WILMINGTON — Graduate student Cam Evans scored 25 points to lead the Otterbein men's basketball team to a 76-71 comeback win at Wilmington in Ohio Athletic Conference play on Wednesday night. The Cardinals trailed by 15 points at halftime before storming back for the victory.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (12-10 overall, 7-8 OAC), Wilmington (5-17 overall, 3-12 OAC)
• Venue: Fred Raizk Arena - Wilmington, Ohio

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Evans made five 3-pointers and was 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the game as part of his 25 points and added a team-high seven rebounds to go with two assists.
• Sophomore Chase Garito posted 13 points, two rebounds and two assists.
• Redshirt junior Jarius Jones finished with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.
• Senior Jared Kreager tallied nine points and four rebounds.
• Junior Julian Heckman added eight points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.

Game Highlights

• First Half: After an Evans 3-pointer put Otterbein up 11-10 with 16:16 left in the first half, Wilmington put together a 9-0 scoring run for a 19-11 edge with 14:57 remaining. The Quakers went on to take a 12-point edge, 26-14, with 10:27 left and eventually extended the margin to 19, 46-27, with 1:41 remaining. The Cardinals got layups from junior Troy Scowden and Jones over the final 1:28 to close the gap to 15, 46-31, at halftime.
• Second Half: The Cardinals opened the second half with a 10-0 run that included two points each from Garito and Jones and was capped by back-to-back triples from Evans and Kreager to cut the deficit to five, 46-41, with 17:04 remaining. The Quakers extended their lead to seven, but Otterbein scored the next five points via a pair of free throws from Evans and an and-1 from Jones to get back within two, 48-46, with 15:06 left. Wilmington continued to lead, though, going back up by eight, 58-50, with 12:16 remaining. Again trailing by eight, 61-53, the Cardinals went on a 9-1 run via five points from Evans and two each from Garito and junior Reece Huber to tie the score at 62 with 7:57 left. A layup from Garito followed by a layup from Heckman put the Cardinals up three, 66-63, with 6:51 remaining, and an and-1 from Garito made it a five-point lead, 69-64, with 5:42 left. Back-to-back 2-point jumper from Wilmington got the Quakers within one, 69-68, with 2:43 remaining, but Kreager answered with a critical 3-pointer to put the Cardinals up four with 2:17 left. The Quakers responded with a triple of their own to get back within one, 72-71, with 2:00 left, but the Cardinals again had an answer in the form of a jumper from Garito for a three-point edge with 1:20 remaining. After Kreager blocked a Wilmington layup at the other end, Evans extended the Cardinals' cushion to five with a layup with 33 seconds left. The Quakers missed a 3-point shot, and Heckman secured the rebound and was fouled with nine seconds remaining. He missed his free throw, but Garito forced the Wilmington offense into a turnover that sealed the Otterbein victory.
• Key Team Stats: Otterbein shot 53.7% from the field and was 9-of-25 (36%) from 3-point range. Wilmington shot 44.6% from the field and was 9-of-21 (42.9%) from 3-point range. The Cardinals were 9-of-13 (69.2%) from the foul line, while the Quakers were 12-of-18 (66.7%). Otterbein out-rebounded Wilmington by a 30-22 margin.

Notables

• Evans ranks eighth all-time at Otterbein in career scoring with 1,626 points. Kevin Weakley ('95-'99) ranks seventh with 1,666 points.
• Evans has scored in double figures in 18 games this season and is averaging a team-high 18.1 points per game. He entered Wednesday ranked second in the OAC in scoring average (17.8 points per game), third in free throws made (94) and seventh in free-throw percentage (81.7%).
• Heckman has scored in double figures in 14 games this season and is averaging 11 points per game. He entered Wednesday ranked sixth in the OAC in free-throw percentage (81.9%) and 10th in free throws made (59).
• Garito has scored in double figures in four straight games and 12 games overall on the season. He is averaging 9.3 points per game.
• Head coach Andy Winters is in his sixth year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 70-64 at the helm of the Cardinals.
• Otterbein entered Wednesday in fifth place in the OAC standings, four games behind a third-place tie between Heidelberg and Muskingum and one game ahead of a sixth-place tie between Ohio Northern, Baldwin Wallace and Capital. Wilmington entered the day in last place. The top six teams qualify for the OAC Tournament.
• Wilmington holds a 26-9 edge in the series against Otterbein dating back to 2009, but Otterbein has won seven of the past nine meetings. In the teams' meeting earlier this season, on Jan. 22, Wilmington came away with a 58-57 win in Westerville.