PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Junior Julian Heckman scored a career-high 25 points to lead the Otterbein men's basketball team to a season-opening 84-76 win at La Roche (Pa.) on Friday evening.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (1-0 overall), La Roche (0-4 overall)
• Venue: Kerr Fitness and Sports Center - Pittsburgh, Pa.

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Junior Julian Heckman led the Cardinals in scoring with a career-high 25 points to go with five rebounds. He was 9-of-10 at the free-throw line and 2-of-3 from 3-point range.
• Graduate student Cam Evans finished with 19 points and three rebounds. Evans had a big second half after scoring just one point in the first half.
• Junior Troy Scowden posted 13 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• Redshirt junior Jarius Jones tallied 12 points and a team-high six rebounds.

Game Highlights

• First Half: La Roche opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers, but the Cardinals responded with a 16-2 run starting with a pair of free throws from Jones followed by a 3-pointer from Heckman. Heckman had a team-best five points in that span to go with four from Jones and two each from Scowden and freshman Noah Gamble. Senior Jared Kreager capped the run with a 3-pointer to put the Cardinals up 16-8 with 12:41 left. Otterbein extended its lead to 11, 22-11, on a 3-pointer from senior Alex Hannah with 8:52 remaining, but the Redhawks answered with an 13-4 run to get back within two, 26-24, with 4:57 left. A 3-pointer from Jones extended the Otterbein lead back out to five, and his layup with 3:58 remaining made it an 8-point game, 32-24. The Redhawks again closed the gap to two on a pair of occasions over the final 1:44, but Otterbein never surrendered the lead, capping the first-half scoring with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Heckman for a 40-34 halftime edge. Heckman led the Cardinals in scoring in the first half with 13 points to go with nine points from Jones.
• Second Half: La Roche opened the second-half scoring with a layup before Otterbein responded with a 9-2 run to extend its lead to 11, 49-38, with 17:48 left. That run included six points from Cam Evans, two from Heckman and one from Jones. A layup from Scowden put the Cardinals up 12, 55-43, with 15:48 remaining. Trailing by 12 with 8:42 left, the Redhawks put together an 11-0 run capped by a 2-point jumper with 5:06 remaining to get back within one before a layup from Evans put an end to that spurt. Another Evans layup put the Cardinals up five, 71-66, with 4:28 left, but La Roche fought back to within one, 73-72, with 2:23 remaining. Out of a timeout, Heckman came up with a steal defensively and converted it into a fast-break layup, and Scowden answered a Redhawk layup with an and-1 to put Otterbein up four, 78-74, with 58 seconds left. After a missed front end of a one-and-one by the Redhawks, Heckman made a pair of free throws at the other end for a six-point Otterbein lead with 43 seconds remaining. After a pair of free throws from Heckman put Otterbein back up by six with 25 seconds left, the Redhawks missed a 3-pointer at the other end. Heckman grabbed the rebound and was fouled, sending him to the line where he once again made both free throws as the Cardinals closed out the 84-76 victory.
• Key Team Stats: Otterbein shot 55.8% from the field and was 6-of-15 (40%) from 3-point range. La Roche shot 46% from the field and was 6-of-26 (23.1%) from 3-point range. The Cardinals were 20-of-27 (74.1%) from the foul line, while the Redhawks were 12-of-18 (66.7%). The Redhawks out-rebounded the Cardinals by a 28-24 margin.

Notables

• Head coach Andy Winters is in his sixth year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 59-54 at the helm of the Cardinals.
• Evans ranks 22nd all-time at Otterbein in career scoring with 1,246 points.
• Heckman's previous career-high scoring total was 21 points at Heidelberg on Jan. 27, 2024.
• Scowden fell two points shy of his single-game career-high of 15.
• Otterbein's 2024-25 home opener is Sunday at 2 p.m. against Wooster.
• The Cardinals were picked to finished third in the Ohio Athletic Conference this season in the league's annual preseason coaches' poll.