WQIO Ohio's Super Station
GAMBIER, Ohio — The Kenyon College men’s basketball team used a balanced attack and strong defense to get off to a great start against Denison University on Saturday at Tomsich Arena. The visiting Big Red, however, weathered the storm and countered with a second-half run that paved the way for a 72-57 conference win.
The victory kept Denison atop the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) standings with a 3-0 conference mark and an 11-1 overall record. The loss dropped Kenyon to 2-10 overall and 0-3 in NCAC play.
Denison built an early lead, but a Charlie Heywood layup 5:16 from the opening tip-off gave Kenyon a 10-9 edge. Over the next four minutes, a three-pointer from Jackson Burke, two free throws from Miles Versa, and a layup from Gefen Bar-Cohen put the Owls ahead 17-9 at the midway point of the first half.
Kenyon then extended its lead to as many as nine, but the Big Red crept back within three points on a couple occasions before using a Cameron Smith three-pointer to close out the half trailing the Owls, 33-29.
Marius Mazeika led Kenyon with seven points during those first 20 minutes of play. He was one of eight Owls to score two or more points. The balanced attack kept the Big Red guessing and also kept the Owls fresh in the defensive zone, where they forced nine turnovers and held Denison to 11-for-30 shooting (36.7 percent).
Trailing only Mazeika’s seven points, Bar-Cohen, Burke, Heywood, Nick Nelson, and Miles Versa all had four points by the half.
When the teams returned to the floor for second-half action, the Owls maintained their four-point margin until Jack Steinbach scored five straight points on back-to-back Denison possessions that gave the Big Red a 40-39 lead.
Including those five Steinbach points, Denison turned the game in its favor with a 19-2 run. That game-changing span saw the Big Red shoot 7-for-10 and the Owls shoot 1-for-10, with four misses from outside the arc.
Leading for most of the game, Kenyon now found itself trailing 54-41 with about nine minutes to play. Denison never let up the rest of the way. The Big Red moved ahead by as many as 17 points and the Owls would get no closer than 11.
After a sub-par shooting performance in the first half, Denison shot 54.8 percent (17-of-31) over the final 20 minutes. Kenyon, which shot 50.0 percent (12-of-24) in the first half, dropped to 33.3 percent (8-of-24) in the second half.
Heywood led the Owls with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the first double-double of his collegiate career. Mazeika, Bar-Cohen and Versa all finished with nine points.
Denison’s Ricky Radtke and Trevor Reed led all scorers with 14 apiece.
