GAMBIER — The Kenyon College men’s basketball team fell to Grove City College, 76-70, on Monday night. Monday’s competition was the first home game the Lords have hosted since its 61-59 win over Allegheny on Dec. 2. They split a pair of road games before traveling back to Gambier to play the Wolverines.

“It was frustrating because we were excited to get back home,” said Kenyon head coach Matt Croci. “We played a lot of road games in our first 10 games — seven — and it is frustrating to come home, having a decent crowd, and to play like that. The guys are frustrated, too.”

The Lords (5-5) started out the first half ready to play, taking off on a 5-0 lead, and hitting two 3-pointers by David Jolson and Jim Arce early. Arce’s shot would be the last taken for a Kenyon lead. Grove City’s Ryan Gibson hit a jumper, putting the game at 11-10. The Lords trailed the Wolverines (3-4) for the rest of the game, spending most of their time around a 10-point deficit.

“They looked a little bit more ready to play. I think we had pretty good energy early and the crowd was great, it gave us a boost, but we just really didn’t play well,” said Croci.

At the end of the first half, the Wolverines were up, 36-26. The Lords’ Bryan Yelvington nailed a 3-pointer to bring the game within five, 40-35. After a few more trips down the court, David Jolson’s assist to Yelvington brought Kenyon to within three, its smallest deficit of the second half, 40-37. Yelvington ended the night with a double-double, scoring 22 points and pulling down 12 boards.

Kenyon kept Grove City scoreless for 4 1/2 minutes in the second half, until Ryan Gerber hit a jumper, then the Wolverines continued to pull away. Gerber ended the night with 23 points, shooting 3-of-5 from behind the arc and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line.

“They executed their offense and they are pretty good at it, and they play four guards. We are a little bit bigger, so we had a hard time guarding that,” said Croci.

With time running down on the clock, the Lords pushed aggressively against the Wolverines, going on a five-point run and holding Grove City to five points the last two minutes of play. Kenyon’s full-court pressure forced a number of Grove City turnovers, which the Lords were able to capitalize on for some easy buckets. Korey Haddox contributed five points in the last 30 seconds of the game to put the Lords just out of reach of a win, 76-70.

“Defensively, I think in that first half, it just killed us. So many times they were able to get the ball to the rim and we just couldn’t guard them. They were much better than us tonight,” said Croci.

For the Lords, Haddox scored 15 points, and had three steals and two assists. Jolson and Clair each had eight points.

The Lords hosts DePauw University on Dec. 20, with tip-off scheduled for 2 p.m.