MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Hey, welcome to the board, spread the word!

[David Collinge]

By the way, has anyone noticed that Hiram's roster has just one senior (Pfouts) and one junior (Jason Hebeisen) on it?  If all of the underclassmen come back next season, there's no reason to suppose they won't be tough again.  This may be the beginning of a Doggie Dynasty!

By way of an update, I just found out that Hebeisen will also be graduating (early) this year, so next year's Doghouse will be senior-free.

I have been reading, and watching this board for a while; the water looked great, so I decided to jump in. 

Welcome to our little world, Mark!  I know that there's a lot of parents who follow this board, but very few of them decide to post (at least, to post openly), so I'm looking forward to your observations.

[David Collinge]

Congratulations to Wittenberg senior Kevin Murray for being named the NCAC Player of the Week.  Murray, who is Witt's leading scorer and is tied for third in the conference in scoring in NCAC games, averaged 20.5 ppg in the two Tiger wins this week.  Murray is also the conference's leading free throw shooter, and was a perfect eight for eight this week from the stripe.  Congratualtions, Kevin!

The NCAC Player of the Week award has now gone to one player from each squad over the first ten weeks of the season:
Week 1:  Chris Roberts, so., Hiram
Week 2:  Wes Smith, so., Wabash
Week 3:  JT Knight, so., Kenyon
Week 4:  George Raftis, jr., Allegheny
Week 5:  Justin Hallowell, fr., Wooster
Week 6:  Mike Loll, sr., Oberlin
Week 7:  Brent Pleiman, jr., OWU
Week 8:  Tristian Gregory, sr., Earlham
Week 9:  Chris Luther, jr., Denison
Week 10: Kevin Murray, sr., Wittenberg

[M.Knapke]

Thanks for the welcome.
Player of the Year considerations: Skills, Talent, Leadership & Heart.
Tristian and Bryan clearing exhibit all of the above. Both play as "marked men" by their opposing squads game in and out.
You can check Stats if your a numbers person. The numbers are there.
I respect both of these Young Men. My Nod goes to Yelvington.

New Comer of the Year: As of this writing undecided. I am watching Pellerite and Garabedian. Both were impressive the last game I watched.

[M.Knapke]

and the word should have been  "clearly" not "clearing"
my bad.

[ScotsFan]

Tristian and Bryan clearing exhibit all of the above. Both play as "marked men" by their opposing squads game in and out.
You can check Stats if your a numbers person. The numbers are there.
I respect both of these Young Men. My Nod goes to Yelvington.

First of all, allow me welcome you to the board as well Mr. Knapke.  It will be nice to get some reports from down in Gambier on a regular basis.  Although, David has done a nice job of spreading himself out around the league this year as well.

I think that it will be difficult for Gregory to get the nod based on how poor the EC is overall.  Yes, he is a marked man, but he is also basically the EC's only legit scoring threat which helps to inflate his numbers IMO.

Yelvington, on the other hand, is clearly the leader for Kenyon, but he also has some help around him which is why Kenyon is tied for 4th with Witt. 

I agree with you about the heart and leadership displayed by both players, and I also agree with you that my nod would have to go to Yelvington as well.

[pennstghs]

Ticket information for those interested. Don't think it will be a sellout but regardless everything is reserved seating again this year, all the way down to the student section areas. Apparently everyone will be held to their strict "ticketed" seat. Also for those parents interested, For every $8 ticket purchased, you can get a free ticket for a child under 18.

Regardless should be a great rivalry game. Now on to tomorrow night vs OWU. To beat them this time around, Wittenberg needs to keep the tempo up and not let OWU get into their half court sets, in which they destroyed us last game in. Also, turnovers are going to be a key as well as rebounding. If we can finish some easy shots this time around and win the offensive rebounding contest I think Witt has a good chance to win. Will be tough either way.

[David Collinge]

Tickets for the Wooster/Wittenberg game will also be on sale at the Armington PEC ticket office (at Wooster) on Wednesday from 12:00pm until 2:00pm and on Thursday from 5:00pm until 7:00pm.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 39  Denison 32

Wooster is being led by Ian Franks with 13 points and Marty Bidwell with 9 points.

For the Big Red, Mike Garebedian has 8 points and Chris Luther has chipped in 6 points.

[fantastic50]

Justin Hallowell hits a 28-footer at the buzzer to send the Wooster-Denison game into overtime!

[wooscotsfan]

Overtime:  Denison 77  Wooster 77

Wow! Wooster salvages an overtime period when Justin Hallowell hits a 30 foot three pointer just before the buzzer to tie up the game.  Denison shot over 65% in the second half and led most of the last 7 minutes of regulation.

Wooster trailed by 4 points with ~12 seconds left but the Scots scored to cut the lead to 2 points and then Chris Luther missed a free throw that allowed Justin Hallowell to send the game into overtime with his big shot.

