MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Wow...good thing we have a game tonight.
It seems that the crew is a bit off course. :-)

Nothing game night won't solve!!

True, although three of the games figure to be fairly non-competitive (no offense intended, BRF!), while the two that may be interesting (OWU at Witt, Hiram at 'Gheny) are unlikely to have any posters in attendance who can report on them--unless the Witt contingent suddenly re-emerges, that is.  As for me, I'm going to make my long-delayed first-ever visit to the friendly confines of Philips Gymnasium for the battle between the Lords and the Yeomen, something that sounds less like a game than a revolution.   

[pennstghs]

David.........Have no fear I am going to be in attendance at the game and will provide some insight as to both teams. I haven't seen Wittenberg much this year so my opinion will be somewhat based on this game but I know how OWU's offense usually runs so don't worry. I will come through! Sorry guys, a full time job keeps you busy

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:   Wooster 32  Denison 28

Wooster is being led by Ian Franks with 8 points, Nathan Balch with 7 points and Justin Hallowell with 6 points.  Scots led by 10 points and then hit a cold spell which allowed the Big Red to narrow the margin.  Wooster had 9 turnovers in the half.

Denison's leading scorers are Chris Luther with 10 points and freshman Mike Garabedian with 9 points.

UPDATES:  12:20 left  Wooster 51 Denison 37  Scots are stretching their lead.
~9 mins left:  Wooster 62  Denison 44  Scots have now made 8 three pointers.
6:35 left:  Wooster 73-46  Scots getting fast break buckets now and the subs are coming in.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Ohio Wesleyan 37  Wittenberg 23

OWU is being led by Rob Gardiner with 10 points.  Bishops shot 61% from the floor and made 3 three pointers.

Witt's leading scorer is Michael Cooper with 8 points.  Tigers only shot 37% from the floor

UPDATES:  ~11:00 min. left  OWU 43  Witt 35  Tigers are narrowing the Bishops lead.
~7 mins left:  OWU 50  Witt 39  Bishops still shooting well at 52% from the floor.
~3:00 left:  OWU 56 Witt 41  Tigers only shooting 35% from the floor

[wally_wabash]

Wabash leads earlham 31-30 at the half. Wabash tried to get away with leaving Wes out tonight but it took about two minutes to see that Gregory was going to be trouble for any other Little Giant to guard. So Wes plays which is good to see after his hard fall on Saturday. No stars handy at the moment but I'll try to work those in.

Wes Smith leads wabash with 7 points. Tristian Gregory leads all scorers with 10 points.

Smith just picked up his fourth foul with 16 minutes to play. Not good for LGs. 35-34 wabash is the score here.

Earlham is in the bonus with 14 minutes to go. This is not a good second half so far for the home team. The EC is playing with a ton of confidence. The score is 46-39. Timeout for Mac Petty. 12:19 to play.

7 minutes to go and wabash is all out of sorts with Wes on the bench. Nobody to guard Gregory and nobody to trigger the offense. 54-44 quake at the moment.

[Li'l Giant]

Maloney threw a long pass to Brock who threw up a shot. The crowd seemed to think a foul should have been called. Radio guys disagree and think a non-call was appropriate. Either way, Wabash came back from a big deficit but it ultimately wasn't enough. Tough loss at home.

Earlham 68
Wabash 67 Final.

Wabash is so up and down. They get a big win against Wooster. Get blasted on the road by OWU. Then come home and beat Oberlin. Then lose a tough game at home to Earlham.

Which team shows up is like a coin flip.

[wally_wabash]

Huge run for wabash here. 2 minutes to play and we are knotted at 60-60. Wabash Always Fights is on full display this evening. Aaron Brock has been huge to this run for Wabash.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Ohio Wesleyan 63  Wittenberg 48

Nice road win for the Bishops as they shot very well tonight.  OWU was led by Rob Gardiner with 13, Tim Brady with 13 and Pat Pellerite with 10 points.

Witt was led tonight by Kevin Murray with 11 points, Michael Cooper with 10 points and Mark Snyder with 8.  Big free throw disparity in this game with OWU taking 25 charity tosses to only 4 for the Tigers.

OWU is now 5-2 NCAC and Witt falls to 4-3 NCAC.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 86  Denison 66

Wooster gets the road win and they were led by Ian Franks with 16 points, Nathan Balch with 12 points (6 assists), Matt Fegan with 12 (4 three pointers) and Marty Bidwell with 11 points.  Justin Hallowell had 8 points and 9 boards.  Scots shot 52% from the floor and made 10 of 21 three pointers (47%).

Denison was led by freshman Mike Garabedian with 20 points and Chris Luther with 10 points.  The Big Red shot 39% from the floor.  Garabedian got his first start of the season and my guess is that he just became a permanent starter for Denison.

Wooster is now 11-5, 6-1 NCAC.   Next game is at Earlham on Saturday.

