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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Cardinal men's basketball team dropped an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) home game Saturday afternoon, falling 80-69 to Baldwin Wallace University inside the Rike Center.

Otterbein, now 1-6 on the season and 0-2 within league play, will have the middle of next week off for final exams before traveling to play the University of Mount Union Saturday in Alliance. Game time will be 3 p.m.

 

Baldwin Wallace sprinted out to an early 18-6 lead, matching the largest differential of the game, but the Cardinals stayed within striking distance and cut the lead in half by intermission, behind just 33-27.

Otterbein later trailed 40-33 when leading-scorer Jake Phillis sat down to rest for a few minutes, and the Cards held strong by putting together a quick 6-0 run to make the deficit 40-39. BW responded with five-straight points of its own, but the game remained close and the Jackets clung to a 53-46 lead with seven minutes left.

Baldwin Wallace (5-2, 1-1 OAC) ran the lead back to double digits down the stretch, but a scrappy Otterbein team refused to go away and brought things back to just five points, 68-63, on a three-pointer from Phillis that took three bounces on the rim before falling.

Unfortunately, Baldwin Wallace leading-scorer Cam Kuhn manufactured an old-fashioned three-point play on the other end to bump the margin back to eight. Otterbein would get no closer the remainder of the way.

Phillis and Kuhn, the OAC's top-two scorers, did not disappoint as each helped carry their team throughout stretches of the game. Kuhn, coming off a 51-point game at Mount Union, dropped a game-high 31 points and made all 15 of his free-throw attempts over 36 minutes of action. Phillis finished with 27 points in 35 minutes for the Cards.

Otterbein senior Marc McCuen caught fire late, scoring all 19 of his points in the second half to finish 7 of 13 from the field. He was shooting 0 for 6 before finding a groove down the stretch. Junior Grant Fenner nearly missed a double-double, going for 14 points and nine boards.

Both teams shot 40 percent from the field, but the Yellow Jackets buried nine three-pointers and won the rebounding margin 46-33. BW also held an 18-8 advantage in bench points.