ALLIANCE, Ohio – The no. 16 nationally ranked Mount Union men's basketball team defeated Otterbein 75-63 in their Ohio Athletic Conference opener on Saturday evening.

The Purple Raiders (8-0, 1-0 OAC) had three players score in double figures with sophomore Chance Casenhiser (Uniontown / Lake) leading the way with a game-high 22 points. Junior Kevin Hamilton (Akron / St. Vincent St. Mary) and senior Caleb Laurich (Akron / Copley) scored 15 and 10 points respectively to round out the Raiders in double digits.

The Cardinals (5-2, 0-1 OAC) were led by Noah Gamble who scored a team-high 13 points and Chase Garito who added in 12.

Mount Union would jump out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first minute of the game before Otterbein would slowly chip away at the lead to tie the game at nine points apiece with 16:09 remaining in the first half. Neither team would be able to gain much of an edge over the next ten and a half minutes as the teams would go back and forth with the Raiders lead never growing to more than six. Then, trailing 31-27 with 5:14 left to play in the half, the Cardinals would go on a quick 7-2 run to claim their first lead of the game at 34-33 with just 53 seconds remaining in the half. Mount Union would then go on to score the final four points of the half to reclaim the lead at 37-34, going into the halftime break.

The Raiders would open the second half with a massive 22-4 run over the first 8:22 of the half to take their largest lead of the game at 59-38 with just under 12 minutes to play in the game. The teams would go back and forth over the next several minutes of action, with the lead never growing larger than 25 and never getting closer than 20. Otterbein would go on to out score Mount Union 18-5 over the final six and a half minutes of the game, but they wouldn't be able to trim the lead to single digits as the Raiders would go on to win 75-63.

The Raiders hit the road next as they travel to New Concord on Saturday, December 13 to take on OAC foe Muskingum at 1 p.m.