MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Too bad there is no more of the 'land of Troy'!!! 8)

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 52  Allegheny 47

Big offensive show in the first half as both teams shot very well from the floor.

Wooster has made 6 three pointers and is being led in scoring by James Cooper with 16 points, Andy Van Horn with 10 points and Tom Port with 9 points.  Scots also have a slight edge on the boards.

Allegheny is being led by George Raftis with 11 points and Bill Babe with 10 points.

GO SCOTS!

[Li'l Giant]

OWU      74
Wabash 50  Final

Yuck. Four game losing streak for the LGs. Wabash was led in scoring by Zimmer with 16 points. Brock and Root each had 10. Chase Haltom had 3 points, on one bucket in the early part of the 2nd half.

Wabash has to do something, reach down deep, and find some way to play better or this season is going to be a complete loss. They need to refocus and make the goal to get into the NCAC tourney.

Unfortunately, next up for Wabash is Wooster.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 97  Allegheny 87

Wooster extended the lead in the second half ...and took control of the game even though Tom Port sat ~6 minutes with 4 fouls.  Wooster actually led by 16 points (78-62) before the Gators hit several three pointers to narrow the lead.

Scots were led by James Cooper with 25 points, Andy Van Horn with 18 points, Evan Will with 12 points (also 12 boards), Brandon Johnson with 15 points and Tom Port with 15 points.  Tim Vandervaart did not play tonight but there is a chance he could play in this Saturday's game

Allegheny was led by Bill Babe with 26 points (6 three pointers), George Raftis with 17 points and Jimmy Savage with 14 points.

Wooster is now 12-2, 5-0 NCAC    Next up is Wabash at home on Saturday

GO SCOTS!

[Witt4ever]

Witt 71
Earlham 60



Borchers with 16pts, Heminway 16pts, Hill 14pts, Bowen 12pts

Earlham led by Jewett with 31pts,  Gregory with 14 pts

----------------------------

MUC 84
Cap 74

Adrian 79
Calvin 75

Otterbein 83
BW 74

[wooscotsfan]

All the 1/10 NCAC Final Scores:

Denison 75  Oberlin 48
Kenyon 86  Hiram 84 (Pups were 3 points away from a 4-1 start!  )
Ohio Wesleyan 74  Wabash 50
Wittenberg 71  Earlham 60
Wooster 97  Allegheny 87

[smedindy]

This Wabash team has talent, but right now they have no confidence and it shows. They also need to block out and rebound, as the big guys for OWU had no trouble on the offensive glass. They also need to find more shots for Root and Haltom.

I think in a year or so this will be an excellent team but right now they need confidence, and with Wooster coming up that may be another body blow to this team. But Wabash ALWAYS Fights!

[smedindy]

From the interesting stat category.

Wabash had 12 turnovers. OWU had 12 steals. That's right, every Wabash turnover was a takeaway by the Bishops.

Hmmm...

[Henry Steele]

A look at Wooster-Allegheny play-by-play sheet (available on most school websites, except Ohio Wesleyan (subtle hint)) shows that Scots' lead was narrowed to six three times in final minute, so while Wooster's win was not seriously threatened, they did sweat a little bit, which is progress in this league.

Cooper's stat line is totally the difference in the game; he is the MVP of the league, other teams just don't have answer for him.

Yeah, Vandervaart didn't play, but neither did McCloskey, and Allegheny still put up 87, including 6-11 from arc from kid who appears to have been shooting around 30% from arc before game, so the Mighty Scots have defensive issues, which won't be a factor until they start playing the big boys in late February.

As for the bottom eight in this league, Pete Rozelle would be proud. Parity.

[David Collinge]

Just back from the Tour de Central Ohio.  First, I now can join the chorus proclaiming the Kenyon Athletic Center the finest small college athletic facility in America.  At least, the finest I have seen, by many miles.  It is just simply awesome.  You'd expect a temple for the pool at Kenyon, but it's so much more than that.  Olympic-sized indoor track.  Weight rooms.  More squash and racquetball courts than I can count.  Practice gym.  Gift and snack shop.  Small lounge-like seating areas.  Four indoor tennis courts, with spectator seats.  A Wall of Fame, clearly visible from the gym, 100% devoted to ACADEMIC accomplishments of Kenyon athletes over the years.  And the competition gym is just gorgeous; like Hanover's but even more beautiful.  I can only guess what the locker rooms must be like.  Congratulations to Kenyon for this wonderful building.  If I could give you Karma, I would. 

