Wabash dropped into a tie for fourth place in the North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball standings after Saturday afternoon's 72-62 home loss to Denison University.

The Little Giants led by five points early, but saw Denison take an 11-point lead in the first four minutes of the second half before holding on down the stretch for the 10-point victory.

Wabash cut the 11-point advantage to seven with a 8:14 left in the contest when Brian Shelbourne stole an inbound pass under the Little Giants' basket for a layup. The play seemed to spark the Wabash squad, leading to back-to-back layups by Aaron Zinnerman to cut the lead to a single point with 6:29 remaining. The Big Red responded with a 5-0 run, preventing Wabash from getting any closer than four points in the closing minutes.

Senior guard Brett Tiberi did most of the damage for Denison (8-11, 5-5 NCAC). The senior guard — averaging 6.2 points a contest entering the day — hit 5-of-9 thre- point attempts to finish with a game-high 22 points. The Big Red shot 9-of-18 beyond the arc for 50 percent and 19-of-46 from the field for the game (41.3 percent). Dimonde Hale added 18 points, while Larry Farmer tossed in 10.

Zinnerman led the Little Giants with 18 points, while Houton Hodges scored 12 points. Zinnerman grabbed eight rebounds to lead Wabash, as well.

Wabash (14-5, 6-4) will try to snap its two-game losing streak on Wednesday night when the Little Giants travel to Greencastle to play arch-rival DePauw University (12-7, 6-4 NCAC). The two teams are currently tied for fourth place in the league standings. Wabash defeated the Tigers in Greencastle 62-47 in the title game of the Mike Rokicki Community versus Cancer Tournament in November. DePauw scored a 64-55 win in Crawfordsville in the first NCAC meeting between the two schools in January.