Kenyon draws No. 1 seed Wabash in NCAC Tournament

GAMBIER, Ohio -- Gaining a spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament for the first time since 2017, the Kenyon College men's basketball team will head to Crawfordsville, Indiana on Tuesday to face the Wabash College Little Giants in the first-round of postseason play.

The NCAC Tournament holds spots for the eight teams with the best regular-season conference records. Wabash (17-8, 13-3 NCAC) entered the bracket as the top seed and, as one of the top four NCAC teams, earned the right to host. The Little Giants entertain Kenyon at Chadwick Court with a 7 p.m. tip-off time. The Owls (5-20, 3-13 NCAC) joined the bracket as the No. 8 seed.

During the regular season, these two teams met twice. On December 6 at Wabash, the Little Giants got six three-pointers and 26 points from Vinny Buccilla during a 76-50 victory over the Owls. Then, on January 31 at Kenyon, the Owls got five three-pointers and 15 points from Anthony Testa, but fell to the Little Giants 74-64.

Wabash is the defending conference champion and is aiming for its third NCAC title in the past four seasons. On the other hand, Kenyon is in search of its first NCAC regular-season title.

This season's Little Giants operate with a defense-first mentality. They held their opponents to an NCAC-best average of 66.2 points per game and rank second in the conference in field goal percentage against (.423). Offensively, they like to shoot the long ball. They lead the league with 234 three-pointers made and an average of 9.4 three-pointers made per game.

Wabash has four players who possess double-digit scoring averages. That group is headed up by senior forward Ahmoni Jones, who scores 14.2 points per game and also leads the team in rebounding with 6.5 boards per game.

Kenyon will enter postseason play with a team scoring average of 64.0 points per game. On the other side of the court, the Owls yield 74.9 points per game to opponents. The Owls rank third-best in the NCAC in defensive rebounding and rank fifth-best in three-point field goal percentage.

Injuries took their toll on the Kenyon lineup throughout the year, but a steady force has been the play of junior forward Gefen Bar-Cohen. He leads the Owls with averages of 13.4 points 6.0 rebounds per game.

The two teams are currently on very different paths as Kenyon has dropped its last six games, while Wabash has won its last nine. In head-to-head competition, Wabash won its last 12 match-ups with Kenyon. The Owls' last win over the Little Giants occurred in January 2017.

The winner of the Tuesday night contest will advance to the tournament's semifinal round on Friday to play the winner of the contest between No. 4-seeded Denison University and No. 5- seeded Oberlin College.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Gefen Bar-Cohen: F; 6' 4"; Sophomore

#4 Anthony Testa: G; 6' 2"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#21 Gefen Bar-Cohen
: 6' 4"; Sophomore
: F

#4 Anthony Testa
: 6' 2"; Junior
: G

Players Mentioned

#21 Gefen Bar-Cohen

#4 Anthony Testa

Players Mentioned

#21 Gefen Bar-Cohen

#4 Anthony Testa