Box Score
GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein men's basketball squad dropped its season opener 76-69 at Denison on Wednesday night in a non-conference matchup inside Livingston Gymnasium.
The Cardinals now turn their attention to the weekend slate which features two games at the Thomas More Classic in Crestview Hills, Ky. Otterbein will face host Thomas More Friday at 7:30 p.m., before taking on Hanover in a neutral-site contest Saturday at 2 p.m.
Freshman
Justin Carter ignited the Cardinal scoring effort from the get-go, tallying points early and often. Carter accounted for the team's first nine points after Otterbein fell behind 6-2 in the early going, before he converted a three-pointer and back-to-back field goals to put the Cards ahead 9-6.
Denison went back ahead by one point two possessions later before a layup and the foul that followed by senior
Corey Howard, the first points for Otterbein not credited to Carter, put the Cards back in front 12-10.
The Cards were then held scoreless for over three minutes before seven unanswered points between Carter, sophomore
Nick Koontz and freshman
Troy Schalitz gave Otterbein a 19-18 lead with less than eight minutes until halftime.
The game continued to go back-and-forth on the offensive end as Denison played to a 36-30 advantage at the break, with Carter leading all scorers with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Sophomore
Austin Springer also had a solid half, posting seven points.
Junior
Connor Clark notched the Cards' first basket of the second half which helped spark a 14-5 scoring run and put the Big Red down 44-43 at the 12:43 mark. Otterbein only managed to go ahead by three points the entire frame, proving to be its largest lead of the night.
Denison regained the lead at 51-49 with less than 10 minutes to play, before taking a five-point advantage with just over seven minutes remaining.
Howard pulled the Cardinals within one point at 67-66 with 3:48 left on the clock, but that is the closest they would come as the Big Red closed out the game on an 10-3 scoring run.
Carter paced the Cards and led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting, going converting six of his 10 fouls shots along with a team-high six rebounds.
Springer followed with 19 points, 12 of which came in the second frame, while Otterbein shot 40.7 percent from the floor and scored 17 points off turnovers. Denison held the advantage in the paint 42-26, shooting 50.8 percent. The Cards managed to post a solid free-throw mark, going 19 of 28.
