The Little Giants played their first home game of the 2012-2013 basketball season Saturday against the eight-ranked Illinois Wesleyan Titans. Wabash took a one-point lead into the locker room before Illinois Wesleyan outscored the home team by 7 in the second half for a 62-56 victory.

"I'm ecstatic about our game today," Coach Antoine Carpenter said. "Of course, it's a downer we lost. But it's exciting with all the good things we did because (Illinois Wesleyan) that's a great — not a good — a great basketball team."

View photos from the game here.

A back-and-forth first half saw seven lead changes and no team with more than a four-point cushion. The second half was more of the same. The Titans' Brady Zimmer hit a three-pointer at the 2:02 mark to give IWU its largest lead of the game. The eight-point deficit was too much for Wabash to overcome in crunch time. Zimmer had 12 points and was 3 of 5 beyond the arc.

"We're still a young basketball team," Carpenter said. "We haven't had the same starting lineup yet this season. Ross Sponsler was out and this was Houston Hodges's first time playing since coming back from football."

Hodges adjusted to basketball shape rather quickly. He dished out 6 assists in 31 minutes of court time, both of which were the most on the day. The 5-8 sophomore also added 2 blocks in a very physical contest. IWU had a very large and physical presence throughout the game.

"This game gets us prepared for NCAC play," Carpenter said. "This is what every NCAC game is like in terms of physicality. Our new guys are able to better prepare for conference games when we play teams like this. Even though we fell short, we are satisfied with the effort our guys showed."

The one area the Titans had a strong advantage was rebounds. They out-rebounded the Little Giants 45-37 and had a 19-13 advantage on the offensive glass.

We improved our rebounding in the second half and it's something we've been practicing on," forward Kasey Oetting said. "We just weren't putting bodies on guys."

Oetting led all scorers with a career-best 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting and was an impressive 4 of 6 from three-point range.

"There were a lot of good picks set when I was shooting and a lot of good movement when I drove so I have to thank my teammates for the help," he said.

Freshman center Marcus Kammrath had the best game of his young career. He came off the bench to score 10 points on an efficient 4-of-5 shooting effort and grab 7 rebounds. The Union Mills, Indiana native was fond of the physical play.

"It was definitely the physicality level I like to play," he said. "They ran a lot which is why I got the minutes that I did. Pete (Nicksic) and I were just taking turns running with them and it was fun."

Nicksic was third on the team in scoring with 8 points. He also hauled in 7 rebounds. Hodges chipped in with 7 points while freshman Daniel Purvlicis and junior Andy Walsh had 5 each.

A crowd of 639 witnessed the hard-fought battle. The "Friends and Family" section was covered in scarlet and white behind the Little Giant bench. However, there was no student section with most of the student body still off campus due to Thanksgiving Break. A strong contingent of Titan fans made the two-hour drive down Interstate 74 for the game.

The youthful Little Giants showed a lot of promise Saturday. Now the trick is to rebound quickly and prepare for a nationally-recognized Rose-Hulman that travels to Crawfordsville on Monday. Tip off will be at 7:30 p.m. inside Chadwick Court.