GRANVILLE — The Wittenberg men's basketball team got a 79-71 win at Denison in a North Coast Athletic Conference matchup on Wednesday night to cilnch the No. 3 seed in the upcoming NCAC Tournament. As the No. 3 seed, the Tigers will host the No. 6 seed in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

The Basics

• Records: Wittenberg (16-8 overall, 10-5 NCAC), Denison (14-11 overall, 10-6 NCAC)
• Venue: Livingston Gymnasium - Granville, Ohio

Stat Leaders

• Freshman Grayson Steury (Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) was 3-for-3 from 3-point range and led three Tigers in double-figure scoring with 15 points off the bench.
• Junior Cameron Harrison (Eaton, Ohio/National Trail) was 4-for-4 from 3-point range and posted 14 points.
• Sophomore Eddie Brown (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Orange) tallied his third double-double of the season with 12 points and 13 rebounds. His rebound total matched his season-high from Jan. 20 against Ohio Wesleyan. He also had five assists on the night.
• Freshman Tyler Galluch (Springfield, Ohio/Catholic Central) scored nine points, and junior Trey Killens (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mason) and senior Daniel Asher (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) added eight points each. Killens added seven rebounds and seven assists to his stat line.
• Ricky Radtke led Denison with 18 points.

The Game

• The Tigers jumped out to a 20-12 lead with 13:03 left in the first half thanks to some efficient 3-point shooting. Steury made a pair of triples in that stretch to go with one each from Harrison and Galluch.
• A layup from Galluch gave Wittenberg its first double-digit lead of the game at 29-18 with 7:12 left in the opening half.
• A 3-pointer from Steury followed by a jumper from Asher put WU up 40-26 with 3:50 left until halftime.
• Back-to-back 3-pointers from senior Jeff Queen (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) and Brown over the final two minutes gave the Tigers their 48-30 halftime edge.
• The Big Red got back within single digits, 58-49, with 13:13 left in the second half but were unable to generate much more momentum from there en route to the Tigers' eight-point victory.
• The Tigers shot 55.3% from the floor and were 11-of-18 from 3-point range for 61.1%.
• The Big Red shot 44.4% from the floor and were 6-of-26 from 3-point range for 23.1%.
• Denison made 17-of-24 free throws for 70.8%, while Wittenberg made 16-of-27 for 59.3%.
• Wittenberg out-rebounded Denison by a 34-27 margin.

Quote - Head coach Matt Croci

• "This was a great bounce-back win for us. The guys were really locked in defensively most of the night. We got huge contributions from Eddie and Cam and Grayson off the bench."

Records & Milestones

• Wittenberg is now 137-35 all-time against Denison.
• Eighth-year head coach Matt Croci is now 140-59 all-time at Wittenberg.
• Killens has 937 career points, making him just 63 shy of 1,000. He has 469 points this season, which is 69 shy of breaking into the program's all-time top 10 for points in a season.

Up Next

• The Tigers return to action on Saturday hosting NCAC foe Kenyon at 2 p.m. for Senior Day in their final game of the regular season.