GAMBIER, Ohio (February 18, 2023) – Playing in its final game of the regular season, the Denison University men's basketball team had to outlast the Owls in the second half but earned a 72-60 victory at Kenyon College to clinch sole possession of fourth place in the North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball standings. With the win, the Big Red will now host their NCAC quarterfinal matchup next week.

Darren Rubin finished with a game-high 34 points on 6-for-12 shooting from 3-point range and 12-for-21 shooting overall. Rubin was also 4-for-4 form the free throw line while adding five rebounds and four assists.

Next in scoring for Denison was Scotty Dean with eight points while Tyler Miller finished with seven points and led the Big Red with six rebounds.

After ending the first half tied at 26-26, the Big Red opened up the second half on a 19-9 run to take a 10-point lead (45-35) on a 3-pointer by Dre Rodgers with under 14 minutes remaining. Dean would connect on two 3-pointers and scored all eight of his points during the run.

That run was stopped by a 3-pointer for the Owls before a 9-0 spurt for Denison that started with a three by Rubin, featured an alley-oop slam from Miller assisted by Rubin and ended with a lay-in by Chase Ouellette to make it a 54-38 Big Red lead at the 11:30 mark in the second half.

However, Kenyon answered with an 11-0 run over the next three minutes to get to within five (54-49) before another Rubin 3-pointer stopped the run with eight and a half minutes remaining.

After an Emmett Burnside layup made it an 11-point game (60-49) with just over six minutes left to play, Kenyon got back to within four (60-56) after a pair of free throw with 4:41 on the clock, but from there, it was all Rubin as he connected on three straight 3-pointers to push Denison's advantage back to double digits (69-57) with less than a minute and a half remaining.

With the win, Denison finishes its regular season four games above .500 overall at 14-10 and reaches the 10-win mark in the NCAC (10-6) for the second season in a row under the direction of Head Coach Chris Sullivan. It is the first time Denison has earned at least 10 conference wins in back-to-back seasons since 2017-18. Kenyon, meanwhile, dropped to 7-18 and 0-16, and will miss the conference tournament for the fifth season in a row

Next up, Denison will host the No. 5 seed, Wittenberg University, in the NCAC Tournament quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21, inside Livingston Gymnasium. Wittenberg finished its regular season 13-11 overall and 9-7 in conference play. During the regular season, both the Tigers and the Big Red earned the win at home over each other after Denison earned a 22-point win (78-56) win on January 4 in Granville while Wittenberg won by eight points (63-55) on January 28 in Springfield. It will also be the second straight year that Denison and Wittenberg meet up in the NCAC quarterfinals after it was the Big Red who come out on top by a final score of 62-58 at Wittenberg last year.