MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

A few random (and belated) notes on Wooster's play of late:

First, I'm a big fan of watching the Wooster webcasts, except that the Clear Picture commentary usually isn't very good.  But for me the feed has been pretty reliable and about as close as I can be to "being there" when I'm 600 miles away.

Second, anyone else notice Wooster's steady improvement in foul shooting this year?  I remember thinking they were shooting very poorly at the line early in the year, but now as a team Wooster's at a very respectable 75%, and turned in a 32-36 performance against Denison.  In fact, I have the Scots as 100-118 from the line over the last 6 games, for 85% performance.  The Scots' opponents are 106-151 in those same six games, for 70%.  So while I love that the Scots are doing so well from the line, they actually have fewer points from the line because they haven't been there as often as their opponents.  Still, major improvement for the Scots.

Third, on Hallowell watch:  4-9 vs. Denison gives him 73 made 3pt hoops with at least four games to go, counting the NCAC first round.  He needs five to tie the Wooster single-season record.

[ScotsFan]

Second, anyone else notice Wooster's steady improvement in foul shooting this year?  I remember thinking they were shooting very poorly at the line early in the year, but now as a team Wooster's at a very respectable 75%, and turned in a 32-36 performance against Denison.  In fact, I have the Scots as 100-118 from the line over the last 6 games, for 85% performance. 

And if you take away Wooster's first 2 games of the season, Wooster would be over 80% from the line for the year!

[kiltedbryan]

Second, anyone else notice Wooster's steady improvement in foul shooting this year?  I remember thinking they were shooting very poorly at the line early in the year, but now as a team Wooster's at a very respectable 75%, and turned in a 32-36 performance against Denison.  In fact, I have the Scots as 100-118 from the line over the last 6 games, for 85% performance. 

And if you take away Wooster's first 2 games of the season, Wooster would be over 80% from the line for the year!

I knew it was bad right at the start- didn't realize it was that bad at the beginning.   

[wooscotsfan]

From my perspective, there are 3 very interesting games today based on recent performances:

Hiram at Denison - the Terriers have actually lost 3 straight.  Denison demonstrated their recent improvement by taking Wooster to double overtime on Wednesday in a near upset.  Can the Big Red raise their performance again and knock off Hiram at home?

Kenyon at Allegheny - Allegheny scored a nice road win on Wednesday at Hiram.  Can they continue their improved play and beat the Lords in Meadville?  A big contribution from Yelvington is probably needed if the Lords are going to get this road win.

Wooster at Wittenberg - Huge rivalry game ...so the Tigers will be pysched.  A strong defensive effort will be needed by Wooster both inside the lane and also against Kevin Murray if the Scots hope to get out of Springfield with a victory.  Wooster must win this game if they wish to host the NCAC tourney, IMO.

[David Collinge]

Kenyon at Allegheny - Allegheny scored a nice road win on Wednesday at Hiram.  Can they continue their improved play and beat the Lords in Meadville?  A big contribution from Yelvington is probably needed if the Lords are going to get this road win.

Yelvington is still under the weather and I am told did not make the trip to Meadville.

Wooster at Wittenberg   Wooster must win this game if they wish to host the NCAC tourney, IMO.

If ever there was a year when the 8 seed posed a legitimate threat to the 1 seed, this is the year.  The 8 seed is likely to be Allegheny, Wabash, or Denison, and any one of these teams could take out OWU, Wooster, or Hiram.  The semifinals and finals conceivably could end up on the home court of any of the top 5 seeds this year.

[wally_wabash]

Halftime in Oberlin:

Wabash 36
Oberlin 29

Oberlin is staying close here thanks to blistering 63% FG shooting which includes 5-5 on 3 point FGs.  The Yeomen are being led, not surprisingly, by Jordan Beard's 12 points.  Wabash is being led by Wes Smith's 9 points, but those 9 points came on 4-13 shooting for Wes which isn't terribly efficient.  Standing out a little more to me in the first half is Brian Shelbourne's 8 points and 4 assists in 19 first half minutes.  I've noticed that during the wretched losing streak Wabash went through, Coach Petty started shaking up the lineup quite a bit and one change was getting Shelbourne much more time.  Seems that Shelbourne is making the most of his opportunity and really helping to get the Wabash offense working more efficiently. 

Also worth reporting is that Aaron Brock is back on the court today for Wabash which is good news for the Little Giants. 

[wally_wabash]

All done in Oberlin and Wabash escapes with a 63-61 win over the Yeomen. 

Wabash's shooting got a little frosty in the second half while Oberlin remained red hot.  Oberlin made up their halftime deficit and grabbed the lead from Wabash about halfway through the second half and then the teams traded mini-runs for the rest of the half.  Fortunately, Wabash got the last run and squeaked out the close win. 

