MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Wooster's out to an early 8-2 lead in Delaware.  Both teams 0-fer from downtown so far.

[wally_wabash]

Halftime in Gambier:

Wabash 35
Kenyon 41

Wabash jumped out early, then got sloppy with the ball and let Kenyon get out to a decent lead.  Wabash trimmed an 11-point margin down to 6 just before halftime.  Wabash has a good shot here if they can take better care of the ball in the second half. 

[ScotsFan]

Port with 8 straight and Wooster now leads 16-9 with the ball.

[ScotsFan]

Wooster has opened up their biggest lead of the game at 29-17.  Rudegeair and Jean both have 2 fouls apiece.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 31  Ohio Wesleyan 25

Wooster seems to be playing good defense so far which has helped the Scots build a lead in this game.  Both teams also had a number of turnovers in the half.

Tom Port ran off 8 points in a row (2 three pointers) to extend Wooster's lead and he has a total of 12 points.  Brandon Johnson has contributed 7 points and Marty Bidwell has 5 points.

Ted Uritus and Ben Chojnacki both have 5 points for the Bishops.


GO SCOTS!

[ScotsFan]

Not a good finish to the half for the Scots.  After opening up their biggest lead with just under 5 minutes to play, Wooster failed to make a field goal the rest of the way only converting 2 ft's as OWU finishes the half on an 8-2 run to get right back into it.  Missed ft's and turnovers helped OWU make their run at the end of the half.  As wooscotsfan noted, both teams are turning the ball over at quite a high rate which won't make either coach too happy during their halftime talks.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wittenberg 34  Allegheny 22

[ScotsFan]

For as well as Wooster and OWU shoot the 3 ball, they have combined for a sparkling 3-21 from downtown in the 1st half.   Wooster is 2-10 and Port has both of Wooster's makes.

[wally_wabash]

Just under four minutes to play, Wabash has finally evened this thing up after getting within a bucket on a handful of occasions here in the second half.  A Kenyon turnover gives the ball back to Wabash with a chance to take the lead.  I'll keep a running log here of the remainder of the game. 

Wabash does score on their possession.  68-66 Wabash. 

Arce(sp?) rips a triple for Kenyon and the Lords go up by 1. 

Zimmer backs the ball down, scores and gets fouled.  Free throw is not good.  70-69 Wabash. 

Wabash turns Kenyon over.  Just over 2 minutes to go.  Root nails a three for Wabash.  Huge shot!  73-69 Wabash. 

Back on the other end, Kenyon gets fouled and shoots one and the bonus.  Foul shots are good.  73-71.  2:19 left.  Zimmer has four fouls which is important. 

Root drives on the baseline for Wabash and is fouled by Arce.  One and the bonus here for Root.  First shot is good.  Second shot is good.  75-71 Wabash. 

Kenyon has a look at a three pointer and misses.  Stephens rebounds for Wabash.  Wabash is working the clock here.  Andy Root nails a three for Wabash!!  78-71 with 1:09 left.  Timeout Kenyon.  Largest lead of the game for Wabash here. 

This is good time to note that Root has taken this game over for Wabash.

Back to the action....1 minute to go.  Kenyon draws a foul from Ryan Stephens.  1 and 1 for Kenyon.  Shots are good and the lead is trimmed to 5. 

Kenyon gets called for a foul trying to steal the ball away from Holtem on the inbound.  Holtem will have foul shots coming after a timeout.  First foul shot is good.  Interesting to note that Wabash is shooting free throws much better this year than I've noticed in the past.  Second shot is also good. 

Arce gets a shooter's bounce on a three pointer.  Timeout Kenyon.  80-76 is the score.  45 seconds left to go. 

Quick foul by Arce for Kenyon.  Arce, who is having a good game, now has 4 fouls.  Holtem makes the first free throw.  And he hits the second shot as well.  82-76 Wabash. 

Kenyon is unable to get a good look at the basket and shoots an airball out of bounds.  Wabash will have the basketball.  Timeout Wabash. 

Zimmer is fouled on the inbound.  Free throw makes here will seal it.  And of course as I type that, Zimmer misses.  His second shot goes down.  27 seconds left, Wabash is up 83-76. 

Kenyon pushes the ball upcourt, and draws a foul on Zimmer while shooting a three pointer.  Ugh.  Zimmer fouls out.  Three shots coming for Kenyon.  First shot is good.  Second shot is good.  Third shot is good.  83-79, 20 seconds left. 

Maloney gets fouled for Wabash on a play that looked as if the ball would be lost out of bounds to Kenyon.  Big break for Wabash there.  First shot for Maloney is good.  As is the second.  Huge free throws.  85-79, Wabash. 

Kenyon shoots and misses their three point attempt, rebound by Stephens for Wabash and he's fouled with 7 seconds left. 

87-81 is the final.  Good, good win for Wabash. 

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 61  Ohio  Wesleyan 54

Great road win for Wooster as they take control of the NCAC race with a 2 game lead over Witt and now a 3 game lead over Ohio Wesleyan!  

Wooster won this game with their defense ...as they held OWU to a low shooting percentage and contained the Bishops top two scorers (Chojnacki, Rudegair) on the offensive end.

Scots were led by Tom Port with 18 points, Brandon Johnson with 11 points and James Cooper with 10 points.

Bishops were led by Ben Chojnacki with 11 points and Dustin Rudegair with 9 points.

Wooster is now 15-2, 8-0 NCAC    Next game vs Kenyon at home on 1/24

GO SCOTS!  

[wooscotsfan]

On the post game radio show, Coach Steve Moore described this game as Wooster's best defensive effort of the season.

Coach Moore also noted that Tim Vandervaart injured his wrist and is in a fair amount of pain.  Let's hope that the injury is not real serious and Best Wishes to Tim on a quick recovery!

[ScotsFan]

Nice win for the Scots today on the road and an even bigger win in terms of conference championship implications.  As wsf mentioned the Scots now have a 2 game cushion over Witt and 3 over OWU and they have done that by winning against them both on the road.  This win puts the Scots pretty comfortably in the driver's seat for another conference championship.

If you were to tell me that Wooster would only score 61 points, Cooper would only have 10 points on only a couple of field goals and Wooster would turn the ball over at least 19 or 20 times ( I didn't catch the final #'s), I wouldn't be thinking we would be talking about a Wooster victory, but that is indeed the case because of Wooster's defense.  Moreover, who would have ever guessed the that this game would turn into a defensive struggle like it did between 2 teams known for putting points up?

This is clearly Wooster's best defensive effort of the season holding the Bishops to just over 30% from the floor.  I had been holding out praise for their efforts on the defensive end of the floor over the past couple of games because of who they were playing, but with that effort today, I think it can be said that the Allegheny game was a turning point and Wooster has turned it up a ton on the defensive end.  I am extremely pleased by the effort put in by the Scots defensively today against a good offensive team in OWU.

Hopefully, Tim's injury isn't too severe.  It didn't sound too good from the way Coach Moore was describing it in the post game interview.  It's only two weeks until the next showdown with Witt and that would be a pretty significant loss if the Scots didn't have Tim healthy for that game.

[wally_wabash]

Other scores...

Earlham 73, Oberlin 59
no word from Denison/Hiram

[wooscotsfan]

All the NCAC 1/20 Final Scores:

Hiram 120  Denison 117 (4 OT's)
Earlham 73  Oberlin 59
Wabash 87  Kenyon 81
Wittenberg 83  Allegheny 51
Wooster 61  Ohio Wesleyan 54

EDIT: to correct the Hiram - Denison score

[imderekpoe]

Denison 64  Hiram 32

Ouch!!