MEADVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny men's basketball team used a balanced effort to earn a 75-71 comeback win over Wabash in North Coast Athletic Conference action in the David V. Wise Center.
 
Trailing by nine points with less than 10 minutes left in regulation, and by five with inside five minutes remaining, the Gators (5-5, 2-3 NCAC) allowed just one Wabash (3-5, 2-3 NCAC) field goal over the game's final six minutes, while forcing turnovers on three of the Little Giants' final four possessions.

The Gators ended the game with a plus-10 margin in turnovers, committing just seven to the Little Giants' 17, while the Allegheny offense saw seven players score at least six points, led by 16 from Jordan Rawls and 15 from Lamar Todd.  Billy Urso added eight points, while Sean Dougherty and Liam Wilby each posted season-highs of seven points apiece.
 
Jamison Nee led both sides with four steals and Wilby added three, as Allegheny turned the 17 Wabash turnovers into 19 points.
 
Down 68-63 with 4:30 remaining, Dougherty cashed in on a conventional three-point play to pull the Gators to within two.  On Wabash's ensuing trip, Wilby picked off a Wabash pass at the top of the key.  While his fast break layup was off the mark, teammate Antonio Frisina promptly followed with an offensive put-back to tie the game at 68 with 3:47 left.
 
The teams traded scoreless possessions, before Jamison Nee gave the Gators their first lead since the 9-minute mark of the first half with a three-point play of his own to make it 71-68 with 2:30 to go.  The Gator defense forced three more Wabash misses, before a steal by Nee led to a pair of Rawls free throws that upped the Gator advantage to 73-68 at the 1:06 mark. 
 
On the ensuing possession, the Little Giants' Jack Davidson connected on a trey to make it a two-point game 54 ticks left.  After the bucket, Nee was promptly fouled, and though he missed the bonus attempt, the rebound caromed out of bounds off of a Little Giant, allowing the Gators to keep the basketball.  Rawls quickly scored off of the inbounds pass from Wilby to give the Gators a 75-71 lead with 14 seconds left.  The Little Giants would then commit turnovers on its final two trips, capped off with a Nee steal with less than two seconds left to seal the win.
 
As was the case 24 hours earlier in their win over DePauw, the Gators got off to a hot start in the first half, as Rawls, Billy Urso, and Nee each hit three-pointers to push the hosts to an 11-2 lead just three minutes into play.
 
The advantage would hover between seven and nine points over the next five minutes, before the fortunes would turn, as the Little Giants embarked on a 15-0 run to open up a 23-18 advantage with 5:52 left in the half.
 
The Little Giant lead would eventually swell to 28-18 with 4:39 remaining, before the Gators chipped away at the deficit in the waning minutes of the opening half.  A three-pointer from Urso brought Allegheny back to within single digits, 28-21, at the 4:20 mark, before Brendan O'Toole followed a pair of Doughtery free throws with buckets on consecutive possessions to trim the gap to 32-27 with 1:30 to go.  A jumper from Urso with inside four seconds remaining made the score 32-29 in favor of the visitors at the intermission.
 
Over the first half, both teams connected on 11 field goals, with the Gators sinking five three-pointers, but the difference came at the foul line, as Wabash was 8-for-11 at the stripe compared to Allegheny's 2-for-6 mark.
 
Dougherty and Todd scored on Allegheny's first two trips of the second half to pull to within one, 34-33, but Wabash countered by scoring on five straight trips to rattle off a 12-0 run and take a 46-33 lead with 15:47 left in regulation. 
 
Behind four quick points from Rawls and a Nee trifecta, the Gators cut the gap to 46-40, before Todd and Wilby each converted on fast break layups 20 seconds apart to make it a two-point game with 14 minutes to go. 
 
The Little Giants threatened to again pull away, pushing their lead to 60-51 with 9:43 to go, but Allegheny responded yet again.  After a Todd three-pointer, Wilby bucketed a three of his own, before coming up with a quick steal on the ensuing trip and going coast-to-coast with a fast break layup to again make it a one-point game, 60-59, with 8:11 left.

Wabash countered with an 8-4 run to take the 68-63 lead with 4:38 to go, before Dougherty's and-one kicked off the Gators' decisive run.
 
While the Gators were out-rebounded 46-36 by a sizeable Wabash squad, nine of the Gators' boards came on the offensive side, and led to 14 second chance points.  Dougherty, Todd, and Rawls tied for the Allegheny team lead with seven caroms apiece.
 
The Little Giants were led on the scoresheet by Colten Garland, who scored a game-high 23 points, bolstered by five three-pointers.  Logan White and Conner Rotterman each scored 12 points, while Davidson finished with a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double.
 
After their 2-0 weekend, the Gators will now have a three-day layoff, before continuing their season long five-game homestand on Thursday, Dec. 22 with a 6 p.m. tilt against La Roche in the David V. Wise Center.