The Millersville offense was nowhere near perfect. Turns out, thanks to its defense, that didn't matter.

Elijah Obade scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds to lead the Marauders to a 55-52 non-conference win over Wilmington on Saturday afternoon at Pucillo Gym.

It was Millersville's lowest winning point total since a 54-48 victory over Philadelphia to open the 2007-08 season.

More importantly, it was the Marauders' first win of the season after dropping two straight last weeked in West Virginia.

"It feels great, especially after what happened last weekend," MU guard Anthony Coleman said. "It feels good to get that first win, especially on our home court."

Coleman finished with nine points, pulled down five rebounds and equaled a career high with three steals.

"We needed a win," said MU coach Fred Thompson, who is now 12-3 in his home openers at Pucillo. "Hopefully this will get us going."

Averaging 82 points in their first two games, the Marauders struggled offensively against the Wildcat defense. The home team shot just 31 percent from the floor, including a dismal 3-for-15 clip from beyond the arc.

"It was ugly," Thompson said. "They played a zone and slowed us down."

Millersville made 10 of 32 shots in the first half. The Wildcats (0-4) fared much better, sinking 11 of 20, and took a 27-26 lead into halftime.

The Marauder offense was worse in the second half, knocking down just 8 of 26 shots. The defense, meanwhile, fared better, holding the Wildcats to a 9-of-28 shooting performance.

"We worked a lot on defense this week," Thompson said. "We kind of ignored offense and you could tell, but we wanted to make sure they weren't getting easy buckets."

The game was tied 15 times, the lead changed 14 times and neither team led by more than four points at any point.

Wilmington led by four, 44-40, with 7:58 to play. But a Coleman jumper, followed by a steal at the other end that led to the game-tying bucket fueled Millersville's late charge.

Xavier Mumford also provided a spark off the Marauder bench, scoring all six of his points while playing 12 minutes in the second half.

"He gave us a big lift," Thompson said of Mumford, who also had seven rebounds and two blocked shots. "He's relentless on defense and he's also relentless on the boards."

Millersville never trailed in the final 7:35 of the game. Tied 50-50, Obade converted a three-point play that put the Marauders up 53-50 with 2:45 to go.

The Wildcats had a last-second shot at tying the game, but a 3-point try by Herbert Dennis bounced off the back of the rim.

Brandon Fox came off the bench to lead Wilmington with 16 points.