Two days after suffering their third loss in four games at the hands of Norwich University, the Cardinals returned home to Silloway Gym to host Roger Williams University. They got all they could handle and more from the Hawks, who started out slowly but soon shot themselves back into the ball game. Wesleyan jumped out to an early 16-6 lead, with five different Cardinals scoring in the first five minutes. But the Hawks finally started knocking shots down, outscoring Wes 21-10 over the rest of the half, and they took a 27-26 lead into halftime. During this stretch, the Cards were plagued by a rash of turnovers, as well as missed jumpers, layups, and free throws alike. Meanwhile, the Hawks got 10 first-half points from Pat Flanagan, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points.

The Hawks led by as many as five as late as nine minutes into the second half. But Wesleyan refused to back down, taking inspiration from point guard Shasha Brown ’13, who had 21 points, five assists, and three steals while shooting 43 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line. However, the second-half run was keyed by forward Mike Callaghan ’13, who scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds after Roger Williams went up five with 11 minutes left. Callaghan had a career day, contributing personal bests in both points (17) and rebounds (12), each of which was triple his season average. His 12 rebounds were three times as many as any other Cardinal managed to pull down. All this came despite giving up four inches to his defender, who stood 6’9” yet could not stop the powerful freshman. Led by the two rookies, the Cardinals outscored the Hawks 27-20 over the last 12 minutes en route to a 63-61 win. The game was tied with 1:30 to go, but Brown knocked in four crucial free throws, with Jason Mendell ’12 (10 points) adding two, and the Cardinals held the Hawks to a free throw and a meaningless putback with four seconds left to hold on for the win.

Brown has been a pleasant surprise this season, starting every game and playing more than three-fourths of each. Ha has shot 43 percent from the field and 72 percent from the line while averaging a team-high 22.6 points, 10 more than the next Cardinal and second-best in the NESCAC.

The last game of the semester for the Cardinals will be this Saturday at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, where Wesleyan will hope to improve upon its 4-3 record.