Clayton Black scored 25 points and helped Wittenberg to a 2-1 advantage on the glass, resulting in an 84-70 victory for the Tigers over the Big Red from Livingston Gymnasium in Granville, Ohio.

Black scored 14 points in the first half off 6-of-8 shooting helping his squad to a 44-34 lead after the first 20 minutes of play.  In the second half the Big Red kept fighting.  Five straight points by freshman forward Alex Longi (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) and a lay-in by Dimonde Hale (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) cut the Tiger lead to five with 13:24 to play.  After a time out Wittenberg responded with a 3-pointer on their next offensive possession by Steven Newell.

Hale would miss a jumper at the other end and Witteneberg's Scott Masin would score off his own offensive rebound, pushing the lead back out to double figures at 60-50.  After two, 3-point attempts for DU failed to connect, the Tigers encountered their biggest sequence of the night.

Chris Sullivan started it off with a missed jumper that would result in a string of four Wittenberg missed shot attempts and offensive rebounds.  On the final offensive board by Scott Masin, he would pass to Jacob Weide who would find Sullivan for a back-breaking 3-pointer that gave Wittenberg their largest lead of the night, at 13 points, with 10:49 to play.

Wittenberg would extend their lead to as many as 18 late in the second half before ending the night with the 14-point victory.  The rebounding totals tell the biggest story as the Tigers took advantage of the absence on the NCAC's second-leading rebounder, Larry Farmer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Twp.), who was out with an injury suffered in Saturday's loss to top-ranked Wooster.  Wittenberg outrebounded the Big Red 43-22 while netting 18 second-chance points to Denison's six.

Denison shot 45 percent from the field but struggled from long-range, going 7-for-26 from 3-point territory.  Hale led DU with 18 points, five rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes.  In his first career start, Longi scored a career-high 13 points while going 5-of-6 from the field.  Junior point guard Jim Leffew (Vero Beach, Fla./Vero Beach) finished with 12 points and three assists in 36 minutes.  The Big Red were led in rebounding by Mike Garabedian (LaGrange, Ill./Nazareth Academy) who pulled down seven and finished with eight points.

Black paced Wittenberg with 25 points and seven rebounds in just 24 minutes.  The 6-7 Lancaster, Ohio native played only 10 minutes in the second half because of foul trouble.  Following Black was Sullivan who dropped in 17 points while knocking down 5-of-12 from 3-point range.

Denison falls to 4-4 and 1-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference while Wittenberg improves to 3-3 and 2-0 in conference play. The Big Red will return to the hardwood on Saturday (Dec. 11) when they host Hiram College at 3 p.m.