CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – Wabash College notched an 85-57 win over Kenyon College on Saturday in a North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball game.
 
The Little Giants improved their record to 9-6 and 5-3 in the NCAC while the Lords dropped to 5-10 and 2-6 in league play.
 
Before a late surge by the Little Giants, competition was extremely tight inside Chadwick Court. There were seven lead changes and four ties over the first 13 minutes of action. In that same span, the lead for either team was never greater than four points.
 
For the Lords, Ryan O'Neil and Elijah Davis each tallied seven points to lead the squad in the first half. For O'Neil, he gave Kenyon its biggest advantage of 15-11 following two free throws at the 11:43 mark. Then with just under eight minutes until halftime, Davis' layup had Kenyon up 24-22.
 
Wabash turned the heat up on the offensive end after that. In the final 7:39, the hosts hit 8-of-12 shots and went on a 23-9 run. As for Kenyon, it committed four turnovers while hitting three of its nine attempts.
 
Tyler Watson scored four straight after Davis' layup, pushing the Little Giants ahead, 26-24. The hosts stayed in front for good after that, and took a 45-33 advantage into the break Ahmoni Jones' jumper with 26 seconds left.
 
That spark carried over into the second half as Wabash extended its lead to 60-36 – a 15-3 run to start the half - after Jack Davidson's and-one conversion at 12:23. Kenyon struggled to slow down the Little Giants' offense which hit 51.6 percent from the field and nearly 42 percent from downtown in the second stanza.
 
Conversely, for the Lords, their second-half offense could never get in gear, hitting just five of their 21 shots.
 
By game's end, Ugnius Zilinskas tallied a team-high 17 points and eight rebounds while Davis and O'Neil added 10 and 9 points, respectively.
 
Kenyon will try to snap its six-game skid on January 22 at 7 p.m. when it hosts Hiram College (5-9, 2-5 NCAC) at Tomsich Arena.