MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[earlhamalum]

Final out of Richmond
 Earlham 69 Kenyon 60   Earlham had 4 players in double-digits LaRon Henry lead the way with 23 points and both Neil Collins and Markcous Jewett played a solid game.   1st win of the year for EC  1-1 in the NCAC /color]

[ScotsFan]

I was watching ESPN earlier this week and they were showing the 10 ten football rivalries. I can't recall the exact list and order (OSU-Michigan was #2 and Alabama-Auburn was #1). At the end of the show they showed the consolation list which included Wabash-DePauw. The narrative was "These two schools just flat out hate each other"....

Personally, I cant believe ESPiN would rank Auburn-Alabama ahead of Michigan-Ohio State?!  I've read several polls that rank Michigan-Ohio State as the best rivalry in all of sports, let alone college football.

As far as DIII rivalries go, I'm just going by basketball here since this is a basketball forum.  Besides, most of us in here are pretty familiar with the heated rivalry that goes along with the Monon Bell.  As far as basketball rivalries go, no doubt about Hope and Calvin being far ahead of the rest.  I don't think it's too much of a stretch to put Witt-Woo at #2 on that list though.  When you bring in all of the factors:  #1 and #2 winningest programs in DIII, conference championship implications every time they meet winning or sharing the NCAC regular season championship in each of the last 18 years, and not to mention the recent national ranking implications with this being the 5th time that one of these 2 teams has come into the game with the #1 ranking in the last 7 years and in each of those games, the #1 ranked team fell (that's going to change tonight ).

I wish I could be down in Springfield tonight in person cheering on the Scots to victory, but having 3 young kids running around my house makes it difficult to get away.  I will be glued to my radio enjoying several Christmas Ales by the fire though and I might check out the live video stream as well.  I wonder how well it will match up with Wooster's play by play over the radio?

Good luck to both teams tonight in what should be another epic chapter of this great rivalry!!!

[wooscotsfan]

Final Scores:

Allegheny 73  Ohio Wesleyan 70  OT
Olivet Nazarene 75  Wabash 60
Hiram  74  Oberlin 69
Earlham 69  Kenyon 60
Denison is Idle today

Just one NCAC contest left to be played in Springfield tonight!  

GO SCOTS!

[sac]

From the way the early season has gone that Allegheny  win is a pretty good and surprising upset. 


There are a number of hidden gem rivalries around D3, they just simply don't get any publicity.  99.9% of Ohio doesn't even know Witt/Woo are playing tonight let alone that its iimportant.  Which is to bad but all the same just fine with me.

It really is a shame that Wabash and DePauw don't play in the same conference anymore, that is a very intense rivalry.   Someday maybe DePauw will come to their senses like Rose-Hulman and come back north.  They would be an interesting addition to the NCAC.


Any links to live scoreboards or anything tonight?

[ScotsFan]

Final Scores:

Allegheny 73  Ohio Wesleyan 70  OT
Hiram  74  Oberlin 69

Just one NCAC contest left to be played in Springfield tonight!  

GO SCOTS!

Wow, talk about grabbing your attention with some of those scores?!  Is Allegheny for real???  These are the kinds of losses that I thought OWU was finally putting behind them.  They can't afford to lose games like this and expect to challenge the two W's for the NCAC championship.

Any links to live scoreboards or anything tonight?

Here is a live internet video link from Wittenberg.

Wooster also offers live internet audio broadcast and live basketball stats.  Here is the link:  Wooster Interactive 

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:   Wooster 36  Wittenberg 34

This was a very slow paced game in the first half with lots of fouls and both teams in the bonus.

Wooster is being led by Tom Port with 10 points, James Cooper with 7 points and Brandon Johnson with 7 points.  Wittenberg is being led by Dane Borchers with 10 points and Jack Hemenway with 10 points.

GO SCOTS!

[WooMix]

The two Witt announcers are doing a phenomenal job.  Thanks guys for the first half.

By the way, I was trying to listen to the WQKT commentary (and watch the Witt video) but there appears to be no audio online even though I am connecting to their servers without any problems.  Are you guys having the same problem as well?

[wally_wabash]

sac-

Wabash/Depauw back in the ICAC days was awesome.  The rivalry has been a little lopsided (in the favor of the bad guys) since they left for the SCAC.  Back in my day in the late 90s, Wabash/Depauw games were absolutely insane.  Packed gyms, loud loud loud, and pretty good basketball on both sides.  The more recent games have been tainted pretty badly by scheduling....a lot of the games in the post ICAC era have been played on or near holiday breaks which has really hurt attendance.  Wabash had great rivarly-esque games with a lot of the ICAC teams in the late 90s.  Games against RHIT, Franklin, Anderson, Hanover were always tough and were always fun to be at.  The only thing about the ICAC that I really miss is hoops season.

[Ralph Turner]

I was watching ESPN earlier this week and they were showing the 10 ten football rivalries. I can't recall the exact list and order (OSU-Michigan was #2 and Alabama-Auburn was #1). At the end of the show they showed the consolation list which included Wabash-DePauw. The narrative was "These two schools just flat out hate each other"....

