Tyler Ledford scored 14 points and dished out three assists as Wilmington topped Baldwin-Wallace.
BEREA — Four Quakers scored in double figures as Wilmington College snapped a two-game losing streak with a 67-62 Ohio Athletic Conference win at Baldwin-Wallace Saturday afternoon.
The win keeps Wilmington (8-2 OAC, 13-4 overall) atop the OAC, one game ahead of John Carroll, Ohio Northern and Heidelberg. Baldwin-Wallace drops to 5-5 in the conference, 10-7 for the season.
“Coming into the game, it was a big opportunity for us to get back on track,” Wilmington head coach K.C. Hunt said. “Any time you can win on the road in this league, it’s a great win. Winning on the road takes total team effort. It takes extra energy. I thought we came up with more loose balls today than we have in the past three games combined. That was really the key to the game.”
After playing to a 34-34 first-half stalemate, Wilmington opened the second half with a 9-1 run. When Tyler White (Cincinnati/Colerain) found Brandon Rogers (Xenia) for a score at 16:32, the Quakers led 43-35.
“I thought the way we came out of the gates to open the second half was key,” Hunt said. “We always talk about coming out the first four minutes of each half and really setting a tone. I thought we did that today.”
The Jackets kept things interesting by trimming the deficit to three points on three occasions in the closing minutes. Wilmington nailed down the win with a jumper from Antonio Bowman (Columbus/Whetstone) and 5 of 6 foul shooting by Tyler Ledford (West Liberty/West Liberty-Salem) and R.J. Brown (Circleville).
Ledford and Brown led the Quakers with 14 points apiece; White scored 13 and Bowman added 10. Rogers scored nine points and collected team-high five rebounds.
“R.J. and Tyler and B-Rogers were great senior leaders today,” Hunt said. “When it was time to make a play, they stepped up and did it. We got a lot of contributions from a lot of different people. We really stayed together as a unit, even when we weren’t making shots. And we played great team defense, particularly in the second half.”
Wilmington will host Muskingum 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in OAC action.