BEREA, Ohio – Junior transfer guard Justin Roth scored a career-high 18 points to key a blistering offensive attack in the second half, and Baldwin-Wallace capped its three-game home stand with an 83-73 victory over the Gators, Saturday night at the Lou Higgins Center.
Allegheny senior Devone McLeod paced all scorers with 21 points, but the Gators were unable to score another early-season win against an opponent from the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) as Baldwin-Wallace scorched the nets in the second half. Allegheny, which shot a season-high 55% from the field in the game, allowed the Yellow Jackets to connect on 58% of their second-half looks (17-of-29), while outscoring the Gators, 19-7, at the foul line.
Following an outstanding first half in which McLeod and D'Andre Corbin facilitated an efficient offensive effort, Allegheny broke for the locker room with a 35-32 lead. The Yellow Jackets grabbed their first lead of the game on a jumper by Kevin Krakowiak one minute into the second period although a 7-0 run five minutes later ignited a key shift in momentum from which the Gators were unable to recover.
Consecutive jumpers by McLeod and a fast break basket by Corbin sliced Baldwin-Wallace's lead to 49-47 with just over 10 minutes left on the clock, but the Yellow Jackets stretched the lead to double figures over the next five minutes behind timely three-point shooting and good use of the charity stripe.
A pair of deep jumpers off the hand of second-year guard Gabe Seidman helped keep the Gators in contention down the stretch, but B-W sank seven free throws in the last 90 seconds of regulation to secure the comeback win.
McLeod added a game-high four assists to his scoring output, although the Gators totaled just 14 assists on 31 field goals. Corbin chipped in a season-high 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting while adding two steals. Continuing his strong start to the 2012-13 campaign, junior Ryan Stanko authored his second double-double with 13 points and a game-best 11 rebounds.
Allegheny shot 4-of-19 from beyond the arc to negate an efficient offensive effort in the paint. And while the Gators had forced an average of 21 turnovers in fueling their up-tempo attack, Baldwin-Wallace turned the ball over just 11 times on Saturday.
The Gators, who have held at least a share of the lead at halftime in all four games this season, once again looked sharp in the early going. The Gators led 27-16 with eight minutes left in the first half although a pair of three's by Grant Fairhurst sparked a 10-0 run that re-energized the crowd and wiped away Allegheny's initial momentum.
Roth led six Yellow Jacket players in double figures as well as a 41-20 scoring advantage for B-W's bench.