Powered by a picture-perfect first half performance, Denison withstood No. 23 Ohio Wesleyan's second half comeback to win 73-70 in front of the largest crowd at Livingston Gymnasium this season.  The win marks the second straight for Denison, it also gets them to double-digits in the win column at 10-7.  The loss drops OWU to 13-4 on the year.

Denison's first half was like a basketball Picasso with excellent ball movement, tenacious defense and 62 percent shooting, to boot.  The Big Red would work its way to an 18-point lead at the intermission.

The Battling Bishops methodically chipped away at the DU lead and with 13:04 left to play the Big Red's advantage had shrunken to single-digits.  With seven minutes to play, OWU's Nate Axelrod drilled a 3-pointer that had the lead down to four points at 61-57.

After surviving a turnover on their next possession, Denison got the ball back off a steal by David Meurer and that would result in a big 3-pointer from sophomore Matthew Bauer that gave Denison back some much needed momentum.

With the lead teetering between eight and four points over the next three minutes, Denison would get a big jolt of adrenalin when Darius White pulled up for one of his patented deep triple-tries and connected, putting his squad back up seven with 1:55 remaining.

Ohio Wesleyan's Claude Gray would answer with a pair of free throws, then a turnover by Denison would send Gray back to the line.  OWU's leading scorer would split the pair, leaving the Big Red with a 71-67 lead with a minute to play.

This is when things got wild.

After both teams missed consecutive 3-pointers that each could have been turning points in the game, Denison would turn the ball over under OWU's basket with 40 ticks left.  Nick Felhaber would miss his 3-point try from the corner and Meurer would come down with the basketball, only to be fouled by Jeske.  Since OWU had fouls to give, the Bishops would have to foul three more times in order to finally send Meurer to the line with 18 seconds.  Meurer would miss the front end, however Bret Woolard was there for the man-sized offensive rebound that appeared to save the day.  Woolard was then fouled by Gray and sent to the line for his one and one attempt.  Woolard would also miss his first try and OWU was off to the races.

With 11 seconds left, trailing by four, Ben Simpson got a 3-point try off that was missed.  The long rebound would be corralled by Bret Woolard around the 3-point line and the junior was shot out of a cannon.  The result would be a rim-rocking slam with four seconds left that gave his team a six-point lead and iced the win. Axelrod would drain a 3-pointer from beyond half court as time expired to set the final at 73-70.

Bret Woolard finished with a team-high 16 points while going 6-of-13 from the field in 23 minutes.  Briggs King added 10 points and led the team with 12 rebounds and six assists.  Meurer, White and Robby Weingart all finished with eight points, while Max Siwik chipped in seven off the bench.

DU shot 52 percent for the game while Ohio Wesleyan improved to 41 percent shooting after going just 10-for-31 in the first half.  Denison won the rebounding war 38-29 and the Big Red bench outscored Ohio Wesleyan's 25-0.  In the second half, the Battling Bishops did not make a substitution and went with the lineup of Axelrod, Felhaber, Simpson, Jeske and Gray for all 20 minutes.  Their productivity couldn't be denied as OWU outscored Denison 43-28 in the second half.

Denison (10-7, 4-6 NCAC) has won two-straight and will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Greencastle, Ind. for an 8 p.m. tip-off against the DePauw Tigers.