WESTERVILLE, Ohio (November 21, 2023) – A layup by senior Emmett Burnside in the final three seconds sent the Denison University men’s basketball team to a big 72-70 road win at Otterbein University on Tuesday night inside the Rike Center in Westerville, Ohio.
It was also Denison’s first win over Otterbein on the road since November 27, 2016. In addition, for the second year in a row, Denison handed a 3-0 Otterbein team its first loss of the season three games in.
Denison led 42-35 at halftime after shooting 53.6 percent from the field overall and sinking seven 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
The Big Red then opened the second half with a pullup jumper by Kellon Smith to take a nine-point lead before back-to-back 3-pointers by Dre Rodgers made it a 10-point game (50-40) just under five minutes into the final period.
Tied at 54-54 in the final nine minutes of the game, Denison got a 3-pointer from Scotty Dean on the third assist by Burnside.
However, Otterbein tied it again at 60-60 with six minutes left to play, but a minute later, Tyler Miller came up with a steal and then got open for a 3-pointer on an assist from Dean to retake the lead.
Dean sank a pair of free throws to make it 66-60 Big Red with 3:40 remaining, and then a tough turnaround jumper by K. Smith made it 68-62 with under three minutes left.
Up by just two points (68-66) with 1:30 on the clock, a drive by Cameron Smith led to a putback layup by Ricky Radtke to make it a two-possession game in the final minute.
The Cardinals quickly went down the court and scored on a reverse layup to cut their deficit in half with 47.7 seconds remaining.
Head Coach Chris Sullivan called for a timeout with 29.8 seconds on the clock, leaving the Big Red with 13 seconds on the shot clock, but a turnaround jumper in the paint by Dean was short, and Otterbein’s Jack Clement secured the defensive rebound before getting fouled and tying the game at 70-70 with 17.1 seconds left.
Denison again took a timeout, this time with 12.5 seconds on the clock, and after the inbounds pass went to K. Smith, the ball went to the elbow to Burnside, who took his time, sized up his defender and drove straight to the hoop for the game-winning layup.
Burnside finished with seven points, eight rebounds and three assists while shooting 3-for-4 from the field.
Denison was led in scoring, rebounds and assists by Radtke, who finished with 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field while adding nine boards and four helpers.
Denison also shot an impressive 40 percent from three (12-30) for the game and had three different players (Dean, Miller, Rodgers) with three makes from long range.
With the win, Denison improved to 2-3 overall while Otterbein, which came into the contest after back-to-back wins against NCAC opponents Oberlin College (92-69) and Ohio Wesleyan University (73-65), fell to 3-1.
In addition to holding Otterbein to under 50 percent shooting for the first time this season, the Big Red defense also held Clement, the 2022-23 NCAC Player of the Year and a Second-Team All-American, to just four points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field. Clement had previously scored at least 22 points in each of the first three games for the Cardinals after transferring in from Ohio Wesleyan this season.
Denison will return to action after the Thanksgiving Holiday at Carnegie Mellon University at 1 p.m. on Sunday November 26, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.