Overtime updates:

~2:00 left  Wooster 85  Denison 85
1:41 left   Still tied at 85-85.  Denison timeout and Big Red ball.
1:05 left   Justin Hallowell shooting 1&1 FTs, Missed...but Wooster got the rebound, Scots miss 2 shots.
0:48 left  Denison ball and Big Red timeout
0:25 left  Denison miss and Wooster gets the rebound
0:03 left  Wooster loses the ball, Big Red ball and timeout
Denison missed shot and we go to a 2nd overtime!

Ian Franks blocks Chris Luther's shot, rebound foul on Denison
Bryan Wickliffe makes 2 big free throws,  Wooster 87  Denison 85
Wooster foul, Pat Sullivan makes 1 free throw,  Wooster 87  Denison 86   Wooster ball.
3:30 left  Ian Franks scores,  Wooster 89  Denison 86
Denison misses a three pointer, Wooster rebound and Denison fouls.
Geitgey makes 1 free throw,   Wooster 90  Denision 86
Denison missed shot, Wooster rebound with 2:30 left
Wooster misses, Denison rebound
Garebedian hits a big three pointer for Denison, Wooster 90 Denison 89   timeout Big Red with 1:47 left
Wooster gets caught on a three second call.  Denison ball.
Wooster steal and breakout, Denison fouls Justin Hallowell
Justin Hallowell makes 1st free throw, timeout Scots.  Wooster 91  Denison 89
47.9 left:  Hallowell FT good, Wooster 92  Denison 89
Denison miss, Wooster rebound and Denison foul
0:35 left.  Bryan Wickliffe hits 2 more big free throws.  Wooster 94  Denison 89
Another Denison miss, Wooster rebound and another Denison foul on Larry Farmer who fouls out with 22 pts.
0:21 left:  Hallowell makes 2 FTs, Wooster 96 Denison 89
Denison loses ball and gets a technical foul.
Hallowell makes 2 more FTs,  Wooster 98 Denison 89
Geitgey makes 2 Fts, Wooster 100 Denison 89
Big Red 3 pointer with 2 secs left.  Woo 100  Denison 92

Final: Wooster 102  Denison 92  2OT

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 102  Denison 92  2OT's

Wooster was led tonight by Justin Hallowell with 30 points!   Hallowell prevented the huge upset with his big three pointer at the end of regulation.  Ian Franks had 29 points, Nathan Balch with 14 points, Bryan Wickliffe with 12 points and Marty Bidwell also with 12 points.

Denison's top scorers were Larry Farmer with 22 points, Chris Luther with 20 points, Mike Garebedian with 14 points and Pat Sullivan chipped in 13 points.
 
Coach Moore complimented Denison on the post game show and described Larry Farmer as unstoppable on the offensive end for the Big Red.

Wooster is now 16-6, 11-2 NCAC.   Next game at Wittenberg on Saturday.

[wooscotsfan]

All the 2/11 NCAC Final Scores:

Ohio Wesleyan 83  Wittenberg 59
Oberlin 62  Kenyon 50  big upset and road win for the Yeomen
Wooster 102  Denison 92  2 OT's, Scots narrowly avoid the upset
Wabash 80  Earlham 48  this game called as a Wabash win with a power outage (3:37 left)
Allegheny 77  Hiram 72  Craig Devinney leads Gators with 18 pts. in an upset

[wooscotsfan]

Current NCAC Standings thru 2/11 Games:

1.  Wooster 11-2, 16-6
1.  Ohio Wesleyan 11-2, 15-6
3.  Hiram 9-4, 14-8
4.  Kenyon 8-5, 14-8
4.  Wittenberg 8-5, 11-10
6.  Allegheny 5-8, 9-13
7.  Wabash 4-9, 9-12
7.  Denison 4-9, 7-15
9.  Earlham 3-10, 3-19
10. Oberlin 2-11, 5-17

[seinfeld]

I'm glad Wooster won, but they had no business winning this game. While Wooster didn't have their A game, they didn't play bad. It was just that Denison played extremely well, and out of their mind in the second half. I would bet that there were only a handful of possessions when they didn't score in the second half. Even when they missed they got a bunch of offensive rebounds. And they were on fire from the line. Fortunately for Wooster, they may have gotten tight with victory in sight, missing three free throws in the last minute. This allowed Hallowell to hit what had to be close to a 30-foot three pointer at the buzzer. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, shots seem farther than they actually are, but he was definitely farther than any of Cooper's long-range threes.

I thought this was the game where finally Wooster's lack of post play was going to get them. They didn't look inside, and barely scored inside. And when Wooster's offense starting stagnating in the middle of the second half, particularly from the outside, you could see this problem even more. Wooster's bench also has to start playing better, as they only had five points in a 50-minute game, and only one field goal.

Despite all this, Wooster seems to be pretty mentally tough, particularly for a team this young. When a sophomore (Franks) who didn't play much last year and a freshman (Hallowell) are ice in the clutch, that is a good sign.