In an ironic twist, a missed free throw at the end of double overtime by Wabash gave Ohio Wesleyan an 82-81 victory at Chadwick Court. The Little Giants only attempted 19 free throws --- hitting 12 --- while Ohio Wesleyan finished the night 28-of-42 from the stripe.

The Battling Bishops took an 82-79 lead with 17 seconds remaining in the second overtime when Tim Brady hit one of his two free throw attempts. After a Wabash timeout, the Little Giants scrambled on offense before Jordan Surenkamp heaved a three-point attempt at the basket with one second on the clock. The shot attempt missed, but OWU's Vaughn Spaulding fouled Surenkamp on the play. The junior stepped to the line and hit the first two attempts, but his third try rimmed out to end the game.

View photos from the double-OT contest here.

At halftime, Wabash recognized members of the Montgomery County Special Olympics basketball team. Little Giant athletes have been serving as assistant coaches for the teams that have practiced at Wabash over the past few months. Two of the squads played a scrimmage at halftime. View photos from Special Olympics event here.

Wabash battled back from an early 12-point deficit, helped in part by a strange six-point play keyed by Derek Bailey in the second half. With the Little Giants trailing 49-42 with 6:43 left in the second period, Bailey drilled a three-point basket and was fouled on the shot. He missed the free throw, but grabbed the offensive board and hit Andy Walsh with a pass for another triple to cut the OWU lead to one. One minute later Walsh answered a Reuel Rogers free throw with another trey to give the Little Giants their first lead of the contest at 51-50.

Ohio Wesleyan regained the lead, pushing the advantage to five points with 1:51 remaining in regulation. Brian Shelbourne drew the Little Giants to within three on a driving layup. At the other end of the floor Wabash guard Houston Hodges fouled Greg White, but White drew an unsportsmanlike conduct technical foul when he kicked the basketball. Bailey converted both technical free throws, but White answered by hitting both shots of the bonus with 28 seconds left in the period. Another Shelbourne layup once again cut the lead to a point before a pair of Andy Winters free throws put the Bishops up 64-61 with 21 seconds on the game clock.

Freshman Kasey Oetting stepped up to hit a huge three-point basket with five second left to knot the game at 64-64. A missed jumper at the buzzer by OWU sent the game into overtime.

Shelbourne gave the Little Giants the lead in the first extra session with a layup, only to see OWU outscore the Little Giants 7-2 over the next three minutes to take a 71-68 lead. Aaron Zinnerman scored on a layup but missed the free throw after he drew the foul. Brady capitalized at the other end of the floor to put OWU up three with 1:41 left in the extra session. Shelbourne was fouled the next trip down the floor, hitting one of two attempts  to cut the lead to two points. Shelbourne got the ball right back for Wabash with a steal, and Zinnerman found Oetting with a pass for the game-tying basket with 51 seconds on the clock. The Bishops got three opportunities to score in the final minute, but two missed Brady jumpers and a pair of missed free throws by Marshall Morris gave the ball to Wabash for a desperation heave ahead of the buzzer. Shelbourne's full-court shot hit the back of the iron, forcing a second overtime.

The Little Giants responded to baskets from Brady and Winters with a pair of scores from Bailey and a Shelbourne layup to go up 79-78. Winters appeared to put the nail in the Little Giants' coffin with a huge three-pointer with 45 seconds left to give OWU an 81-79 lead. A missed three-point attempt by Wabash gave the ball to the Bishops, setting up the final sequence of plays.

Wabash outscored the Bishops from the field, connecting on 30-of-75 attempts including 9-of-27 three-point trys. OWU hit 25-of-62 shot attempts and only 4-of-14 triples. But the Bishops would hit more free throws than baskets, hitting twice as many free throw tries as the Little Giants attempted in the contest. OWU also controlled the boards, grabbing 54 carroms compared to 36 for Wabash.

Bailey scored a team-high 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds in his final regular season game at Chadwick Court. He, along with fellow seniors Zinnerman, Shelbourne, Nick Curosh, assistant coach Billy Powers, and manager and sports announcer Tyler Wade were honored prior to Wednesday night's tipoff. Shelbourne added 13 points and six boards.

Tim Brady finished with 27 points for OWU, scoring 13 from the free throw line. Andy Winters added 18 points, while Greg White tossed in 14. Marshall Morris recorded a game-high 14 rebounds.

The loss drops Wabash (17-7, 9-6 NCAC) into a tie for fourth place with Denison University (12-12, 9-6 NCAC) with Ohio Wesleyan (18-6, 10-5 NCAC) a game ahead of both squades in third. Denison plays at OWU on Saturday, while the Little Giants travel to Oberlin. Should Wabash and Denison win, the Big Red would capture the fourth seed in the upcoming NCAC Tournament and would play host to the Little Giants on Tuesday due to the tiebreaker situation in the conference standings. Victories by Ohio Wesleyan and Wabash would have Denison traveling to Crawfordsville for the first round of the tournament on Tuesday.