Oberlin was led by Jordan Beard and his 17 points, but just five of those points came in the second half.  Josh Merritt had a big second half for the home team with 15 points on 7-9 shooting.  Wabash was led by Wes Smith's game highs of 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals.  Wes was the only Little Giant to reach double figures today, however Chase Haltom and Brian Shelbourne chipped in with 9 and 8 points, respectively. 

Next up for Wabash will the final game at Chadwick for the 2008-2009 season on Wednesday night vs. Wittenberg. 

[David Collinge]

The Oberlin folks don't seem to be real happy about the way this game was decided:
Yeomen Get Shortchanged at Home
Pretty strong stuff coming from an SID.

Meanwhile:
Allegheny holds off the Yelvington-less Kenyon, 62-61.

OWU has no problem with Earlham, 64-46

Hiram barely outlasts Denison, 70-68.  This was not the same Hiram team I saw several times earlier this season.  For starters, there's the starters.  Roberts and Wiegand were joined today by Russo (rather than Milton), Muhammad (rather than Eniola), and Hebeisen (rather than Pfouts).  I don't know what was up with that, since all of them played significant minutes.  Maybe it was disciplinary, maybe it was Coach Fleming trying to shake up his team, search me.  It's not as if Russo, Muhammad, and Hebeisen are not worthy starters.  Hiram's zone defense absolutely controlled the first half, when Denison could get nothing accomplished and stayed in contact (33-20) only because of frosh Brett Tiberi's three threes.  The rest of the team went a combined 0-for-16 from the arc, most of them within the last 5 seconds of the shot clock; they only managed nine field goal attempts inside the arc.  Unfortunately for the Terriers, they weren't able to take command of the game on the strength of this suffocating defense, because their offense was never in synch.  Hiram has an athletic advantage over most every team they play, and certainly over Denison, but possession after possession they walked the ball upcourt to set up a halfcourt motion offense with not enough motion in it.  Sloppy passes, missed shots, and poor rebounding (DU grabbed 8 offensive rebounds in the half) conspired to keep the game relatively close, although Deon Milton's 30-footer at the buzzer was a help (in fact, it turns out to be the margin of victory.)  The main difference in the second half was that Denison, still playing with much more energy than Hiram, started to hit their shots.  While the zone was still pretty effective, DU hit 10 of 15 treys launched over top of it.  The Big Red also hit all eight of their second-half free throws, while Hiram missed five of their eight.  Denison had the ball down two with :25 left and called timeout to set up the play to tie or win, but the execution failed when Chris Roberts blocked a short Chris Luther jumper and came away with the ball.  Roberts was credited with 21 points (although I think he had 23, as his first basket was erroneously credited to Hassan Muhammad), while Nick Russo had six assists and hit all three of his shots for 8 points. 

[smedindy]

Wow, was Oberlin's SID channelling some of the posters on this board??

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 35  Wittenberg 20

Wooster is being led by Nathan Balch with 14 points (4 three pointers) and Ian Franks with 11 points.

For Wittenberg, the top scorers are Kevin Murray with 6 points and Alex Brandt with 5 points.

Neither team shot a high percentage in the half with Wooster at 41% and Witt at 25%.  Wooster outrebounded Witt 22 to 13 in the half mostly because the Scots were getting the defensive rebounds on missed shots by the Tigers.

[kiltedbryan]

At the Half:  Wooster 35  Wittenberg 20

Wooster is being led by Nathan Balch with 14 points (4 three pointers) and Ian Franks with 11 points.

For Wittenberg, the top scorers are Kevin Murray with 6 points and Alex Brandt with 5 points.

Balch also leads all rebounders with 7, part of the reason that Woo was +9 on rebounds for the half (22-13).

Wooster's not actually shooting all that well- 40 percent, but has held Wittenberg to only 6-24 from the field, only 25 percent.

[DarkSide-D]

I have been following the stats for the Woo Witt game.  I apologize if this has been discussed before, but is Michael Cooper related to James Cooper of Wooster?  I see they are both from Springfield South.

[wooscotsfan]

No, they are not related.

[DarkSide-D]

Thanks.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 67  Wittenberg 53

Big road win for Wooster as they stay tied with Ohio Wesleyan for first place in the NCAC.   Scots were led by Nathan Balch with a season high 22 points (made 6 three pointers! ), Ian Franks with 19 points and Marty Bidwell with 9 points.  Balch hit 2 big three pointers in the last 4 minutes of the game to secure the victory.

Wittenberg was led by Michael Cooper with 13 points (all in the 2nd half), Alex Brandt with 9 points, Chris Sullivan with 9 points and Kevin Murray chipped in 8 points.

Scots shot 42% from the floor compared to 36% for the Tigers.  Wooster won the boards 37-26 and the Scots made 11 three pointers compared to only 3 for Wittenberg

Wooster is now 17-6, 12-2 NCAC   Next game is at Allegheny on Wednesday