WOOSTER, Ohio (January 18, 2023) – Playing in what will be its only game this week, the Denison University men's basketball team traveled to Wooster, Ohio, to battle one of the top teams in the North Coast Athletic Conference on Wednesday night, and in the end, the Big Red suffered an 87-70 loss to the College of Wooster at Timken Gymnasium.

Denison led 19-10 five and a half minutes into the game on 7-for-10 shooting overall, a 3-for-4 start from 3-point range and a 9-0 advantage on points off turnovers. Eight of those first 19 points for the Big Red came courtesy of Darren Rubin.

It was then a 28-19 Denison lead just over 10 minutes in as the Big Red took advantage of five Wooster turnovers to that point to lead 12-2 on points off turnovers.

However, the Big Red then found themselves down 44-39 at the break after a 25-11 run to end the first half for the Fighting Scots. Denison was still shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 50 percent (5-for-10) from three at the break while the Scots shot 50 percent from the field and sank eight 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes, including five in the final five minutes of the half.

The second half, however, was all Wooster, which continued its momentum, increased its lead to 10 points at 62-52 eight minutes into the period and did nothing but gradually strengthen its advantage from there. The Scots ultimately were ahead by 15 points (71-56) with just over eight minutes left and then made it a 21-point game at 79-58 with only four minutes remaining.

Denison still managed to finish the contest at over 50 percent shooting for the game, but saw its 3-point percentage drop to 36.4 percent (8-for-22) after shooting only 3-for-12 from long range in the second half.

Ricky Radtke led the Big Red in scoring with 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting while Rubin was only one point behind him with 18 points on 8-for-15 shooting to go along with a team high five-assists. Tyler Miller added 10 points and a team-best five rebounds while Scotty Dean scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting from three. The Fighting Scots, meanwhile, saw a 26-point night from Kurt Turner on 10-for-16 shooting.

Denison drops back to .500 both overall (8-8) and in conference play (4-4) while Wooster, which is receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com men's Top 25 poll, improves to 13-3 and 7-1 in the NCAC. 

The Big Red will now take a week off before their next game as Denison hosts Oberlin College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 25.