In a game that had a combined 57 fouls and 82 free throws attempted, Denison staved off defeat on two occasions before succumbing to the Little Giants in the second overtime period.
With eight seconds remaining and the Big Red trailing 70-67 in regulation, John Wagner drained a deep three-pointer with less than a second remaining to extend the game past the traditional 40 minutes. In the second OT, Denison once again had to claw their way back from the brink of extinction. Within the first minute the Big Red was down six points following a Kyle Medeiros three-pointer. A free throw by Dan Hodgkinson, a slashing layup and another free throw by Clint Shepherd cut the lead to two points a 74-74 with 1:28 left to play.
A pair of missed free throws by Wabash gave the ball back to Denison with 10 seconds left. Off the inbounds Shepherd found himself with a direct path to the basket and took it, tying the game at 76-76 and forcing another overtime.
The second overtime saw Wabash take control after a trey by Medeiros and subsequent inside buckets by Andrew Zimmer and Wes Koch. Down the stretch the Big Red were forced to foul and the Little Giants cashed in on their free throw attempts to lock down the victory.
The Big Red struggled finding their shot all afternoon. The stingy Wabash defense gave the Big Red’s inside scoring game fits. Hodgkinson struggled to shake the Little Giants’ low post players and finished with 11 points off 2-of-12 shooting. Hodgkinson did hit the boards hard, leading the way with 12 rebounds.
Junior Robb Hern, Shepherd and sophomore Tony Julian carried the bulk of the scoring load for Denison. Hern finished with 18 points and seven rebounds while Shepherd checked in with 19 points, including three baskets from beyond the arc. Julian finished with 14 points.
Denison shot just 38 percent (25-of-66) and in an uncharacteristic turn of events, struggled from the free throw line, hitting just 63 percent from the charity stripe.
The Little Giants were paced by 23 points from Medeiros and got 16 points from Adonis Joseph. They shot 44 percent from the field and were 31-of-44 (71 percent) from the free throw line.
Wabash outrebounded the Big Red 47-36 and finished with 14 turnovers to Dension’s 15 miscues.
The victory moves Wabash (12-11, 9-5) in front of the Big Red in the NCAC standings and into sole possession of third place. Denison (11-11, 8-6) drops to fourth place and will need to victories against Kenyon and Hiram to close out the regular season to assure a home game in the quarterfinals of the upcoming NCAC Tournament. Denison has not hosted an NCAC quarterfinal since the 1997-98 season.