WOOSTER, Ohio (January 20, 2024) – After a huge first half offensively for the Fighting Scots, the Denison University men's basketball team fell by 15 points, 82-67, on the road at the College of Wooster on Saturday at Timken Gymnasium.

Denison started just 2-for-10 from the field and 0-for-6 from three while Wooster got off to a 16-4 lead after making back-to-back 3-pointers seven minutes in.

The Big Red adjusted and went inside to Ricky Radtke and Emmett Burnside for points on their next three possessions, and then a three by Scotty Dean, Denison's first 3-pointer of the game, made it 22-13 halfway through the opening quarter.

After a pair of free throws by Kellon Smith, Denison went to the full-court press, and the defensive call paid off as Gates Flynn came up with a steal near midcourt and raced the other way for a layup to make it 26-20 with 8:35 left in the half.

Wooster, however, responded with a 9-2 run over the next two-plus minutes of action to go up by 13 points (35-22); and then two 3-pointers by Jamar Billings and another by Jaiden Cox-Holloway during a pivotal 11-0 run for the Fighting Scots made it a 22-point game (51-29) with just a minute and a half left in the opening period.

Wooster missed just 10 shots (21-31; 67.7 percent), was 6-for-10 from three in the first half, and outrebounded the Big Red by 10 (18-8).

Early in the second half, Denison scored on three straight possessions and put together an 8-0 run starting with a layup by Cameron Smith and ending with 3-pointers by Dean and Radtke to get from down 21 points to within 13 points (56-43) of the Fighting Scots. It was, in all, an 11-4 run in the first three and a half minutes of the second half for the Big Red.

After falling behind by 19 points (68-49) just under the 10-minute mark in the game, Denison again got to within 13 points (69-56) following a layup by K. Smith with 7:44 left to play.

Denison began to pick it up in the final six minutes of the game as a block by Trevor Reed led to a layup by Radtke to get the Big Red to within 10 (69-59) for the first time in the second half.

On the next Wooster possession, C.Smith came up with a steal and a layup to make it 69-61, and then the next possession saw a defensive rebound by Radtke lead to a made jumper by Reed to make it just a six-point game (69-63) with just under five minutes remaining.

Unfortunately, Wooster got it back to a 10-point lead (73-63) with made jumpers on its next two possessions and kept the Big Red at bay the rest of the way with three steals in the final 90 seconds of the game.

Despite outscoring Wooster 35-30 in the second half, Denison shot just 13-for-35 (37.14 percent) from the field in the final period, which was not going to be enough to complete the comeback after the big 52-point first half for the home team.

Radtke led the Big Red with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting while Dean scored 12 points and was 4-for-6 from 3-point range and K. Smith added 10 points and tied for the team lead with five rebounds.

After the game, both Denison and Wooster sit at 10-8 overall and 6-3 in the North Coast Athletic Conference and are two of the four teams tied for second place in the conference standings, one game behind Wittenberg University.

Next up on Wednesday, January 24, Denison will host Hiram College starting at 8 p.m.