BEREA, Ohio - Jeffery Mansfield scored a career-high 35 points, but it was Baldwin Wallace University that came out on top of the Wilmington College men's basketball 87-84 in an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) contest on Saturday afternoon.
The game marks the fourth straight time that the final margin was single digits.
BW scored seven of the game's first nine points and held that lead the entire first half. Wilmington would get as close as a basket on several occasions, but only got the ball back once with a chance to score or take the lead. That moment came at the 9:31 mark of the first half when a B.J. Hamilton triple was off target with the score 27-25. From that point, the Yellow Jackets stretched their advantage to as high as nine points (39-30) and led 49-42 at the halftime.
In the second half, it was Wilmington that opened the period strong as the Quakers scored 19 points and held the Yellow Jackets to just six in the first seven minutes. The last 11 points were scored by Mansfield and his two free throws put the Quakers up 61-55. Four minutes later, a DaeShawn Jackson layup gave Wilmington its biggest lead of the game, 72-63 with 9:31 to play.
Unfortunately for the Quakers, the Yellow Jackets battled all the way back to tie it 80-80 with three minutes to play. Mansfield was fouled on the next possession and made both free throws, but two of BW's next three offensive trips scored the hosts three points as Michael Quiring hit a triple and Alex Nahra converted the hoop and the harm.
Trailing 86-82 with 13 seconds left, Mansfield made two more free throws. Wilmington then fouled, and the Yellow Jackets made only 1-of-2 free throws, but Jackson's potential game-tying triple was off the mark.
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field with the Yellow Jackets making one more field goal (29-28). Both squads also shot approximately 44 percent from distance with the Quakers connected on eight long-distance shots to seven for the Yellow Jackets. The hosts edged out the visitors in free throws 22-20 and won the rebounding battle 34-27.
Mansfield's career afternoon including 35 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field and 11-of-14 from the free throw line in just 24 minutes. Jackson scored 21 points while Payton Smith missed a double-double by one assist, tallying 10 points, nine assists and five steals.
Quiring and Drew Sova combined for 43 points for BW with Nahra added 19 on 9-of-13 shooting off the bench.
Wilmington (5-10, 3-5 OAC) closes out the first half of conference play at Muskingum University on Wednesday evening.