 2-0 at Tomsich Arena and 0-4 away from it.

The Lords (2-4, 1-1 NCAC) also dominated the glass. After taking a 49-25 beating on the boards in Saturday's loss at Denison University, the Kenyon men snared a season-high 48 rebounds against Allegheny, which managed just 21.

The Gators never crawled closer than seven points in the second half and a jumper from junior Alexander Powell gave Kenyon its largest lead at 81-62 with 3:07 left in the contest.

Junior Phillip Crampton poured in 13 points in the second half and finished with a game-high 22 for the Lords. He also grabbed nine rebounds, as did Matt Shifrin and Will Sigl. Shifrin complemented his nine boards with nine points and seven assists. Sigl also scored nine, while Shapiro and Powell tossed in 13 and 11, respectively.

Rawls wound up adding just three second-half points to his scoring output and led the Gators with 20 points. Conor Macomber scored a dozen and Jamison Nee grabbed a team-high four rebounds for Allegheny, which hit 46.4 percent (13-of-28) of its three-point attempts, but shot just 44.1 percent (26-of-59) overall.

The Lords will look to continue their winning ways at home Saturday when they host the Little Giants of Wabash College at 3 p.m.