WESTERVILLE — After a late turnover while holding a one-point lead, the Otterbein men's basketball team held on for a 73-72 victory over rival Capital in an exciting Ohio Athletic Conference battle on Saturday night.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (9-6 overall, 4-4 OAC), Capital (5-10 overall, 2-6 OAC)
• Venue: Rike Center - Westerville, Ohio

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Graduate student Cam Evans led the Cardinals in scoring with 22 points while adding three rebounds and two steals. He made a pair of 3-pointers and was 4-for-5 from the free-throw line.
• Junior Troy Scowden posted 14 points and a team-high six rebounds.
• Sophomore Chase Garito added 12 points to go with four rebounds and two assists.
• Junior Julian Heckman was the fourth Cardinal to score in double figures, finishing with 11 points to go with five rebounds and a team-high four assists.
• Senior Anthony Coppock added six points and four rebounds.

Game Highlights

• First Half: Capital raced out to an early nine-point lead, 15-6, causing Otterbein to call a timeout with 13:52 remaining. While the Cardinals remained within striking distance, the Comets again led by nine, 22-13, after making a 3-pointer with 9:32 left. Otterbein answered with an 8-0 run starting with a basket from Scowden and capped by back-to-back triples from Heckman to get within one, 22-21, with 7:28 left. Capital maintained the lead until a layup from Evans put Otterbein up 27-26 with 4:08 remaining, and Garito added a jumper for a three-point edge. After a tie score at 31, the Cardinals capped the half with a 5-0 run, getting a pair of free throws from Coppock and an and-1 from Scowden to go into halftime with a 36-31 lead.
• Second Half: Otterbein scored the first three points of the second half courtesy of Heckman free throws and took a seven-point lead, 44-37, on a 3-pointer from Evans with 15:36 left. The lead grew to nine, 52-43, on a triple from senior Jared Kreager with 12:50 remaining, and the Cardinals were again up by nine, 56-47, following a jumper from Scowden with 11:06 left. But the Comets had an answer in the form of a 9-0 run to tie the score at 56 with 9:15 left. Evans ended that spurt with a 3-pointer, but Capital went on to take a four-point lead, 65-61, with 5:54 remaining. The Comets led by five, 70-65, with 3:46 left, but Otterbein responded with an 8-0 run via four points from Evans and two each from Scowden and Heckman for a 73-70 edge with 33 seconds left. Out of a timeout, the Comets made a pair of free throws to get within one and applied defensive pressure near mid-court to force Evans into a traveling violation with 18 seconds remaining. With possession out of a timeout, the Comets drove to the basket for the potential winning score but were unable to convert as the Cardinals held on for the victory courtesy of a last-second defensive rebound from Scowden.
• Key Team Stats: Otterbein shot 53.2% from the field and was 5-of-13 (38.5%) from 3-point range. Capital shot 52.8% from the field and was 8-of-18 (44.4%) from 3-point range. The Cardinals were 18-of-22 (81.8%) from the foul line, while the Comets were 8-of-11 (72.7%). Otterbein out-rebounded Capital by a 27-24 margin.

Quotes

• Head coach Andy Winters: "The Otterbein-Capital rivalry is the best rivalry in small-college basketball. Records don't matter. Everybody competes and is ready to go. It was a fun atmosphere, and thankfully we got a stop at the end to win."
• Graduate student Cam Evans: "It was great to have a ton of students here. It completely changes the environment, especially coming off of winter break, having a bunch of students and fans here makes the game so much more exciting for the players and fans. Towards the end of the game, Coach was just getting me to the right spots on the block with a mismatch with a guy who had a bunch of fouls. He and my teammates trusted me to go to work."

Notables

• Head coach Andy Winters is in his sixth year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 67-60 at the helm of the Cardinals.
• Scowden matched his season-high point total of 14 points from Jan. 11 against Muskingum.
• Evans ranks ninth all-time at Otterbein in career scoring with 1,510 points. Mike McKinney ('82-'86) ranks eighth with 1,582 points.
• Evans has scored in double figures in 12 games this season and is averaging a team-high 18.9 points per game. He entered Saturday ranked second in the OAC in scoring average (18.6 points per game), free throws made (62) and free-throw percentage (84.9%).
• Heckman has scored in double figures in 10 games and is averaging 11.7 points per game.
• Otterbein entered Saturday in a three-way tie with Ohio Northern and Baldwin Wallace for fifth in the OAC standings, one game ahead of a two-way tie for eighth between Capital and Marietta.
• Capital holds a 24-8 edge in the series against Otterbein dating back to 2009, but the Cardinals have won five of the past seven meetings.