WESTERVILLE, Ohio – Despite a career-high 29 points from junior swingman Mo Beavers, the Cardinal men's basketball team came up just short against visiting Baldwin Wallace, 76-68, during an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) showdown Saturday afternoon in the Rike Center.

Beavers, going 9 of 13 from the field and also grabbing six boards, matched Baldwin Wallace standout Luke Schaefer for a game-high in scoring but Otterbein unfortunately ran out of gas in the closing minutes.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• The Cardinals opened strong in front of a nice crowd, leading 14-7 by the 13:49 mark until Baldwin Wallace settled in. BW countered with a 19-6 run over the next 10 minutes and never trailed again in the game.
   
• The Yellow Jackets only led 30-25 at halftime, and Otterbein made it a one-possession game early in the second half (16:42) when Nick Koontz found Reid Black for a layup.
   
• BW (8-5, 4-2 OAC) stretched the lead back to double digits on a few occasions going forward, but Otterbein never wavered seemingly responded each time. The Cards trailed 61-57 after a fast-break layup from Beavers with 3:43 on the clock.
   
• Baldwin Wallace had the final say, getting consecutive layups from Alex Nahra out of a timeout and then a backbreaking three-pointer from Anthony Mazzeo in the corner.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Beavers scored 22 of his 29 points in the second half, went 9 of 10 at the free-throw line and also led all players with three steals. He previously scored 20 on Wednesday against John Carroll.
   
• BW tallied 46 points in the paint and held a 23-5 edge in bench scoring, with Nahra responsible for 19 of those.
   
• Freshman Dallas Patrick had 19 points and six rebounds for the Cardinals, who also got eight points and eight boards from sophomore Reid Black down low.
   
• Baldwin Wallace shot over 56 percent from the field compared to 39 percent for Otterbein, as the Cardinals went 6 of 25 behind the arc.

 
UP NEXT:

• Otterbein, now 4-9 on the season and 1-5 against the OAC, will travel to Wilmington in the middle of next week before hosting Mount Union next Saturday in the Rike.