NEW CONCORD, OHIO – Muskingum sophomore forward Seth Howard scored 20 points as the Muskingum University men's basketball team defeated Baldwin-Wallace College, 67-66, today (Saturday, February 5, 2011) in an Ohio Athletic Conference game in the John Glenn Gymnasium.

With its win, Muskingum improves to 8-13 overall and 4-10 in the OAC. In addition to Howard, junior forward Josh Brindley had 13 points and junior forward Kyle Clinedinst added 12.  For B-W, now 7-14 overall and 3-11 in the OAC, freshman forward Kyle Payne (Brunswick) led the way with 19 points and eight rebounds. He was joined in double figures by sophomore forwards Chris Ameen (Broadview Heights/Walsh Jesuit) and Sean Rothermel (Delaware/Hayes) with 10 points each.

In the first half, Muskingum opened up the scoring with a jump shot by Howard at the 19:20 mark to give the Fighting Muskies a 2-0 lead. B-W took a 3-2 lead when Payne hit a three pointer at the 18:52 mark. After a made three pointer by Muskingum junior guard George Williams, the Jackets went on a 7-0 run to take a 10-5 lead at the 16:32 mark when sophomore guard Ben Umbel (Poland/Seminary) made a three pointer.

Muskingum was able to cut the lead to two at 10-8 when Clinedinst converted a traditional three point play on a free throw at the 16:07 mark.  Freshman guard Kevin Krakowiak (Valley City/Holy Name) made a layup at the 15:09 mark to put the Yellow Jackets up four, 12-8. B-W extended their lead to six points after freshman guard Grant Fairhurst (Ashland/Senior) hit one of his three first half three pointers at the 11:12 mark to go up 19-13.

Muskingum would answer with a 7-0 run capped by a three pointer from senior guard Logan Scott at the 9:15 mark, making it 20-19 in favor of the Muskies. The rest of the half consisted of three ties and four lead changes with neither team building a lead of more than five points.  Payne gave B-W a one point lead after hitting a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left to give the Yellow Jackets a 37-36 advantage at the intermission.

In the second half, Ameen opened up the scoring by making a jump shot at the 19:27 mark to give the Yellow Jackets a 39-36 lead  After the teams exchanged baskets, Howard made a jump shot at the 16:45 mark to give the lead back to Muskingum, 42-41.  Howard was able to score four more points to give Muskingum a 46-41 advantage at the 15:07 mark.

Ameen was able to hault the Muskie's run by making a jump shot on the ensuing possession at the 14:04 mark to cut the Muskie lead back to three at 46-43. The teams went back and forth exchanging baskets until Krakowiak hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to one (57-56) at the 6:51 mark.  The Yellow Jackets regained the lead on a layup by Umbel at the 5:36 mark to give B-W a 58-57 advatnage.  Howard was able to make tie the game 58-58 on the ensuing possession by hitting one of two free throws at the 5:06 mark.

Then Howard made a layup to give the Muskies a 60-58 advantage at the 4:35 mark.  After exchanging a pair of baskets, the Muskies extended their lead to four points at 66-62 at the 2:21 mark when Williams hit a jump shot. Payne was able to cut the lead to two when he hit a jumper at the 1:23 mark.  Williams then split a pair of free throws with 55 seconds left to give the Muskies a 67-64 advantage.  On B-W's next poesession, junior guard Promis Cabbil (Elyria/Senior) had his layup attempt blocked by Howard to give the Muskies the ball back with 50 seconds left.

However, Krakowiak was able to steal the ball from Williams to give the Yellow Jackets possession with 38 seconds left.  Krakowiak then hit a jump shot with 31 seconds left to make the score 67-66 in favor of the Muskies.  B-W then quickly fouled junior guard J.J. Armstrong, who missed the front end of the one and one. But, Howard grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled. On his one and one attempt, Howard missed the free throw and Payne grabbed the rebound.  B-W elected to not call a timeout until Krakowiak nearly stepped out of bounds with 1.9 seconds remaining. Out of the timeout, Cabbil's inbound pass was intercepted by Brindley.

The Yellow Jackets are back in action on Wednesday, February 9 when they travel to University Heights to play OAC and Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University in the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center at 7:30 p.m.  In addition, fans can listen to all of the action on either campus radio station WBWC, 88.3 FM, or via the WBWC Internet web site at www.wbwc.com

FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics