Springfield, Ohio - Following Wednesday's home win over Wabash, the Denison Big Red were defeated by the Wittenberg Tigers 71-57. With the result, the Big Red now find themselves at 14-7 (9-3), while the Tigers' record updates to 15-6 (8-4). Denison still sit atop the conference standings.

First Half: The Big Red grabbed a small lead in the early minutes of the first half courtesy of a trademark Nick Heath three. The Tigers swiftly took the lead for themselves, and refused to relinquish it for the remainder of the game. An 11-0 run by Wittenberg took that lead to double digits early on, though Denison found a way to keep themselves in the fight through the rest of the half. Much of this can be credited to the Big Red's impressive second chance efforts, outscoring Wittenberg 8-0 on second chance points in the half. At the midway point, Denison trailed by four, 30-26.

Second Half: The early second half saw a similar story, as the Big Red still managed to keep their opponent at an arm's length, and the Tigers kept their scoring pace steady. Shooting woes persisted for Denison, however, as shot after shot refused to hit nylon. They shot 9-32 from the field in the second half, and 2-10 from beyond the arc. In the closing minutes of the half, Wittenberg was finally able to secure a comfortable lead, and as the final seconds ticked off the clock at Pam Evans Smith Arena, the score read 71-57.

Top Performers:

• Heath was the leading scorer for the Big Red, putting up 15. Additionally, he led the team in three pointers made, going 2-5 on the afternoon and adding to his conference-leading total

• Sophomore forward Luke Salkowski dished out three assists to lead the team in the category. He added 10 points to his statline, as well

• Sophomore guard Owen Giannoulias added value as the top board-getter for the Big Red, pulling down seven rebounds

• Jack Steinbach brought energy off the bench for the Big Red, putting in 17 hard-played minutes of work and getting to the charity stripe often

Up Next for the Big Red

As the conference tournament nears, Denison will look to recalibrate with a home in-conference matchup against the DePauw Tigers, who currently sit just half a game out of an opportunity to host a game in the conference tournament. The game will be on Wednesday, February 4, at 6 PM in Livingston Gymnasium.