Today's games and non-games:
Oberlin at Denison has been postponed until tomorrow, as has the DU women's game vs. Hiram.  Tomorrow there will be a doubleheader beginning with the women's game at 1pm.
Hiram at OWU has been postponed until 3pm tomorrow.  OWU had planned to stream this game live on the web; I don't know it that still goes for tomorrow.  Today's women's game at OWU (vs. Allegheny) still appears to be on as scheduled.
The other games (Wooster at Wabash, Allegheny at Wittenberg, Kenyon at Earlham) all seem to be proceeding as scheduled.

Could not have written a better start for wabash here. Five minutes gone, lgs lead 15-1.

9 minutes left in the first half. Wabash's second unit hasn't looked very sharp. Wabash leads 19-11.

Halftime at Chadwick...Wabash leads Wooster 38-30. The Scots made a nice run to get within 6 but Wabash closed the scoring as Wes Smith made a nice tip in off his own miss. Frankly I'm pretty stunned here. I didn't expect Wabash to hold a double digit lead for most of the half.  Hopefully it'll hold up for 20 more minutes!

Scots cut it to a TD and it's now 17-10.

At the Half:   Wabash 38  Wooster 30

Wooster got off to a terrible start taking over 4 minutes to score a single free throw and over 5 minutes to get their first field goal of the game.  At that point, Wabash already had a 15-1 lead as Wally noted.

Wooster has no answer for Wes Smith who is leading Wabash with 17 points.  Chase Haltom has hit 2 three pointers and he has added 7 points for the Little Giants and Aaron Brock also has 7 points.

Wooster is being led by Marty Bidwell with 10 points, Bryan Wickliffe with 6 points and Matt Fegan with 5 points.

The difference in this half was shooting as Wabash hit 48% from the floor and the Scots only managed 39%.  Wooster is still in this game but the Scots are going to need play much better in the second half to have any shot at a victory.

Quote from: wooscotsfan on January 10, 2009, 02:44:57 PM
Wooster is still in this game but the Scots are going to need play much better in the second half to have any shot at a victory.

I think it was huge for Wooster to get the lead down to single digits before the half.  Wooster started about as bad as they could have and Wabash started about as good as they could have and yet they only have an 8 point lead to show for it...

Especially when you consider the Scots' 2 leading scorers have yet to get it going with Franks sitting on the bench saddled with 3 fouls for much of the 1st half and Hallowell yet to score as he seems to be forcing his shots a bit from the way it sounds. 

Conversely, Wes Smith seems to be unstoppable.  I really think that Wabash needs some other contributors in the 2nd half if they want to hang on and pull off the upset.  Right now, 31 of Wabash's 38 points are from Smith, Haltom and Brock.  Not much balance there...  If Wooster can find a way to slow down Smith in the 2nd half, there could be trouble for Wabash.  That sounds easier said than done, however... 

Another hot start for wabash in the second half. Wabash has extended their lead 48-34 with 16 min to go.

9 minutes to play. Everything is falling for the little giants here while Wooster continues to struggle. LGs lead 58-42.

I don't understand why Wes Smith doesn't dominate every game he plays.  He's probably the most talented player in the conference right now, and when he turns it on, he's unstoppable in all phases (driving, dishing, rebounding, etc.).  Sounds like that's what he's doing today, as he already has a double-double early in the second half.  He did it for an unbelievable ten minute span at Hiram, but was a non-factor the rest of the time during that game.  

When this game ends, Hiram is going to be in sole posession of first place in the NCAC...

Wabash winning today gives Mac Petty his 500th career win against his hometown team (congratulations, Coach Petty!), and it also denies Steve Moore his 499th win as Wooster's head coach.  That means that, if Wooster can beat Hiram on Wednesday, the Scots will have an opportunity to give Coach Moore his 500th COW win against Wittenberg, his alma mater, on Saturday.  Those two 500th wins, should they come to pass, would have to be especially satisfying for the coaches.

I've seen Wooster pull off some crazy things here at Chadwick. I'm not calling this one over til the students hit the floor. 

 

Honestly, I'm shocked at this game. Congratulations to Coach Petty on the 500th win!

Hopefully Wabash can repeat this performance again and use this as momentum for a push to the postseason.

Final:  Wabash 75  Wooster 58

Congrats to the Little Giants on a well played game and a key win in the NCAC race!

Wabash was led by the unstoppable Wes Smith with 24 points, Chase Halton with 17 points and Aaron Brock with 13 points.

Wooster was led by Nathan Balch with 13 points, Marty Bidwell with 10 points and Bryan Wickliffe with 10 points.  This was a ugly game for Wooster as they shot only 39% from the floor and had 20 turnovers.

Congrats also to Wooster native and Wabash Coach Mac Petty on his 500th career win!

Wabash improves to 7-5, 2-2 NCAC and Wooster falls to 8-5, 3-1 NCAC.  Next up for Wooster is Hiram on 1/14.

Congrats to Wabash on the win today.  They came ready to play and jumped on Wooster early and never let up.  Wooster had some chances when they were able to cut the lead to 6 on a few separate occasions, but Wabash never let Wooster get any closer and always seemed to extend leads every time.

As Mike Breckenridge was going over his pre-game show, he noted how Wabash had been struggling to shoot the ball this year as they were only 39% from the field on the season to date and a lowly 30% from 3-point range.  When he said that, I thought to myself, just watch.  Wabash will come out and shoot lights out and that's exactly what they did while Wooster had an uncharacteristically poor shooting afternoon.

Who would have ever imagined at the start of the season that Wooster-Wittenberg isn't going to be the key game of the week for the Scots and that Hiram-Wooster is a bigger match-up and almost a must win for the Scots???   

Wittenberg is having no problems with Allegheny today, perhaps with a thought of revenge on their minds, as they are up 23-8 early on

Kenyon holds off Earlham, 72-69.

Wittenberg's lead on Allegheny keeps bobbing back and forth between 9 and 18.  Right now, it's "just" nine, with about 5 minutes left.

Big congrats to my former neighbor and my friend Mac Petty. I was a little older than his children (Susan and Matt) but I certainly remember them around my old neighborhood in C'ville. Mac is one of the legends of college basketball. I think D-3 is exactly where he needs to be. He's not a self-promoter. He's not about himself. He's about the student athletes.

I think a great testament to Petty is what he did after winning the national title. He STAYED! He was still a relatively young coach then.

I'd rather have Petty coach my team every day and twice on Sunday than some of the D-1 dorks like Bob Huggins.