GAMBIER, Ohio—The Tigers travelled to Gambier to take on Kenyon College Wednesday night. Despite the cold conditions outside, Wittenberg was hot from the floor in the first-half, jumping out to a double-digit lead early. The Tigers utilized a sufficient second-half shooting to fend off a Kenyon comeback, pulling out the victory 78-70. The win puts Wittenberg at 11-5 overall and 6-3 in NCAC play.

GAME BREAKDOWN

• The Tigers came out of the gates hot Wednesday night, going on a 20-9 run to start the game.
• Kenyon came clawing back after ending the Tiger run, cutting the score down to 37-35 in the last ten minutes of the first-half before heading into the locker-room.
• Out of the break, Wittenberg pushed their lead to 51-40 at the 15:31 mark thanks to a Cody Phillippi (Xenia, Ohio/Xenia) three-pointer.
• With only seven minutes remaining in regulation, and the Tigers up 62-52, Kenyon started a run of their own to cut the Wittenberg lead to three, 63-60.
• Jaelin Williams (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) managed to give the Tigers some breathing room with just over two-minutes remaining in the game after his drive to the hoop resulted in an easy layup, pushing the lead to 69-66.
• As time continued to tick away, Phillippi worked his way through the teeth of Kenyon's defense to find a wide-open three-pointer in the corner splash through the bottom of the net, putting the Tigers up 74-68.
• For the second straight game, Phillippi came up big for Wittenberg, cashing in at the free-throw line in crunch time, giving the Tigers the 78-70 lead where it would stay come the final buzzer.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Wittenberg shot 56% from the floor Wednesday night, outshooting Kenyon who finished 48% from the floor.
• For the second straight game the Tigers cashed in from the charity stripe, finishing 14-16 as a team.
• Wednesday night's NCAC matchup featured two ties and two lead changes.

KEY STATS

• Phillippi was held scoreless in the first-half, but rose to the occasion in the second-half, netting 17 points.
• The Tigers were able to dominate the paint, outscoring Kenyon 42-18 down low.
• Helping the Wittenberg offense tonight was good defense, as the Tigers garnished 21 points off of Kenyon turnovers.

FROM THE BENCH

• "Once again, in this league you have to gut-out wins and obviously in the last three-minutes of the game Cody Phillippi put us on his back," said Heach Coach Brown.

UP NEXT

• Wittenberg takes their three-game winning streak to Allegheny this Saturday, tip-off set for 1p.m.

Written By: Kuris Duggan