BOX SCORE
WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The eighth-ranked Capital Crusaders took over sole possession of first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a convincing 79-60 victory at Otterbein in front of 2,457 fans at the Rike Center on Saturday night.
The combination of Capital’s (14-1, 7-1 OAC) win over Otterbein (3-13, 1-8 OAC) and a loss by Wilmington (7-2 in OAC action) on Saturday put CU into first place in the OAC standings.
Senior Ryan Wood (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central HS) continued his strong play for the Crusaders with his second career-high tying 32 point night of the season. His fast break layup with 9:29 left in the game made him the 29th member of the Capital 1,000-Point Club. He now has 1,006 career points. Wood’s 32 points came in just 31 minutes of action along with three rebounds, one steal and one assist.
Classmate Casey Brown (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Ready HS) posted his second consecutive double-double with 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Brown made 8-of-14 shots from the free throw line while adding two assists, one block and one steal.
Fellow senior duo Nate Stahl (St. Henry, Ohio/St. Henry HS) finished with 11 points, six rebounds, one block and one steal for a Crusader offense that made 27-of-55 (.491) shots from the floor overall.
Senior point guard Jake Fanning (Danbury, Ohio/Danbury HS) dished out a career-high tying five assists to help CU drill 10-of-24 shots from three-point range overall including 5-of-9 in the second half.
Capital posted a 42-36 lead in overall rebounding including a 20-19 edge on the offensive boards that resulted in a 23-9 advantage in second chance points.
Homestanding Otterbein got off to a strong start and built an early 6-2 lead until six straight points from Capital including a three by Wood off a feed from the post by Brown evened the score at the 15:45 mark of the first half.
The surge would continue for CU as it built an 18-11 lead as Wood tallied 13 points in the first 7:25 of the contest including three treys.
OC rebounded to take an 18-17 lead at the 8:03 mark and from there both sides would trade momentum for the next few minutes until Wood gave the Crusaders the lead for good with a pair of free throws. The shots with 4:42 on the clock started a 7-0 CU run over the next 1:35 that would pace Capital to a 35-29 halftime lead.
The Crusaders would take care of any comeback hopes by outscoring the Cardinals 24-5 over the first 11:31 of the second half to build their largest lead of the game at 25-points en route to a 79-60 victory.
Capital will remain on the road to face OAC rival Marietta on Wednesday beginning at 7:30 p.m.