Otterbein point guard Brian Pollock scored 20 points and led five Cardinals in double-figures, resulting in a 87-71 victory over the Denison Big Red from the 2009 Smokey Ballenger Classic at The Rike Center in Westerville, Ohio.
Otterbein came out of the gates on a hot streak, shooting 57 percent in the first half while knocking down 6 of 8 from beyond the 3-point arc. Pollock scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the first half and finished the night 4 of 4 from 3-point range. Following Pollock in the scoring department was Ian Gardner who netted 19 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench.
The Cardinals took a double-digit lead early on, but a 3-point field goal by Denison's Josh Leuchtag (Houston, Texas/Lamar) with 5:47 left in the first half cut the Otterbein lead to six. On their next possession, Pollock answered with a 3-pointer of his own to push the lead back to nine with just over five minutes left in the period.
That would be as close as the Big Red would get as the Cardinals managed to keep DU at a 10-15 point deficit throughout the second half.
Denison shot just 39 percent from the field in first half but they improved in the second half by shooting 61 percent from the field. The Big Red got to the free throw line only 14 times and shot 50 percent. The Cardinals made the most of their 30 trips to the charity stripe, knocking down 24 of their free throws.
Junior Larry Farmer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) led Denison with 17 points and six rebounds in 35 minutes. He was followed by sophomore Mike Garabedian (LaGrange, Ill./Nazareth Academy) who scored 16 points off an 8 of 15 shooting performance. Freshman Dimonde Hale (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) scored 12 points and sophomore guard Brett Tiberi (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) also added 12 points off four 3-pointers.
Denison falls to 2-9 overall while Otterbein improves to 3-9. The Big Red will return to the court on Wednesday (Jan. 6) when they host Oberlin College at 7:30 p.m.