GRANVILLE, Ohio – Senior forward Austin Fowler (Farmington Hills, Mich./Birmingham Brother Rice) scored a game-high 21 points to lead three in double-figures as the Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team earned a 69-56 victory at Denison University on Tuesday evening inside Livingston Gymnasium.
The Spartans improve to 2-1 for the young season and will return to action this Sunday, November 25 at Kenyon College at 4:00 p.m. With the loss, Denison drops to 2-2.
Fowler was 7-of-10 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Junior center David Thompson (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds, while sophomore forward Dane McLoughlin (Westerville, Ohio/St. Charles Preparatory) added 13 points and seven boards. Sophomore point guard Jordan Dean (St. Johns, Fla./Creekside) contributed nine points, six assists and four steals.
The Spartans, who led for most of the game, built an 11-6 lead at 14:26 of the first half when Thompson converted a layup. Denison hung around and rode a 10-4 run on its way to grabbing a 20-16 lead following a Robby Weingart three-point field goal at 7:03. Case answered with a 7-0 run that ended in a McLoughlin layup at 5:02, and the Spartans would eventually get into the locker room with a narrow 26-25 lead.
In the second, Case came out with a 7-2 run that culminated in a dunk by sophomore guard Julien Person (Houston, Texas/Second Baptist), making the score 33-27 with 18:13 left to play. The Spartan lead hung around five for the next 10 minutes, but the visitors opened the game up with another 7-0 run that ended in a Fowler layup and made the score 57-45 with 6:48 remaining.
Denison never got its deficit below nine the rest of the way, and the Spartans lead reached its highest, 69-56, when Dean hit two free throws with seven seconds left on the clock.
For the game, the Spartans shot 51 percent from the field compared to just 33.9 percent for the Big Red.
Denison had three players in double-digits led by Dimonde Hale with 17 points and nine rebounds.