Chris Sullivan scored a game-high 20 points, and Jacob Weide added 15 off the bench as the Wittenberg Tigers defeated the Denison University Big Red 77-63 on Tuesday evening in the quarterfinals of the 2011 North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament in Springfield, Ohio.

Neither team led by more than six points in the opening half as the two squads battled for the entire 20 minutes.  Trailing 11-10, Wittenberg engineered a 7-1 run to build up a six-point edge.  The Big Red responded with back-to-back 3-pointers by sophomore Jon Akpapunam (Bowie, Md./St. Mary's) to tie the contest at 18-18.  Sullivan answered on the ensuing possession with a triple of his own to give the lead back to the Tigers.

Following a Scott Masin layup that extended the Wittenberg lead to 23-18, Akpapunam drained another three to trim the deficit to two with 4:23 remaining in the period.  After Sullivan converted a steal into points, freshman Alex Longi (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) and Akpapunam made back-to-back layups to knot the game at 25-25.

With 2:45 left in the first, Weide rattled off five points in 31 seconds to put Wittenberg back on top.  Longi shrunk the gap to 30-27 with 75 seconds remaining, however Weide answered with a layup to give the Tigers a five-point advantage at the break.

Denison opened the second with a 3-pointer by junior Mike Garabedian (La Grange, Ill./Nazareth Academy) which cut the deficit to two.  However, an 8-0 Wittenberg run resulted in the first double-digit lead of the night.  The Big Red rallied to trim the deficit to seven on two separate occasions, but the Tiger offense caught fire in the second half.  Wittenberg led by as many as 17 points in the period before recording the 14-point win.

The Tigers shot a blistering 56 percent from the field, while DU converted 37 percent from the floor.  Wittenberg held a 45-24 advantage on the glass, and outscored DU in the paint 46-16.

Akpapunam paced Denison with 14 points, while sophomore Dimonde Hale (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) finished with 12 tallies and nine rebounds and Longi chipped in 10 points.  In addition to Sullivan and Weide, the Tigers got 10 points from Seth Hill, Alex Brandt and Clayton Black.  Michael Cooper grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, while Brandt and Weide had eight boards apiece.

Wittenberg advances to the NCAC Semifinals on Friday night where they will take on third-seeded Wabash at Wooster at 6 p.m.  Denison closes out the year with an 8-18 record, while the Tigers improve to 18-7.