Men's Basketball 2/22/2014 12:00:00 AM

Men's Basketball: Mount Union Fall in Regular Season Finale; Raiders No. 1 Seed in Next Week's OAC Tournament

Box Score

WILMINGTON, Ohio -- Mount Union's men's basketball team fell 84-77 at Wilmington in an Ohio Athletic Conference game at Raizk Arena in Wilmington.

Malcolm Heard II had game highs of 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead four players in double figures for Wilmington (16-8, 13-5 OAC) as the win gives the Quakers the No. 3 seed in next week's OAC Tournament.

Cody Dillon (Newton Falls/Newton Falls) had 16 points, Kyle Scelza (Stow/Stow) came off the bench with 16 and T.J. Gillespie (Toledo/Toledo St. John's) had 10 to pace the Purple Raiders.

The Quakers jumped out to an eight-point lead, 12-4, in the game's first five minutes.

Three straight three-pointers -- two by Scelza gave the Raiders a 13-12 lead with 13:45 left in the half. Mount Union would extend that lead to six points, 20-14, before Wilmington had an 11-2 run to retake the lead 25-24 at the 6:47 mark.

There would be three more lead changes the rest of the half with the last of those coming when Jimmy Darnley (Canton/GlenOak) hit a jumper with 28 seconds remaining and Mount Union took a 36-35 lead into halftime.

There would be 10 lead changes the first 13 minutes of the second half and with the score tied at 64-64 with seven minutes to play.

Wilmington would then get a layup and free throw from R.J. Leppert and a layup fro m Christian Patterson to take a five-point lead and hold on including going 9-of-10 from the line in the final two minutes for the win.

The Purple Raiders finish the regular season 20-5 overall, OAC regular season champions at 15-3 in the conference and the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament.

Mount Union will host a semifinal game of the OAC Tournament Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 pm at the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex in Alliance.

Newspaper Box Score
Mount Union vs Wilmington
02/22/14 3 p.m. at Wilmington,OH-Raizk Arena at Hermann Ct
At Wilmington,OH-Raizk Arena at Hermann Ct
WILMINGTON 84, MOUNT UNION 77
MOUNT UNION (20-5, 15-3)
Cody Dillon 5-10 3-3 16; Kyle Scelza 6-10 0-0 16; TJ Gillespie 4-10 2-4 10;
DeAllen Jackson 4-5 0-0 9; Jarrett Ruffin 2-9 4-4 8; Stevie Griffin 3-5 0-0
7; Jimmy Darnley 2-3 0-0 4; Jeff Foreman 1-5 0-0 3; Evan Keeslar 0-2 2-2 2;
Miles Griffin 1-2 0-0 2; Nate Jacubec 0-3 0-1 0; Michael Shull 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 28-64 11-14 77.
WILMINGTON (16-8, 13-5)
Malcolm Heard II 6-11 14-15 26; R.J. Leppert 4-10 8-9 16; Taylor Wellman 4-9
2-2 11; Klarke Ransome 4-6 2-2 11; Dwight Johnson 1-7 5-7 7; Christian
Patterson 3-5 1-1 7; Ben Vonderhaar 2-3 0-0 4; Jonathan Bibbs 1-1 0-0 2; Ben
McGriff 0-1 0-0 0; John Righter 0-2 0-0 0; Law Williams 0-1 0-0 0. Totals
25-56 32-36 84.
Mount Union................... 36 41 - 77
Wilmington.................... 35 49 - 84
3-point goals--Mount Union 10-30 (Kyle Scelza 4-8; Cody Dillon 3-6; Jeff
Foreman 1-3; Stevie Griffin 1-2; DeAllen Jackson 1-2; Miles Griffin 0-1;
Nate Jacubec 0-2; Evan Keeslar 0-1; Jarrett Ruffin 0-1; TJ Gillespie 0-4),
Wilmington 2-14 (Klarke Ransome 1-3; Taylor Wellman 1-4; Dwight Johnson 0-1;
Ben McGriff 0-1; John Righter 0-1; R.J. Leppert 0-1; Malcolm Heard II 0-3).
Fouled out--Mount Union-Nate Jacubec, Wilmington-None. Rebounds--Mount Union
34 (DeAllen Jackson 6), Wilmington 40 (Malcolm Heard II 10). Assists--Mount
Union 11 (Stevie Griffin 3; DeAllen Jackson 3), Wilmington 12 (Dwight
Johnson 4; Taylor Wellman 4). Total fouls--Mount Union 27, Wilmington 15.
Technical fouls--Mount Union-None, Wilmington-None. A-410