BEREA — The Otterbein men's basketball team opened Ohio Athletic Conference play with a dominant 85-49 victory at Baldwin Wallace on Saturday.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (4-2 overall, 1-0 OAC), Baldwin Wallace (4-3 overall, 1-1 OAC)
• Venue: Ursprung Gymnasium - Berea, Ohio

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Graduate student Cam Evans led the Cardinals with 21 points and seven rebounds. He was 2-of-3 from 3-point range and 3-for-4 from the foul line.
• Junior Julian Heckman added 15 points, four rebounds and a team-best seven assists. He was 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
• Redshirt junior Jarius Jones was 4-for-4 from the field and tallied nine points and four rebounds.
• Junior Troy Scowden posted nine points and seven rebounds and was 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

Game Highlights

• First Half: Otterbein opened the game on a 12-0 run over the first 2:40 of action. Sophomore Chase Garito got the scoring started with a layup, and senior Jared Kreager and Evans followed with back-to-back 3-pointers. Garito and Jones capped the run with back-to-back layups before the Yellow Jackets got on the scoreboard with a layup with 15:50 remaining. A triple from Heckman put the Cardinals up 26-7 with 9:03 left, and his 3-pointer with 6:26 remaining gave Otterbein a 34-15 edge. The Cardinals closed the first half on a 6-0 run over the final 5:05, getting two points each from Evans, senior Anthony Coppock and Scowden to take a commanding 42-19 edge into halftime. Heckman and Evans led the Cardinals in scoring at the break with 12 points each.
• Second Half: Otterbein put together a 14-5 run early in the second half to increase its lead to 35, 63-28. Jones had seven points in that stretch to go with four from Evans and three from Heckman. A layup from graduate student Brennan Rains stretched the lead to the Cardinals' largest margin of 39 at 74-35 en route to the 36-point victory.
• Key Team Stats: Otterbein shot 56.9% from the field and was 8-of-20 (40%) from 3-point range. Baldwin Wallace shot 34.4% from the field and was 4-of-26 (15.4%) from 3-point range. The Cardinals were 11-of-14 (78.6%) from the foul line, while the Yellow Jackets were 3-of-12 (25%). Otterbein out-rebounded Baldwin Wallace by a 48-24 margin.

Notables

• Head coach Andy Winters is in his sixth year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 62-56 at the helm of the Cardinals.
• Otterbein has won five straight meetings with Baldwin Wallace.
• Evans ranks 17th all-time at Otterbein in career scoring with 1,334 points. Don Brough ('75-'79) ranks 16th with 1,345 points.
• Evans has scored in double figures in four of six games this season and is averaging a team-high 17.8 points per game.
• Heckman has scored in double figures in four games this season and is averaging 13.7 points per game.
• Evans (18-of-22) and Heckman (28-of-30) have combined to shoot 88.5% from the free-throw line this season.