Josh Whack scored a career-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting to lift Wabash to a 77-64 home-court win Saturday over Hiram to open North Coast Athletic Conference play.
Wabash (2-4, 1-0 NCAC) scored 50 points in the paint against the visiting Terriers (3-3, 0-1 NCAC) on repeated drives to the hoop. Vinny Buccillla added 17 points, and Rich Brooks tossed in 13 points in the winning effort.
After jumping out to a 12-9 lead, Wabash went on a 7-0 run with 12:41 left in the first half, culminating in a bucket from Nate Matelic to increase its lead to 19-9. Hiram responded to close the margin to five points before a triple from Brooks, a driving layup from Buccilla, and a free throw by Randy Kelley pushed the Little Giants' lead to 12 points with four minutes remaining in the first half.
Hiram closed the advantage to six points with three minutes left in the period, but Buccilla drained one of five three-pointers for Wabash to give the Little Giants a 31-22 lead. The Terriers closed the half on a 5-2 run to close to 33-27 at halftime.
Hiram cut the lead to four points in the opening minutes of the second half before a 13-2 sparked by six points from Whack to claim a 48-33 lead at the 12:43 mark of the second half. Whack scored 16 points over the final 20 minutes, connecting on 5-of-7 shot attempts in the second half. The junior guard also grabbed four rebounds and had one of six blocked shots by the Little Giants in the game. Senior Noah Hupmann added five blocks along with five rebounds and four points. Wabash forced 15 turnovers and scored 22 points off the Hiram miscues.
Wabash built its lead to as many as 21 points midway through the final period, with Hiram never getting closer than 12 points over the game's final minutes.
Wabash shot 30 of 59 from the field (50.8 percent) and 12 of 16 (75 percent) from the free throw line. The Terriers hit 23 of 52 attempts overall (44.2 percent), including a 5-of-18 effort from beyond the arc. Hiram outrebounded Wabash 32 to 29.
Ivan Yang led Hiram with 27 points. Trent Jakacki and Josh Matin tossed in 10 points apiece.
Wabash heads to Greencastle on Wednesday to face its arch-rival DePauw in a 7 p.m. conference tilt against the Tigers.
