GRANVILLE, Ohio (January 13, 2024) – Playing in its first home game of the New Year, the Denison University men's basketball team held on for a close 70-66 win over Kenyon College on Saturday afternoon at Livingston Gymnasium.

Denison led by 11 points (64-53) in the final four and a half minutes of the game after a fastbreak dunk by Trevor Reed and a pair of free throws by Nick Heath, but a 7-0 run for Kenyon ending with the fourth 3-pointer by Anthony Testa made it only a four-point game (64-60) with 2:15 remaining.

It then became an 11-2 Kenyon run after two more layups by the Owls, the last of which by Nick Nelson made it 66-64 entering the final minute of the game. Kenyon was 5-for-5 from the field during the three-minute run while Denison was just 1-for-6.

After a layup by Ricky Radtke and a pair of free throws by Nelson with 41.3 seconds left, Denison had a chance to run the game clock down to under 15 seconds, but instead Reed went for the basket with 17 seconds still on the shot clock and was blocked by Testa.

Then after a quick turnover by the Owls, a miss on the front-end of a one-and-one by Scotty Dean gave the ball back to the Owls with a chance to tie it in the final 15 seconds, but Dean was able to redeem himself by getting his hand on a pass coming across the paint, resulting in the second turnover in the final 30 seconds of the game for Kenyon, this time with only 2.7 seconds on the clock.

With the ball out of bounds from the baseline, Denison proceeded to throw the long pass down the court to Radtke, who was immediately fouled and made both of his shots from the free throw line to make it a two-score game with 1.6 seconds left.

Going 4-for-4 from the line and 5-for-8 from the field, Radtke finished with his first double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds while the only other Big Red player in double figures was Cameron Smith with 12 points.

It looked like Denison might run away with it early as the Big Red started the game with a 3-pointer by Gates Flynn assisted on by a no-look pass from Emmett Burnside on the first possession of the contest.

The Big Red led 11-4 less than four minutes in on a jumper by Aidan King and then doubled up the Owls at 18-9 after a 3-pointer by King six minutes in.

A 3-pointer by Heath on the next Big Red possession made it 21-10 as Dre Rodgers recorded his second assist in a row.

Denison, however, missed seven of its next eight shots and had four turnovers over the next nearly six minutes of action as Kenyon came back to tie it a 23-23 following a 13-2 run.

That would be the only tie in the game as Denison answered with a 3-pointer by Smith assisted by Burnside on the following possession, and then a pair of offensive rebounds by Burnside on the next Big Red possession led to another three by Smith.

Up 30-28, a layup by Radtke with 5:35 left in the first half started a 9-0 Big Red run ending with another 3-pointer by Heath to make it 39-28 with four minutes to go in the opening period. After hitting two 3-pointers not long before, Smith had an assist on each of Denison's first three baskets during the run, which lasted for four minutes and saw the Big Red go 4-for-4 from the field.

The Big Red sank six 3-pointers in the first half but did not make one in the second half (0-8) as Kenyon cut its deficit to five points (54-49) following an 8-2 run ending eight minutes into the second period and stayed with striking distance until the very end.

Denison's 37.9 field goal percentage was its lowest this season since November 26 at Carnegie Mellon University (34.3 percent).

With the win, Denison improves to 6-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference and reaches the 10-win mark (10-6 overall) for the earliest time in a season since 2016-17 (Jan. 3) when the Big Red started off the year with eight straight wins and were 17-1 at one point.

Next up, Denison will try to make it two wins in a row as the Big Red host DePauw University starting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, January 17.