SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (January 28, 2023) – The Denison University men's basketball team's second-half comeback attempt faltered out late as the Big Red dropped a road contest, 63-55, to the Wittenberg University Tigers on Saturday.

Ricky Radtke collected his third double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds while Darren Rubin matched him with 10 points. Tyler Miller led the Big Red in rebounds with 13 and added nine points.

A big part of Denison's comeback effort in the second half was aided by offensive rebounds and second chance points. The Big Red collected nine offensive rebounds in the second half, leading to eight second chance points, while limiting the Tigers to only five offensive rebounds for the game.

After a 3-pointer by Nick Heath got Denison to within four of the Tigers (16-12) 11 and a half minutes into the game, Wittenberg would proceed to separate itself from the Big Red with an 18-2 run over the next eight minutes to make it a 20-point margin (34-14).

Denison would then close out the first half on an 8-0 run to make it a 12-point game (34-22) and try to regain some momentum going into the second half.

Then after the Tigers got their lead back to 18 points (49-31) in the first nine minutes of the second half, the Big Red tried to claw back into it with an 11-2 run ending with a dunk by Radtke at the six-minute mark to get the Big Red back to within single digits (51-42) for the first time since the score was 19-12 in the first half.

After a 3-pointer from Miller and a steal and layup from Cameron Smith, Denison would see its deficit trimmed to only six points at 57-51 with two and a half minutes left to play, and then a fastbreak bucket by Rubin after the defensive board by Miller made it a five-point game (60-55) with only 26 seconds left. However, a pair of missed free throws by the Big Red with 20 seconds left all but sealed their fate as the Tigers sank two free throws to make it a three-score game with 14 seconds left.

With the loss Denison, returns to .500 both overall (9-9) and in the North Coast Athletic Conference (5-5) while the win for the Tigers advanced their record to 9-10 overall and 5-6 in NCAC play.

The Big Red will return to Livingston Gymnasium at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1, to face off against the Hiram College Terriers.