I fervently hope that Kenyon can produce at least one basketball team worthy of this facility, as I'd love for there to be a sectional in that gym so the rest of D3 nation can see it.  Alas, this won't happen anytime soon, at least not on the men's side.  The Lords gutted out a two-point victory over the scrappy (that's intended to be polite) Hiram Terriers, 86-84.  Kenyon, which recently had both Wittenberg and DePauw on the mat but couldn't put them away, had trouble finishing off Hiram, but some clutch free throw shooting at the end outlasted Hiram.  Kudos to the dozen or so Hiram fans who made the long journey to Gambier to root on the Pups, except that the group in front of me were about 25% "root on the Pups" and 75% "curse out the Stripes."    And the funny thing is, I felt like Hiram was getting away with bloody murder all night.  At one point in the second half, when the foul count was something like 12-5 in favor of Hiram (that is, more fouls on Kenyon), a frustrated Matt Croci yelled in the nearly silent gym "they push off on EVERY PLAY!!!"  And they did.  And they undercut Kenyon players on rebound after rebound and never got called for it.  Anyway, enough about the refs.  It was a great game between two pretty evenly-matched teams that both hustled all game; what more can you ask for?  Two of Kenyon's regulars, Allen Bediako and Chris Willoughby, were in street clothes for the game.  (I'm not familiar enough with Hiram to know if any of their regulars were slowed or out, sorry.) 

The Lords actually have some pretty fair players among their freshmen and sophomore classes (particularly sophs Bryan Yelvington, David Jolson, and Korey Haddox, and frosh Dave Knapke) and they could be a fairly good team in a year or two.

And such a beautiful facility! 

Not such a beautiful facility down the road at Denison, but at least one with some old-fashioned charm and character.  I arrived with about 17:00 left in the game and Denison thrashing Oberlin, 37-20.  Oberlin got it to 10 a couple of times, but there was never any doubt who was going to win or who was the better team.  Yes, you read that right, Denison on the right end of no-doubter.  The final score was 75-48.  If Oberlin was running an organized offensive gameplan, I sure couldn't tell.  Denison outrebounded the much smaller Yeomen 40-23 and turned the ball over just 8 times; consequently Denison had fifteen more field goal attempts, and that was more than enough on a night where neither team shot especially well (Oberlin 38.6%, Denison 44.1%).  Dan Hodgkinson led all scorers with 27 (10/16 shooting) in 31 minutes.  Quinton Spencer again did not dress for the Yeomen.

[pennstghs]

back from the earlham-wittenberg game in richmond-first and foremost you were right in your assesment of the crowd as i almsot think that the wittenberg faithful had the earlham faithful or unfaithful mind you matched. earlham has a nice athletic complex i will say i was impressed by that. otherwise the game wasn't as beautiful.

good game by the wittenberg post players as expected and really wasn't an 11 point game. earlham made some late 3's to make it closer than it should have ended since wittenberg took a 44-42 lead and turned it into a 14-0 run.  in the first half wittenberg could not get any shots to fall and earlham was remaining competitive. IMPRESSED by Markous Jewett as he played unworldy scoring 31 points and making some tough fade away shots. wittenberg could match him in the low post but his fadeaway fallaway shots couldn't be defended

hope to see a big turnout next wednesday at ohio wesleyan-looking forward to a good game-yes i am looking past hiram fyi-you can berate me later if needed

[wally_wabash]

This Wabash team has talent, but right now they have no confidence and it shows. They also need to block out and rebound, as the big guys for OWU had no trouble on the offensive glass. They also need to find more shots for Root and Haltom.

Nobody wins a game when they get outboarded 50-26.  I'm with you Smeds...I think Wabash has some really good talent.  Maybe as good as we've seen at Wabash in about a decade...but there's no experience here and experience is paramount in the college game.

This season is going to have games like the one tonight...it just happens when you're playing a boatload of freshmen and sophs.  They'll get it soon enough.  I think the future is very bright for Wabash hoops. 

[hodgistheman]

Good win for the Big Red. Hodg had 27 to lead the Big Red. He moves to second on the all time scoring list at Denison. Cements himself as one of the premeir players in not only the NCAC but D3 as well.

[smedindy]

Good for him, and that is quite an accomplishment. But I think he (and the rest of the Big Red) need to D-up. That's what is keeping him from being an 'elite' player. From what I've seen in the past that team is pillowy soft...

[hodgistheman]

Unfortuneately you might be right. The Big Red may have to get better defensively. I don't know the talk about who might be the POY, but I have to think Hodgkinson had to be in the mix.