Brian Felker scored 24 points and his Washington & Jefferson Presidents knocked down 26 of 30 from the free throw line to hold of the Big Red 79-69 on Wednesday night from Livingston Gymnasium.
The Big Red trailed 55-48 with 11 minutes left in the second half but a pair of back-to-back jumpers by Josh Leuchtag (Houston, Texas/Lamar) and Chris Luther (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) and two free throws resulted in a 6-0 run for the Big Red which cut the Presidents lead to 55-54 with 9:22 left. W&J's Paul Matthews would counter with his second 3-pointer of the game, pushing the lead back to four, however on their next possession, Denison's Luther quickly pulled up for a trey from the right elbow and connected.
Twenty-three seconds later Luther would split a pair of free throws to tie the game for the first time since the opening tip-off. With the score knotted at 58-58 with 7:54 to play the Presidents went to work in the paint, driving the lane and causing plenty of contact with the DU defense. Over the next eight minutes of play W&J would go 17 for 20 from the charity stripe to keep a potential Big Red comeback at bay.
Conversely, Denison was just 11 for 21 at the free throw line for the game and 9 of 17 in the second half. Denison was led once again by Luther. He finished just one point shy of his season average, with a 19 point effort. He was 6 of 13 from the field and 4 of 9 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Mike Garabedian (LaGrange, Ill./Nazareth Academy) scored a season-high 17 points and added eight rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes of action. Junior Larry Farmer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) also posted one his best performances of the young season, snaring 12 rebounds and adding 11 points.
Felker paced W&J's attack with a 7 of 13 showing from the field while hitting 8 of 10 at the charity stripe. Akram Hidmi followed Felker with 16 points in 31 minutes, helping the Presidents to their fourth victory of the season.
DU connected on 47 percent of their field goal attempts and were edged on the boards, 36-32. The Big Red committed 12 turnovers while Washington & Jefferson turned it over just nine times.
The Big Red fall to 1-6 and will look to get back into the win column on Saturday (Dec. 12) when Earlham College comes to town for a 3 p.m. tip-off.