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

All the 1/21 NCAC Final Scores in one list:

Kenyon 77  Oberlin 53
Earlham 68  Wabash 67
Wooster 86  Denison 66
Ohio Wesleyan 63  Wittenberg 48
Hiram 65 Allegheny 61

[wooscotsfan]

Current NCAC Standings thru 1/21 Games:

1.  Wooster 6-1, 11-5
1.  Hiram 6-1, 11-5
3.  Kenyon 5-2, 11-5
3.  Ohio Wesleyan 5-2, 9-6
5.  Wittenberg 4-3, 7-8
6.  Wabash 3-4, 8-7
6.  Allegheny 3-4, 7-9
8.  Earlham 2-5, 2-14
9.  Oberlin 1-6, 4-11
10. Denison 0-7, 3-13

[David Collinge]

The Kenyon/Oberlin game was a real snoozer.  With Mike Loll not playing (unsure as to why), Oberlin had no defensive answer for Bryan Yelvington and Dave Knapke, and on the other end had no scoring punch.  Jordan Beard was held to 8 points, and the Yeo turned the ball over 22 times, about half of them plain giveaways, directly resulting in 32 KC points.  JT Knight knocked down 9 of 17 for 24 points, while the aforementioned post duo combined for 36 points on 13 of 15 shooting from the field (generally from within 2 feet) and 9 of 9 at the line.  The Lords only put forth such intensity as was required to put the game away in frosty Philips Gym; an indication of this was that they were whistled for just 10 fouls, 3 of them by bench jockeys in the final 1:15 of the game. 

Philips Gym is a reasonably nice facility.  It's one of the better-lit gyms in the NCAC, although I am told that the lighting is new.  It was awfully cold inside, perhaps due in part to the lack of body warmth in the arena.  When the national anthem was played, there were 15 spectators in attendance.  Perhaps 30 or 40 students eventually drifted in, but by the time they began to arrive OC was down by double figures, and the Yeo Crew never seemed to be paying any attention to the game. 

[smedindy]

I guess last night was the traditional inexplicable home NCAC loss to a bottom feeder for Wabash. Unlike past years, this one really smarts since the conference is really up in the for all tourney seedings.

[wally_wabash]

It was a curious game for sure, smeds.  After digesting it for a night there were a few things that struck me as odd.

- Wes Smith doesn't start but comes into the game after just a few minutes.  I imagine Wes was still feeling some effects from the fall last Saturday, but if your best player is good enough to dress, he's probably good enough to start. 

- My guess is that Wes came in when it became really obvious that aside from Smith, Wabash didn't have anybody who was going to be able to guard Tristian Gregory.  Dominique Thomas (first game back from an ankle sprain, btw) did about as well you could have expected him to do given that the matchup is a huge physical mismatch that favors Gregory.  Rosters list the two as being about the same size (Gregory 6-2, Thomas 6-1), but my eyes tell me that somebody's roster isn't telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  But even if the physical mismatch isn't as much as it appeared to me, Gregory is one of the best players in the league and Thomas is a role player and Gregory had little trouble driving to the goal or just taking jumpshots when he was being checked by Thomas. 

- So how are the two above points related?  With 15 seconds left and Earlham playing for the last shot of regulation, everybody in central Indiana knows that Gregory is taking that shot.  I fully expected to see Wes Smith check in out of the time out and guard Gregory, for better or worse.  But no Wes.  Predictably, Earlham works the ball to Gregory at about the center of the court.  Gregory holds, holds, holds, then walks his dribble up to the top of the arc and takes his jumpshot as if nobody was there (Thomas was guarding him, but not even close to a threat to be able to disrupt his jumper), and drains it.  Smith is by far the best defender Wabash has...he'd already been used in the game so holding him out didn't seem necessary, wasn't disqualified due to fouls...so why was he on the bench for the last 15 seconds?  I'm sure there's something I don't know, but it seemed weird to me that Wabash's best defender was left on the bench in that end-of-game situation. 

But oh well...disappointing for sure but there is more basketball to play.  Everybody in the league right now is playing for those three games in the conference tournament.  I think any team in this league from 1-7 can be the best team over a three game stretch.  We'll find out in February who that team is. 

[LGHistorian]

Smed & Wally-
     This is only a theory as I do not have inside info but I do have experience of following Mac's entire coaching career at Wabash and general knowledge of his rules.
     First off, Wes suffered a deep bone bruise in his back and was examined for a concussion after his fall Saturday.  If he indeed suffered even a mild concussion he more than likely missed practice time the past few days.  Under Mac's rules for playing, if you miss any practice time, regardless of the circumstances you do not start. (For example, years ago, one of Wabash's all-time greats Chris Whitfield missed practice during his senior year either because of a job interview or some other type of post graduate exploration.  Mac did not start him due to the missed practice in spite of the fact he was Wabash's best player.)  I remember I was pretty upset at the time because I felt the pursuit of a job or further schooling should have been an legitimate excuse for missing practice.
     It was also obvious on a couple of occasions that Wes was suffering residual pain from Saturday.  He got up wincing in pain after a scramble on the floor for the ball that was ruled a held ball.  Also Wes bailed out at midcourt on what would have been a 3 on none breakaway.  It was also noticeable to me that Wes was not playing inside a great deal nor was he driving as much to the basket against Earlham as he did against Oberlin.  Whether this was by design or there was just a lack of trust that he would be safe to play under the basket - I can't say - it just was what I saw going on IMO.
     As a final note the article in the Paper of Montgomery Co. had Mac saying that the team knew they had to defend the 3 at the end of the game and they knew who would have the ball in that situation.  Wabash was supposed to force him to drive and instead allowed the Earlham player enough space to shoot the winning basket.  Mac said the team didn't play smart basketball down the final few minutes of the game.