MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Elam has a lingering knee injury.  He's been cleared to play, but evidently hasn't felt like he can go all-out just yet, and the coaches don't want him to play at half-speed.

Here's the box score from Witt/Transy.  Looks ugly: Witt shot 38.3%; Transy just 30.9%, but that was just one fewer bucket, since Witt turned the ball over 21 times, giving Transy 8 more FGA.  Transy technically won the game at the foul line, as the teams each scored 42 from the floor.  Witt had just 6 FT attempts on the game, hitting just 3; Transy was 8/14 (and each team had 14 fouls called against them.)  Just looks ugly all around.

[David Collinge]

It took the combined efforts of Claremont-McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College to do it, but Earlham College was defeated tonight 60-47 in the consolation of the Lopata Classic in St. Louis.  Once again, just 7 Quakers quaked, a strategy I find highly questionable.  I mean, how bad must that 8th man be?   Anyway, Nick Welsh led the way with 21, aided by Tristan Gregory's 14 points and Tarrell Barry's 10 rebounds.  The Earlham 7 shot a collective 32.7% (and just 18.2% from the arc), and that won't get it done against many opponents.  Box.

[ScotsFan]

Wooster's in another dogfight on the road as they trail 51-47 with just under 8 to play at Cedarville.

[David Collinge]

Cedarville prevails, 65-61.  Seems like a lot of NCAC teams were icy-cold on this icy-cold night, and Wooster was no exception, hitting 33% and putting exactly nobody in double figures.  Oh well, Cedarville's a good team (highly ranked in NAIA 2), and at least from a March perspective, it doesn't count. 

[ScotsFan]

Wooster drops their 2nd in a row falling at NAIA #2 Cedarville 65-61.  Quite surprising to have such a low scoring affair considering both teams came into the game averaging over 87 ppg.  Also factor in the last meeting between these two teams was a high octane affair with the Scots winning 104-95 last season.

I really don't think the Scots have anything to hang their heads about tonight.  Wooster only shot 33% from the field, but I think a lot of that can be attributed to the tremendous size advatage that Cedarville enjoyed over the Scots.  Coach Moore mentioned that this was probably the most talented team that the Scots would face all season and I would probably agree. 

Some positives from tonight.  Wooster did only turn the ball over 11 times.  Wickliffe had a good game and finally stayed out of foul trouble, but on the other hand, Robert Melick had a good game offensively as he was 4-5 from the floor.  But he just couldn't stay on the floor as he was in constant foul trouble.

One surprisng stat was that Wooster was able to out-rebound Cedarville tonight.  Unfortunately, they couldn't coralle the most important rebound of the night which was an offensive rebound by the Yellow Jacket's big man, Christopher Walker, after a missed 3 pointer with the Scots only trailing by 1.  He not only grabbed the rebound, but made the put-back and was fouled converting a crucial 3-point play. 

One last surprising stat is that no Scot finished in double figures?!   They entered the game with five players averaging at least double figures! 

Overall, I think this is definately a loss that the Scots can take and build off of.  They played a very talented team on the road in a pretty hostile environment and still almost pulled off the upset. 

Well, now the road trip continues for yet another week as Wooster travels to Oberlin midweek for what should be a glorified scrimmage and a tuneup for a crucial early NCAC match-up with the up and coming OWU Bishops.  And the way that they played Cap today, I don't know if I'll be able to keep myself from attending that game in person!

[David Collinge]

The exclamation point on a fairly dismal day for the NCAC was administered by Case Western Reserve, a 102-56 whuppin' of Denison.  Case had nearly all they'd need by halftime, cruising out to a 52-28 lead at the break.  On paper, this game looks exactly this bad:  Case missed more shots than Denison made (50% more, in fact), and still shot 59.1% for the game.     The Spartans drilled exactly half of their 32 three-point attempts, out rebounded the not-very-Big Red by 10, and forced 19 turnovers (vs. 11 of their own), and recorded 7 blocks and 13 steals.  Denison was led (if that's the correct word) by Pat Sullivan's 15 and Larry Farmer's 12; these two (collectively 12'2" tall) were also the leading rebounders, with 6 and 7, respectively.  Sounds like a thorough domination.  I hope this is as low as it gets for the Big Red.  Recap and box.

[earlhamalum]

http://www.earlham.edu/athletics/content/sports/men/basketball/index.html

David please go to this page and you will see how bad number 8 through 12 look... anymore questions about only playing 7?

[David Collinge]

http://www.earlham.edu/athletics/content/sports/men/basketball/index.html

David please go to this page and you will see how bad number 8 through 12 look... anymore questions about only playing 7?

One can't always go by appearance... 

[Li'l Giant]

http://www.earlham.edu/athletics/content/sports/men/basketball/index.html

David please go to this page and you will see how bad number 8 through 12 look... anymore questions about only playing 7?

One can't always go by appearance... 

It does work sometimes.    

[earlhamalum]

Hey My name is sean and I was number 44... thank god i did not look that bad!!! and i spell my name differently too!

[pennstghs]

Just for the record although its been mentioned already. The Wooster loss at Cedarville was not a bad loss at all. Cedarville is a really good team, with exceptional depth and size, so losing on the road is not a bad loss. And from what my sources told me(I was not in attendance), Wooster killed themselves with many shots rimming out and turnovers. However, this shows that this team is vulnerable.

How many times this early in the season have Wooster and Wittenberg both had at least 2 losses??

[ScotsFan]

Wooster killed themselves with many shots rimming out and turnovers. However, this shows that this team is vulnerable.

pennstghs,

Wooster did have a hard time getting the ball to drop through the net on Saturday.  Wooster managed to shoot just over 33%.  However, turnovers were not a problem in this loss for Wooster.  They had a season low in turning the ball over just 11 times.

I think what you pointed to about Cedarville's exceptional size, depth and atleticism is what contrubuted most towards the Scot's woeful shooting efforts.  I was very surprised when I heard the stat that the Scots had only committed 11 turnovers and they actually outrebounded Cedarville 49-45.

Does anyone want to put a wager on what  the margin of victory will be for the Scots vs. Oberlin on Wednesday?  My guess is that it won't be a pretty site if you're a Yeomen!

How many times this early in the season have Wooster and Wittenberg both had at least 2 losses??

I can't answer the question for Witt, but Wooster last started the season 2-2 back in the 97-98 campaign where they ended up with a 22-6 record including going 15-1 in the NCAC.  Incidentally, both of those early losses were to non-DIII opponents in Tiffin (DII) and Harvard (DI).

To find Wooster's worst start in recent memory, you would have to go back to the 92-93 season where the Scots were only 4-4 after eight games!  Included in those L's were losses to Hiram and Denison!  Wooster went on to finish 21-7 that season.  They also won the conference tournament gaining an automatic bid into the NCAA's.

So, Wooster stumbling a bit out of the gate doesn't exactly spell doom and gloom.  There is still a lot of basketball left to be played.  And one encouraging aspect is that Saturday's loss won't come into play in the eyes of the NCAA. 

[sac]

Cedarville prevails, 65-61. 

and they actually outrebounded Cedarville 49-45.

94 rebounds in a 65-61 game?  Holy brick house.

[smedindy]

They meant to shoot like that. Just padding the rebounding totals, ya know! 

[David Collinge]

The NCAC Player of the Week this week is Kenyon's Dave Knapke.  His double-double and (what would turn out to be the) game-winning stickback against Wabash--giving the Lords sole possession of first place in the NCAC--were cited in the announcement of his award.  Congratulations, Dave!