DELAWARE, Ohio – The Kenyon College men's basketball team, the No. 8 seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament, got off to a great start in Tuesday's quarterfinal game at Ohio Wesleyan University. The No. 1-seeded Battling Bishops, however, overcame its early deficit and wound up putting the Lords away, 89-81.

Kenyon's quick start came courtesy of two three-pointers from junior Phillip Crampton and a series of two-point field goals from Ethan Shapiro, Bennett Grigull and Ryan O'Neill. That flurry, which covered the first three minutes of the game, gave Kenyon a 12-0 advantage.

Ohio Wesleyan finally got on the board at the 16:35 mark with a layup from Nate Axelrod. That bucket sparked an 18-6 OWU run which spanned five minutes and tied the game at 18-18. During the run, Axelrod poured in seven points, Ben Simpson added six and Grant Gossard threw in five.

The Battling Bishops didn't let up there. They put together another run, this time it was a 15-4 spurt that put them ahead 33-22 with a little more than five minutes left in the half. That was enough to get the home team to the break with a 48-30 lead.

Despite missing their first five shots of the game, the Battling Bishops shot 58.6 percent (17-of-29) during those first 20 minutes of play.

Similar to the start of the first half, Kenyon got rolling when it returned to the floor. Alexander Powell opened the second half with a three-ball and Crampton, who had 12 points in the first half, added two more threes to close the Lords' gap to 52-43.

Three times over the next six minutes of play, the Lords pulled within five points of OWU. At the 7:47 mark, Shapiro converted a layup that trimmed the lead to just three points, at 65-62.

Kenyon's upset bid ended there. Ohio Wesleyan scored the game's next nine points, enough to keep a comfortable lead until the final buzzer sounded. Simpson was responsible for seven of those nine game-deciding points. He finished the game with 19 and was one of four OWU players to ring up a double-digit scoring mark. Axelrod tallied a team-high 26 points. Seth Clark scored 20 and Gossard finished with 11.

Crampton capped off his junior campaign with a career-high 27 points. He topped his previous best of 25 points, scored earlier this season, by shooting 10-of-14 overall, 5-of-7 from long range and 2-of-2 at the free throw line. He also grabbed eight rebounds.

In addition to Crampton's efforts, Kenyon got a double-double from Grigull, who chalked up 13 points and 10 rebounds. O'Neil added 10 points and Shapiro scored eight in his final collegiate contest.

Kenyon dominated the boards, 40-27, but the Lords were whistled for a total of 20 fouls, which gave OWU the opportunity to go 19-of-23 at the free throw line. There was no reciprocation. The Batting Bishops were charged with just eight fouls, resulting in a 4-of-5 showing at the line for Kenyon, which finished the 2016-season with a 5-21 record.