SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Undefeated and third-ranked Wittenberg University notched a 78-63 win against Kenyon College on Wednesday night in a North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball contest. The Tigers improved to 20-0 and 13-0 in conference action while the Lords dropped to 6-14 and 3-10 in league play.
 
Leading the way for Kenyon was senior Phillip Crampton who tallied 16 points. Freshman Ugnius Zilinskas added a season-high 11 while Ryan O'Neil contributed 10. Additionally, Matt Shifrin scored nine points while Will Sigl tallied a half-dozen points and pulled down a career-high 10 boards. The Lords' bench turned in one of their best games of the season as they outscored Wittenberg's 30-15.
 
Early in the first half, the Lords got off to a great start. Crampton scored the team's first five points before Sigl and Carter Powell scored layups to move the Kenyon lead to 9-2 at the 16:18 mark.
 
Nearly a couple minutes later, Alex Laub hit a layup to push the Lords to a 13-5 advantage. Kenyon found one more eight-point lead, 17-9, as Zilinskas sank two free throws at 12:29.
 
After Kenyon's solid start, Wittenberg found its groove.  
 
From 11:55 to 6:57, Wittenberg hit a 20-4 run to go up 29-21. The big stretch was started with a three-ball from Jordan Pumroy. A little bit later, Chad Roy hit a pair of free throws giving the home team an 18-17 lead. Landon Martin closed the massive run with a dunk after a Kenyon turnover.
 
Over the rest of the half, Wittenberg went up as many as 11 points before Kenyon pulled close at halftime. Down 34-23, the Lords went on an 11-4 run with eight of those points coming from Shifrin.
 
Down 38-34 at the start of the second, the Lords missed their first three shots while the Tigers ballooned their advantage to 48-34. Mitchel Ballser hit two 3-pointers as the home team scored the first 10 points of the half.
 
Kenyon pulled the deficit to as few as 10 points (68-58) after O'Neil's three-ball at 6:20. However, that would be the closest they got in the second half.
 
Next on the schedule for the Lords is a trip to Ohio Wesleyan University on February 3 at 3:00 p.m.