WOOSTER, Ohio – The men's basketball team may have lost several talented lettermen from a year ago, but the new nucleus seemed to buy in to the tough defensive message delivered by fourth-year coach Mark White. On Friday night on a neutral court at the College of Wooster, the Bulldogs improved to 1-0 with a 61-49 gritty win over Otterbein University at Timken Gymnasium.
The first seven minutes of the game saw neither team lead by more than one possession. Adrian then jumped ahead 15-9 on a 6-0 run capped by a jumper by senior Sean Gallant. The Cardinals came right back with a 6-0 run to tie the game at 15-15 after a bucket by Matt McCollister. Again it was a close one-possession half until Otterbein took a 23-19 lead with five minutes left in the first period on a triple by Colin Echelberry. Adrian trailed 25-23 at the break in a 20-minute period which featured four ties and three lead changes.
Echelberry nailed a three-pointer to start the second half but that would be the biggest lead for the Cardinals. The game continued to see-saw in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half as the teams were tied 38-38. The Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run with a basket by sophomore Eric Lewis and senior Cody Barnes followed by a pair of free throws by junior Drew Torey.
Adrian then went four possessions without a field goal before Lewis converted a layup to make it 47-42 with 7:35 left in the contest. Freshman Ben Rodak hit a big three-pointer at the 4:42 mark to give AC a 50-44 lead. Lewis followed with a layup at 2:33 left and then Torey made two more free throws to increase the lead to 54-44 with just 1:42 remaining. Otterbein went cold from the field as they did not score a point from 7:31 until 1:30 after a layup by Max Van Meter.
With less than a minute left, Lewis made another layup followed by freshman Darryl Flemister making three-of-four at the charity stripe to push the lead up to 59-49 with 21 seconds to play. Lewis finished the game with yet another lay-in with eight seconds to go to give Adrian the 12-point win. Adrian pounded the ball inside with 24 points in the paint in the final 20 minutes. They also scored 12 points on the fast break.
The Bulldogs shot 35.3 percent as the Cardinals shot 38.9 percent. Adrian could not find a rhythm from behind the arc making just one triple on the night. They were 12-of-16 from the foul line and outrebounded Otterbein 43-38. Lewis ended with a game-high 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor. Sophomore Adam Meier collected his third career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds in 31 minutes. Barnes added 12 points and three assists in a team-high 35 minutes. Adrian will now face host Wooster in the championship game of the Al Van Wie/Rotary Classic after the Fighting Scots defeated Carnegie Mellon, 79-67, in the second game of the day. Tip-off is set for Saturday night at 8 p.m.