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COLUMBUS – The Capital University men's basketball team (18-6, 15-2 OAC) defeated the Fighting Muskies of Muskingum (1-23, 0-16 OAC) in comeback fashion Wednesday night by a final score of 75-68 at the Capital Center.

With the win, Capital clinched at least a share of the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title, with the opportunity to win it outright on Saturday.

The back-to-back conference titles mark the second time in coach Damon Goodwin's career that he has led a Crusader team to a repeat. The championship also represents the program's 12th regular season conference title overall and fourth in the past seven seasons.

Senior forward Spencer Niekamp (St. Henry, Ohio; above) scored a career-high 28 points and also grabbed six rebounds in the win.

Senior wing Michael Sommer (Celina, Ohio) also chipped in 18 points and four rebounds for the Crusaders.

In what was a slow start offensively, Capital had to overcome a 12-point, first half deficit to win against a struggling Muskingum unit that forced them out of sync offensively for most of the game.

Despite their record, the Fighting Muskies showed a strong effort tonight as they were able to give the Crusaders some challenging looks defensively and keep them from establishing any offensive rhythm for most of the game.

Opening up the first half of play, the Crusaders struggled offensively as they came out and missed their first three shots from the field and turned the ball over twice in the first four minutes of action.

Finally, with 16:13 to go in the first half a drive by sophomore guard Adam Blake (Kingston, Ohio) ended the scoring drought.

After the Crusaders regained the lead 8-7 with 12:32 left before the half, the Fighting Muskies answered right back with a 3-pointer to give them the lead. Muskingum would hold onto that lead and head into the locker room with a 37-31 advantage.

Sommer proved to be one of very few bright spots offensively for the Crusaders, scoring 16 of his 18 points in the first half.

As a team Capital was held to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor in the opening period and surrendered 50 percent shooting to Muskingum contributing to their halftime deficit.

The Crusaders again let their deficit swell to 12 in the second half before they went on a 16-5 run to regain the lead.

The turning point of the game was at the 14:36 mark of the second, when junior Ben Jackson (Columbus, Ohio) found a cutting Niekamp during the run to force Muskingum into a timeout.

At one point during the second half, Niekamp ripped off 14 straight Crusader points down the stretch to propel the team to victory.

Despite digging themselves a tough hole to climb out of early, the resilient Crusaders bounced back in the second behind an improved shooting performance (57.1 percent) and an impressive half at the foul line, where they converted on 17 of their 19 free throw attempts.

Capital finished the game at 43.1 percent shooting (6-of-14 on 3-pointers) en route to the win.

With Niekamp's 28 points in tonight's win over Muskingum, he moves into 16th on the program's all-time scoring list, surpassing former Crusader standouts Napolean Allen and Darrin Blackford.

The Crusaders finish their 2012-13 regular season campaign at home this Saturday when they against Ohio Northern for a 2 p.m. tip. Prior to the contest, Niekamp, Sommer and fellow seniors Tim Congrove (Circleville, Ohio), Damon Dillard (Columbus, Ohio) and Mitch Westerheide (Ft. Loramie, Ohio) will be recognized in a brief ceremony. The program will recognize the 2002-03 OAC regular season championship team at halftime of that contest.