January 17, 2012
Wabash held the visiting Oberlin College Yeomen scoreless for the first seven minutes of the game and two points over a seven-minute stretch of the second half to claim a 65-42 victory Saturday afternoon at Chadwick Court.
The Little Giant held Oberlin to 14-of-50 shooting from the field (28 percent), while outrebounding the Yeomen 45-27 including 30 defensive boards.
Seniors Derek Bailey, Aaron Zinnerman, and Brian Shelbourne combined to score the first 10 points of the game. Oberlin rallied for its first basket on a three-pointer by Andrew Fox with 12:46 remaining in the first half, followed by a triple from Geoof Simpson to draw with four points of Wabash. Baskets by Shelbourne, Nick Curosh , and Houston Hodges quickly pushed the lead back to double digits, where it remained for most of the first half. Hodges finished with seven points in logged 28 minutes of play.
Josh Merritt, coming off a 12-point effort on Wednesday in the Yeomen’s win over Allegheny, scored his only basket of the game at the start of the second half to make the score 28-19 in favor of Wabash. The Little Giants answered with a 19-0 run over the next seven minutes to push their advantage to 47-19 and would lead by no fewer than 23 points from that point forward.
Zinnerman led Wabash in scoring with 15 points, while Bailey chipped in 12. Shelbourne scored nine points, with Hodges tallying seven in his first start of the season. Bailey also grabbed nine rebounds, while Curosh and Zinnerman finished with six apiece.
Wabash goes on the road Wednesday to take on Wittenberg in a game that will go along way to deciding who wins the conference. The win moves Wabash to 14-2 and 14th in the nation in Division III.