HIRAM, Ohio (November 29, 2023) – The Denison University men's basketball team trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and trailed by 10 at halftime before mounting a second-half comeback and winning its first North Coast Athletic Conference game of the 2023-24 season by a final score of 82-63 on Wednesday night at Hiram College.

To open the second half, Denison got six straight points from Ricky Radtke before a 3-pointer by Scotty Dean quickly got the Big Red to within one (40-39) just over three and a half minutes into the period.

Denison then took its first lead of the game (50-49) on a contested midrange jumper by Gates Flynn with 12 minutes left to play.

Then after Hiram answered with a layup, a nice spin move and layup by Emmett Burnside helped Denison regain the lead, and then a 3-pointer at the top of the key by Radtke made it 55-51 with just under 11 minutes remaining.

From there, treys by Nick Heath and Trevor Reed made it three 3-pointers in a row for the Big Red, and then with 8:14 to go, the fourth 3-pointer of the game by Dean made it 66-61 Big Red and capped what was in all a 16-0 Denison run.

Denison was 5-for-5 from the field, 4-for-4 from three and 2-for-2 from the free throw line during the run.

Denison outscored Hiram by 29 points in the second half after shooting 58.1 percent from the field and 6-for-11 from three (54.5 percent) over the final 20 minutes.

Radtke led Denison with 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field while Reed was next with a career-best as a freshman with 14 points on prefect 3-for-3 shooting from the field and a 2-for-2 mark from 3-point range.

Dean added 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting from three while Tyler Miller (10 pts.) was the fourth Big Red player in double digits in scoring.

Burnside and Aidan King tied for the team-lead with seven rebounds while Dean added a season-best six steals and was one of three Denison players with three assists.

In the end, all 15 Big Red players in uniform got into the game as junior Jay Jackson scored a free throw for his first point of the season before freshman Donovan Callahan scored his first-career points with an offensive rebound and layup in the final minute and a half of the contest.

The game was also the season debut for Darren Rubin, Denison's leading scorer from the last two seasons. Rubin connected on a 3-pointer to give Denison its largest lead of the game (77-57) with just under three minutes to play.

In addition to improving to 3-4 overall on the season, Denison won its conference opener for the first time since the 2017-18 season and held Hiram (1-6 overall) to 12 points below its NCAC-leading average of 75.8 points coming into the game.

Next up for Denison will be its first home conference game of the season as the Big Red host the College of Wooster at 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 2. It will be the first of four straight home games for the Big Red heading into Winter Break.