HIRAM, Ohio – Down by as many as 17 points early in Tuesday night's game and up by as many as seven points late in game, the Kenyon College men's basketball team ran out of gas and saw the host Hiram College Terriers pull away with a 95-87 victory in the first round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.

The win for No. 3-seeded Hiram (19-7) was the Terriers' first-ever in NCAC Tournament play. They'll move on to face No. 2-seed College of Wooster in the tournament's semifinal round. For Kenyon, the loss puts an end to the season and finalizes the Lords' record at 11-15, four wins better than the previous season.

Kenyon dug a hole early, connecting on just two field goals in the game's first six minutes. As the Lords struggled to hit their mark, Hiram sprinted to leads of 14-2 and 21-4. With 10:37 left in the half, Hiram's Paul Ortiz canned a three-pointer that gave the Terriers a 30-14 advantage.

With things looking bleak, Kenyon began to rally. Sophomore guard Alexander Powell buried back-to-back three-pointers and sparked a 15-0 Kenyon run that put the Lords right back in the ball game. The Lords, however, couldn't surpass the Terriers, who gave themselves a little more breathing room with a 49-42 halftime lead.

The Lords shot 50 percent (5-of-10) on three-point attempts in the first half and just kept gunning from long range in the second half. A three-ball and one from senior guard Tim Connolly gave the Lords their first lead at 50-49 with 17:26 remaining. Twenty-six seconds later, Connolly canned another and Kenyon owned a 53-31 advantage.

Over the course of the next 11 minutes, three-pointers from Powell, Connolly and freshman Matt Shifrin bumped the Lords' lead to 80-73 with just under six minutes left in the game.

At that point, Hiram turned the tables and sank three straight three-pointers to regain the lead for good. The Terriers went from trailing by seven to leading by six in less than a three-minute span. Kenyon, which ended up going 13-of-26 (50 percent) from three-point range, never got closer than five points over the game's final three minutes.

Connolly was 5-of-10 on three-balls and finished with a team-high 26 points. His 515 points on the season locked up the NCAC scoring title with an average of 19.8 points per game. He exits the program with 1,028 career points, the 25th-best total in Lords' history.

Shifrin and Powell were both 3-of-5 from long range and finished with 15 and nine points, respectively. Sophomore Will Sigl added ten points and Bennett Grigull tossed in eight.

Kenyon was beat on the boards, 59-42, but it was through no fault of senior Brien Comey, who snared a career-high 16 rebounds. Comey also blocked two shots, giving him 50 blocks on the season and 124 blocks for his career. That total ranks third-best all-time at Kenyon.

For Hiram, sophomore Kelvin Jones had a monster game that included 21 points and 16 rebounds. Ortiz, another sophomore, had 20 points and seven boards, while J.J. Woodson, a senior, added 17 points and four rebounds.