MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

While I wait for my royalty check from the News-Sun, I guess I'll post the agenda for tomorrow:

Wabash (5-2) at Oberlin (0-7), 1pm -- Live everything
Denison (3-4) at Allegheny (4-3), 3pm -- Live stats
Earlham (1-6) at Ohio Wesleyan (4-3), 3pm -- Live stats
Hiram (4-3) at Kenyon (2-5), ~3pm -- Live everything -- Game 2 of a women/men DH
Wooster (7-0) at Wittenberg (5-2), 7:30pm -- Live everything (Witt) -- live Wooster audio -- Live Wooster student audio

[wally_wabash]

12:14 to go in the first half...Wabash leads Oberlin 17-12.  Based on what I've seen so far, there's not a good reason why Wabash should take a single shot outside of 15 feet.  Oberlin simply doesn't have the bodies to defend Wabash around the hoop.  

9:48 in the first half, Wabash leads 23-16.  The LGs are 2-8 on 3PT FGs, 8-9 on FGs inside the arc.  Go to the rack fellas.  

4:44 1st....35-22 Wabash leads Oberlin.  Wabash is stretching this one out a little.  LGs are shooting a balmy 57% and currently hold a 16-7 edge on rebounds.  

Halftime: Wabash leads Oberlin 43-32.  I guess we could say that Oberlin is hanging around, but I don't get the sense from watching this game that it is as close as it is.  Wes Smith leads all scorers with 16 points so far.  Oberlin is being led by Josh Merritt's 11 points.  James Tompsett has also reached double figures with 10 points for the Yeomen.   I haven't seen Derek Bailey in the game today for Wabash...Bailey took a hard spill in Wednesday's game and looked like he had hit his head.  He may be sitting out today for precautionary reasons.  

This is also a good time to mention that Wabash senior Chase Haltom entered today's game 15 points shy of the 1,000 point mark.  He has seven points halfway through this one...good luck to Chase as he goes for 1,000 in the second half!

About 4:30 left to play...Wabash leads 68-54.  This hasn't been a particularly impressive half for Wabash, but they're doing just enough to keep Oberlin at a safe distance.  Haltom has 13 in the game....just two points shy of 1,000.  Hopefully he can get that last bucket before this one closes out.  

All done in Oberlin...I'll have a complete wrap up a little later.  Wabash wins 77-55.  Smith goes for 28 and 10, Haltom has 13 and sits at 998 career points.  7 in a row for Wabash!  OWU comes to Chadwick on Wednesday night.  WAF!

[David Collinge]

Elsewhere:
OWU 70, Earlham 62...Pellerite 19 & 12, frosh Marshall Morris with 17 boards
Allegheny 75, Denison 68...more balance from Gators; five with 9 or more points
Hiram 68, Kenyon 64...Jide Eniola with 17 & 11; Knight got his points (26) but Knapke (5) got shut down.  Bricklaying: teams combined to shoot 22 of 49 from the free throw line (KC 52%, HC 36%)

I think there's still one game left...

[ScotsFan]

I think there's still one game left...

Hmmmm...  What game might that be?   

[David Collinge]

Wooster student radio Woo91 is also going to live (audio) stream the game; I've added a link to my above post.  This may be the most live coverage for any D3 game ever played outside southwestern Michigan or southwestern Virginia.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 30  Wittenberg 25

Wooster only made 1 of their first 11 shots and somehow still stayed in this game.  Scots rallied and eventually took the lead at 23-22 after hitting some three pointers.  

Wooster is being led by Ian Franks with 9 points, Justin Hallowell with 6 points and Matt Fegan with 5 points.

Witt's top scorers are David Nowicki with 6 points and Kyle Bigler with 6 points.

Ugly shooting in the half with Wooster only hitting 38% from the floor and Witt only at 32%

[GoRed]

A really great game so far.  Wooster down 16-5 early climbed back quickly with both 3 pointers and dribble penetration.  I liked the look of Witt's offense early, but they started pulling the trigger a little early later on and started missing 3's.  Should be a great second half. 

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 66  Wittenberg 56  

Terrific road win for the Scots as they take a firm grip on the conference lead!

As usual, Wooster was led by Ian Franks with 20 points, Justin Hallowell with 13 points (12 boards) and Matt Fegan with 10 points.  Witt stats had Franks with 22 but they gave him a basket that Claytor made.

Wittenberg was led in scoring by Chris Sullivan with 15 points, David Nowicki with 9 points and Josh McKee with 7 points.

Scots outshot the Tigers from the floor 42% to 34%.  Wooster also outrebounded Witt 39 to 37.  Scots kept the TO's to 11.

Wooster is now 13-4, 8-0 NCAC.  

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

Current NCAC Standings with 1/23 Results:

1.  Wooster 8-0
2.  Wabash 6-2
3.  Wittenberg 5-3
3.  Ohio Wesleyan 5-3
3.  Allegheny 5-3
3.  Hiram 5-3
7.  Denison 3-5
8.  Kenyon 2-6
9.  Earlham 1-7
10. Oberlin 0-8

[David Collinge]

Well, color me surprised.  Congratulations to the Scots.  Attention News-Sun staff:  I'll have prepared remarks available later this evening. 