Personally, I cant believe ESPiN would rank Auburn-Alabama ahead of Michigan-Ohio State?!  I've read several polls that rank Michigan-Ohio State as the best rivalry in all of sports, let alone college football.
...

goscots, how many times have you ever seen a sign in an Ohio business establishment that counts the number of days until the UMichigan game?

Or another sign to this effect...

My 2 favorite teams are Alabama (or Auburn) and whoever is playing Auburn (or Alabama)?

Those things are very common all over the state of Alabama.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 68  Wittenberg 65  

Wooster led by 10 points in the 2nd half (54-44) but Wittenberg came all the way back to take the lead at 62-60 with ~2 minutes left.  Brandon Johnson and Tom Port then each hit big three pointers to regain the lead for the Scots.  Devin Fulk nailed two critical free throws with just 7 seconds left in the game.

Wooster was led by Brandon Johnson with 18 points, Tom Port with 13 points and James Cooper with 11 points.  Jack Hemenway led Witt with 20 points,  Dane Borchers added 18 points and Gregg Hill also had 18 points.  Hemenway narrowly missed a tying three point shot right at the buzzer.

Wooster is now 7-0.  Next up is Cedarville next Saturday.

GO SCOTS!

[WooMix]

What a gutsy play by Tom Port towards the end of the game!  Woo down by two with less than a minute to go, if I am not mistaken, he grabbed an offensive rebound, instead of attacking the basket, as we were all expecting him to, he took the ball out and sunk a three!  Incredible!

Once again great job by Scott Leo and Rob Lehner, the guys who called the game for Wittenberg.  Nothing but class guys.   Thank you on behalf of all those who watched your broadcast online.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ralph,

When Tressel was introduced as the OSU coach, he specified the number of days until the UM game!

And my favorite teams are xxx and whoever is playing yyy is absolutely standard for both Ohioans and Michiganders.  (Though personally I prefer that OSU be undefeated when we meet them - it makes the victory that much sweeter!)

(I'll have to tally sometime how many times UM and OSU have knocked the other out of a national title shot - it's got to be at least 8-9, maybe more!)

'bama-Auburn is a state (or at most, regional) killer rivalry; UM-OSU is a national rivalry.  I'd say that on a national level the only comparison would be Army-Navy (back when they were good).  Or, perhaps, for a few years (but long gone now), Oklahoma-Nebraska.

And, BTW, congrats to Woo!!

[woolax]

Great win by Wooster. It was great to get the chance to watch the game as well. It seemed to me that the game was played at Witt's pace. A very good win for Wooster, at Witt played at Witt's pace. Well done Alma Mater.

[jscwittfan]

Good game all the way around - another classic from what we expected from these two.  I was lined up with the hoop on Hemenway's final three, and it went like this: backboard, front rim, backboard, front rim, out; THAT's how close we were to overtime (it should also be mentioned that the 2 JV games played a great game before the varsity game, with Woo winning by 3 in OT, so a good night of basketball all around).

Wooster made some big plays down the end, and Witt had a couple of huge turnovers in the final 90 seconds (Borchers drops a pass in the lane when he was wide open up by 2, Denbow throws the ball away down by one).  I'm looking forward to the rematch in Wooster. 

However, if Wooster wants to make a run nationally this year, they HAVE to improve their interior defense.  Borchers, Hemenway, and even Mark Huelsman pounded it at will down low - I'm just shocked the Tigers didn't go inside more than they did.

Also, if anybody from the NCAC is reading this, PLEASE find better officiating crews.  There were numerous just downright terrible calls made for/against both teams tonight, and it really left a bitter taste in my mouth after what was a great game from all the players.  No wonder as soon as Jack's final 3 went out the officials sprinted - not walked, not jogged, but sprinted - off the court.

One final note, it was nice to finally meet up with some of you today (specifically DC and WooBoo) - you guys proved that there are plenty of Wooster fans out there who are class acts, and hopefully John and myself proved that not all Witt students are a bunch of drunk, expletive-yelling students.

[tigerup07]

Alright, we know the final score. My opinion, the ref's were pretty bad. Missing calls against Wooster and making up calls against Witt. I know everyone says that when they lose, but I'd like some feedback to see if I was just prejudiced. Cooper traveled more than he got called for it and he was pushing off of his defender both to get passes and to put up shots. But, to his credit, the guy's got an incredible shot... Witt could have defended him better but he's just so good.

Second, any opinions on how tonight's game affects national rankings? A game this close and hard fought in my opinion can only move Witt up in the rankings. I hope to see a spot or two improvement this week.

On the topic of game pace, I think Witt slowed it down when they could. Mostly Witt runs a slow offense and they did that tonight. But Wooster was pushing almost every offensive possession, testing Witt's speed, which isn't great with guys like Hemenway, Borchers, and Huelsman on the floor.

Great game, for the most part good sportsmanship from the student sections (the S*** on Witt chant still made an appearance) and the teams both played with pride. Can't wait to make the trip to Wooster on Feb. 3. Go Tigers!