Mike Garabedian scored a career-high 26 points in Denison's 78-72 win over Wabash.

Freshman Mike Garabedian (La Grange, Ill./Nazareth Academy) scored a career-high 26 points to help the Denison men's basketball team earn their first North Coast Athletic Conference victory this year. The 78-72 win over Wabash College was the Big Red's first win in Crawfordsville since the Little Giants joined the NCAC in the 1999-00 season.

After falling into an early 6-2 hole, the Big Red went on a 9-4 run that was capped off by a pair of Chris Luther (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) free throws to take an 11-10 advantage with 13:19 left in the opening period. With the game knotted at 13-13, DU outscored the Little Giants 11-2 over a four and a half minute span. After Wabash trimmed the margin to five (32-27), Denison went on a 5-1 run over the final three minutes of the half en route to taking a 37-28 lead into the locker room.

The Big Red jumped out to their largest lead of the game 46-33 when Garabedian converted a four-point play after draining a three pointer and adding on a foul shot. The Little Giants used a 12-4 run to cut the gap to five (50-45), but DU responded with a 10-4 burst of their own to expand their advantage back to 11 points with 9:13 left in regulation.

After a pair of Larry Farmer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) free throws gave Denison a 62-52 lead, Wabash rattled off six consecutive tallies to make it a four point affair at 62-58. Aaron Brock led the Little Giants charge with four points.

Down by seven points with roughly a minute left in the second half, Wabash's Chase Haltom drilled a three-point field goal with 52 seconds on the clock to cut the margin to 70-66. After the Big Red converted two-of-four foul shots to increase their lead, Haltom sank another triple to make it a one possession game at 72-69.

However, Denison converted six of their last eight free throws in the final 30 seconds en route to the six-point victory.

As a team the Big Red shot a season-high 51 percent (25-of-49) from the floor and shot 86 percent (25-of-29) from the free throw line compared to Wabash's 62 percent (16-of-26).

Garabedian's 26 tallies came on 9-of-17 (53 percent) from the floor and 7-of-9 (78 percent) from the charity stripe. The first-year has scored at least 20 points in the last two games. Luther and Farmer finished the game with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Luther also pulled down a game-high seven rebounds.

For the Little Giants, Brock ended the game with 23 points and six boards while Brian Maloney and Wes Smith each scored 12 tallies.

With the win, Denison improves to 4-13 overall and 1-7 in the conference while Wabash falls to 8-8 on the year and 3-5 in the league. The Big Red look to build off the win when they host Earlham on Wednesday at 8 p.m.