One thing that disappoints me is the reported crowd size of something like 1800.  Wittenberg's got a good team having a good season, and Wooster looked very beatable coming into this game.  I'm saddened that these factors, on top of the Rivalry, couldn't produce a sold-out arena.  I guess times change.

[ScotsFan]

Final:  Wooster 66  Wittenberg 56 

Terrific road win for the Scots as they take a firm grip on the conference lead!

You said it wsf!  By far Wooster's best game since their win over Transy and it couldn't have come at a better time!  I have to admit, I was a little queasy listening to the Scots come out 0-8 from deep and falling behind by 11. 

But after the rough start, the Scots looked like a different team from there on out as they didn't commit too many turnovers and they outrebounded the top rebounding team in the conference which were two of the keys I mentioned pregame.  And if you take away their frigid start from deep, I think they ended up shooting close to 50% from 3-point range the rest of the way.

There's still a lot of basketball left to be played so the conference race isn't locked away just yet (as I'm sure that Wabash will have a say in this thing before it's all said and done and maybe OWU as well).  But the Scots took a HUGE step towards 6 in a row tonight!!! 

[ScotsFan]

BTW, can you say 4 straight?  For the first time in the previous 95 meetings between Witt and Woo, the Scots can now claim a four game win streak over their arch rivals! 

[wooscotsfan]

And if you take away their frigid start from deep, I think they ended up shooting close to 50% from 3-point range the rest of the way.

Three point shooting was the difference in the 2nd half tonight for Wooster.  In their last 3 games, the Scots shot horribly from the 3 point arc (less than 30%) but they got hot tonight at a critical juncture in the game.

Witt had fought back from a 9 point deficit to tie the game at 44-44 with ~10 minutes left.  After a Wooster timeout, their next three baskets were all three pointers (Fegan then Franks then Hallowell).  Suddenly, it was a 53 to 46 lead for the Scots and the Tigers never got closer than 4 points the rest of the game.

It was great to see Justin Hallowell hit 3 three pointers tonight because Wooster is a much stronger team when someone helps Franks with the scoring load.

Let's hope the Scots can keep it rolling when they host Hiram next Wednesday!

[pennstghs]

Figured I might as well throw my two "sense" in from my synopsis of the game last night.

First, DC the game was not a sellout, but differently from the trend this season, more than 1/3 of the Wittenberg fans in attendance were actually students. If many of you know, one of my biggest gripes with Wittenberg's fan base is the lack of involvement for the students. So that was great to see.

I had a funny feeling that Wooster's bad shooting lately would average out in this game, and unfortunately I was right. For those in attendance, when the game was tied 44-44 late in the second half, Wooster made two 3 pointers in a row, in where Wittenberg defenders didn't switch out on ball screens, which they had been doing all game long. This led to a three in the corner and an open three up top by Hallowell. Coach Brown was livid in the huddle and rightfully so, but in a game that close two lapses like that made the difference. Witt actually had countless opportunities to close the gap, but didn't capitalize and had a lot of shots go in and out in the closing part of the game. Rebounding was controlled by Wooster, but that wasn't the main factor, more of a result of missed 3 pointers from Wittenberg and no one in position to get an offensive rebound.

Don't even get me started on missed free throws.........

Also, for those in attendance from Wooster....I was one of the participants for the halftime Around the World contest and did come out victorious. I guess something good came of the evening.

I think Wooster clinced the conference for the most part last night, so the trip to the NCAA bid will go through Wooster.

[ScotsFan]

One thing that disappoints me is the reported crowd size of something like 1800.  Wittenberg's got a good team having a good season, and Wooster looked very beatable coming into this game.  I'm saddened that these factors, on top of the Rivalry, couldn't produce a sold-out arena.  I guess times change.

The boxscore listed the attendance at over 2200 last night.  But watching the video link, it looked as though about 1/4 of the crowd were Scots fans!   

I think Wooster clinced the conference for the most part last night, so the trip to the NCAA bid will go through Wooster.

I'm not willing to say the conference race is over just yet.  What Wooster has going for them is that they have already won AT Witt and AT OWU!  Wabash still has to travel to both!  This is going to make it real difficult on Wabash to overcome their 2 game deficit.  Yes, the Lil Giants have a chance to get one back on Wooster when the Scots travel to C'ville, but Wabash is going to have a hard time winning one in Deleware or Springfield, let alone both of them. 

Wooster just has to now take care of business.  There can't be any letdowns!  As big as that win last night was for the Scots, they still have some tricky games ahead starting Wednesday when they host Hiram.  I would really like to see them build on this momentum they gained last night moving forward in the last half of the conference schedule.  It would be nice to see the Scots come out and lay a few beatdowns over their next few games instead of making the games closer than they need to be! 

GO SCOTS!!!