MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

There's any number of Witt lurkers and occasional posters out there reading this. But it's not so easy to step up and answer the question "why does your team suck?", especially when most of your readership is at least mildly pleased by the suckage.

[ScotsFan]

Count me in as one of the mildly pleased readers... 

[Eco-manblue]

I like the synchronicity of OWU & Hope locking horns tomorrow just days after the Scots close victory over Hope in the Moles Hole Tournament.  Seldom does one get such an opportunity for comparison in close proximity date-wise.  Major difference of course is OWU is on the road & Woo was at home.  Add to that, the Scots travel to Denison and play tomorrow afternoon.  OWU recently beat the Big Red by only 2 points.  As we all know, anything can happen on any given game, but these games will give us some statistical tea leaves to mull over until the Main Event in late January when Wooster ventures down to OWU for the teams' second showdown of the season. 

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster needs to be highly focused today and play their best ball to get a win at Denison.

Denison is now 8-3 on the season and the Big Red already have wins against:
-Case Western Reserve 8-2
-DePauw 7-3
-St. Vincent 7-4
Denison also played AT Ohio Wesleyan and lost that game by only 2 points.  It looks like the Big Red will be a top 4 team in the NCAC this season.

[woosterbooster]

Denison's video just came on, in HD!  Here's hoping it has the stamina to last two hours, and that Dan FAN-el-y, Josh Kuiper, and Evan PAN-el are not on the premises.

Seems the game will be starting a bit late (the teams are still warming up) due to the women's-men's doubleheader.

[woosterbooster]

Wooster leads early at Denison, both teams playing on an excellent HD court with decent announcers that are correctly pronouncing all the names!  Kudos to them!  The video feed is integrated with the Live Stats; far ahead of all other systems that I've seen.  Just get rid of that white font on a yellow background...

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 46  Denison 36

Wooster was led in the half by Alex Lalonde with 12 points, Spencer Williams with 10 and Xavier Brown with 8.

[Eco-manblue]

The WQKT-AM announcer at least knows how to pronounce Wooster.  Denison announcer rhymes it with "rooster".  Ugh!  But common mispronunciation.  Anyway, nice shooting by the Scots in the first half (50+%).  Only downside (besides not being able to get a steady video feed!) were the 3 or 4 penetrations by the Big Red for easy baskets.  Hope they come out after the break and tighten down on the inside.

[Eco-manblue]

Action around the NCAC today:

Randolph 74  Kenyon 60 (Final)
Wabash 36  Hiram 23 (Half time)
Allegheny vs. DePauw (just starting)
OWU vs. Hope (7:00 PM Eastern time start)

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 95  Denison 72

Solid road win for the Scots as they shot very well against the Big Red and made 14 of 29 three points shots.  Shot over 57% from the floor.

Leading players for Wooster:
Spencer Williams 22 points, 6 assists
Alex Lalonde 22 points
Milt Davis 12 points
Josh Kipfer 10 points, 8 boards
Xavier Brown and Dan Fanelly 8 points each.  Fanelly had 8 assists

Coach Moore on the post game show was very pleased that the Scots had 24 assists today.

Wooster is now 9-2, 3-1 NCAC    Next game is Kenyon at home on 1/7

GO SCOTS!

[Eco-manblue]

  Finally got through the video problems and saw the Scots play some well-oiled basketball in the 2nd half.  Crisp passing, aggressive offensive and defense, nice pressure and moves throughout the contest.  Fine tuning: concentrate on shutting down those easy inside baskets the Big Red got away with and foul shooting (5 of 10 for 50%?! Yipes!).  Pleasurable game to watch.  Scots were efficient, workmen-like, and relentless in dismantling the Big Red today.  Keep it up, big guys! 

[wally_wabash]

LGs got past Hiram 89-78 in two overtimes.  Hiram erased a big halftime lead and Wabash needed the final bucket in regulation and the first overtime in order to get to the second extra session- which they firmly controlled.  Wabash shimmies up to 7-3 overall, 3-1 in league play.  They'll get Allegheny tomorrow on the second day of the east/west back-to-back. 

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  DePauw 85  Allegheny 71

Current NCAC Standings through 1/3 Games:
1. Ohio Wesleyan 4-0
2. Wooster 3-1
2. Wabash 3-1
4. Allegheny 2-2
4. Kenyon 2-2
6. Denison 2-3
6. Oberlin 2-3
8. DePauw 1-3
8. Hiram 1-3
8. Wittenberg 1-3

[woosterbooster]

The WQKT-AM announcer at least knows how to pronounce Wooster.  Denison announcer rhymes it with "rooster".  Ugh!  But common mispronunciation.  Anyway, nice shooting by the Scots in the first half (50+%).  Only downside (besides not being able to get a steady video feed!) were the 3 or 4 penetrations by the Big Red for easy baskets.  Hope they come out after the break and tighten down on the inside.

Hardly anyone knows how to pronounce Wooster, and that includes many of the students at the college itself.  There is at least one word that rhymes with the correct pronunciation of Wooster, but my memory isn't helping me out here.

I like when Wooster goes big and plays Fanelly and Kipfer together.  It works well, and is something that they may need to do more often come tournament time, providing both bigs stay out of foul trouble.

[smedindy]

Oh, great now we have TWO high and mighty lords of announcing critiques on this board....