The Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team turned an 18-point second-half deficit into a one-point game, but ultimately could not get over the top of the hill in an 80-72 loss to Denison University on Saturday afternoon inside Horsburgh Gymnasium in Cleveland.

CWRU fell to 4-5 overall with the loss while Denison, which received votes in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25, improved to 7-1.

Senior guard Sam Trunley scored 18 of his team-high 24 points in the second half of the game, finishing the contest shooting seven-of-19 overall and five-of-11 from behind the three-point line while adding two rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Senior forward Umar Rashid finished with 19 points on seven-of-17 shooting overall and five-of-12 from long range with five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and three blocks. Graduate student forward Andy Barba added 11 points, five rebounds, and two steals, while sophomore guard Charlie Fox led the Spartans with a career-high seven assists, and junior forward Aaron Rucker tallied a team-high six rebounds.

Denison opened the game on an 8-0 run and led by as many as 15 points in the first half, taking advantage of a Spartan offense that shot just 24.3% (9-37) overall and 15.0% (3-20) from behind the three-point line. CWRU closed the gap to just eight points after a layup by graduate student guard Nicholas Schiavello with 9:42 remaining in the period made the score 25-17 and remained down eight after a jumper by Schiavello made it 29-21 with 6:23 left. However, the Big Red quickly increased their lead back to double digits and took a 13-point lead, 40-27, into the break.

The Spartans bounced back in the second half of the game to get within striking distance of the Big Red. Denison took a game-high 18-point lead, 52-34, with 14:32 left to play, but an 11-0 run by the Spartans, nine points of which were scored by Trunley and Rashid, made it a seven-point game, 52-45, with 12:05 left. After a basket by Denison, Rashid answered with another three to get CWRU back within six points with 11:19 remaining. The Big Red increased their lead back to 10, 61-51, with 8:38 left, but unanswered threes from Rashid, Trunley, and Barba put the Spartans down by just a point, 61-60, with 6:55 left. CWRU had a chance to take the lead after a block and defensive rebound by Rucker gave the Spartans the ball back, but a turnover gave Denison possession and launched an 8-0 run for the Big Red that put them in front 69-60 with 4:01 left.

CWRU continued to push Denison to the end, getting the game back to four points after a layup by Rashid off a steal from graduate student guard Christian McDaniel made the score 74-70 with 53 seconds remaining, but that would be as close as the Spartans would get for the rest of the game as Denison held on for the win.

After the slow shooting first half, the Spartans registered a 53.1% (17-32) mark from the floor in the second, including nine makes on 18 long-range tries (50.0%), and finished the contest shooting 37.7% overall and 31.6% from behind the arc.

Denison's Ricky Radke led all players in the game with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

CWRU will be off until December 29 when the team will return to action at the E.M. "Mose" Hole/ Wooster Kiwanis Classic in Wooster, Ohio against Babson College.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU now stands at 27-25 all-time against Denison. This was the team's first loss to the Big Red in the last five meetings between the two teams.

• Saturday's game was the seventh time through nine games this season that Trunley has scored at least 20 points and is now averaging 24.3 points per game this year.

• Rashid's three blocks on Saturday give him 24 for the season and he is now on pace for a school-record 66 blocks. His 119 career blocks are two shy of Eric Duerr (2007-11) for the third most in program history, five away from Julien Person (2011-15) for the second-most, and 36 short of David Thompson's (2010-14) school record.