Tigers Close Out Great Lakes Invitational With Win Over Middlebury

Springfield, Ohio - A night after struggling down the stretch in a loss to Illinois Wesleyan, the Wittenberg Tigers bounced back with a strong second half performance and a 76-73 victory over Middlebury in the final game of the 2023 Great Lakes Invitational.

The win pushed the Tigers back over .500 on the young season at 3-2. Middlebury, which lost to Redlands a night earlier, fell to 0-4.

After a back-and-forth first half that ended with a 34-33 Middlebury lead, the Panthers got the better of things early in the second half to push the lead out to seven points. However, over the final 12 minutes of the game, the Tigers outscored Middlebury, which was ranked 24th in the preseason d3hoops.com poll, by a 30-20 margin.

The key for Wittenberg continues to be finding offensive contributors outside of junior guard Trey Killens (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mason), who led all scorers with 22 points to go along with four assists. Senior Jeff Queen (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds, and four players finished with eight points each: freshman Greyson Steury (Ashland, Ohio/Ashland), freshman Tyler Galluch (Springfield, Ohio/Catholic Central), junior Cameron Harrison (Eaton, Ohio/National Trail), and senior Daniel Asher (Indianapolis, Indiana/Roncalli). In addition, junior Eddie Brown (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy Orange) stuffed the stats sheet with six points, seven rebounds, and a team-high five assists.

Wittenberg shot 50 from the field in the game, compared to 44 percent for Middlebury. The largest lead in the entire game was just seven points - held once by each team in the second half.

The Tigers are back in action on Tuesday, November 21, against Mount St. Joseph. Game time is 7 p.m. in Wittenberg's Pam Evans Smith Arena.