GREENCASTLE, IN—The Wabash College basketball team rode hot shooting to a 67-59 win over Elmhurst in the first game on the Mike Rokicki Community vs. Cancer Challenge.

The Little Giants advance to Sunday's championship game against archrival DePauw University. The Tigers defeated Purdue-North Central in the first game of the tournament, 63-43.

Wabash was led by freshman Kasey Oetting who had 17 points on the night. Oetting was an important player down the stretch for the Little Giants, hitting a couple free throws with under two minutes to play and making a layup to put the game on ice.

The game was back and forth for much of the first half until Derek Bailey hit back-to-back three pointers to put Wabash up by 5. Bailey's hot hand also helped the Little Giants pull away with a three pointer at the 2:06 mark after Elmhurst had cut the lead to four.  

Head Coach Antoine Carpenter was pleased with his team's performance. "That was a very good win for our basketball team," Carpenter said, "Elmhurst is very similar to the type of team we will face in the North Coast Athletic Conference so this was a good measuring stick for us."

The senior duo of Aaron Zinnerman and Derek Bailey were also in double figures for the Little Giants. Zinnerman had a big first half and finished with 15 points, while Bailey tallied 14 points, hitting four three pointers. 

Brian Shelbourne had nine points and Nick Curosh had seven points on the evening. Jordan Surenkamp and Pete Nicksic rounded out the scoring for Wabash with 3 and 2 points respectively.

The Little Giants held their third straight opponent under 60 points. The Blue Jays only shot 35% from the field, and were 3 of 13 from behind the arc.

Strong defense is something Carpenter stressed after the game, "We want to play great defense and that's what helped us get a win tonight. We buckled down and got the win on the defensive end."

The Little Giants will face DePauw in the first of three meetings against the Tigers this season. DePauw joined the NCAC this year but Sunday's game will not count in the conference standings.

Carpenter was excited about facing the Tigers. "DePauw is a very well coached, smart basketball team. We need to take care of the basketball and make buckets to be successful."

Sunday's championship game starts at 4pm. Elmhurst and Purdue-North Central play in the consolation game at 2 p.m.