MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Let's hope that we have plenty of Wooster fans in attendance.  It's only about 25 minutes from my house so I will be there!

GO SCOTS!

Having 3 girls under the age of 6 has made it difficult for me to get to games at Timken this year which is walking distance from my house!     So, I'm afraid trying to get out of the house to drive up to Cleveland this afternoon isn't likely on my agenda. 

I did notice that it appears there will be video available via the JCU website:

COW/JCU Game Coverage

Just click the 'Details' link and that opens the page with the link to watch the game hopefully.

[ScotsFan]

Well, so much for the live video.  I can do without the $5.95 that it costs to view the video feed.

[David Collinge]

Evidently there's no Live Stats for the Allegheny game.
Oops, I take that back.

[ScotsFan]

Just over 3 minutes remaining in the opening half at the DeCarlo Center and Wooster is trailing by one, 30-29.

Wooster's shooting is keeping them in this game as they are currently shooting 57%.

However, Wooster's turnovers are starting to mount keeping the Blue Streaks in this one as Wooster already has committed 10 turnovers.

Wooster is doing a great job of perimeter defense as JCU has only ONE made 3-pointer in the half.  They're averaging 14 made treys/game.

And at the half:

JCU - 33
Wooster - 31

Wooster is being led in scoring by Wickliffe as he chipped in 10 on 5-6 shooting!  Ian Franks has 6.  JCU is being led by Matt Crozier with 11, athough he only scored 2 points after scoring JCU's first 9 of the game.

Wooster finishes the half shooting an even 50% as Hallowell seemed to get greedy and fired up 2 long range 3-pointers that missed badly on Wooster's final 2 possessions.

Wooster finished with 12 turnovers.  And as wsf noted above, the Blue Streaks are forcing 23 turnovers/game so Wooster is on pace to match JCU's average.

Wooster is also surprisingly outrebounding JCU by a 17-14 count.

Lastly, Wooster is  winning the battle of pace of the game.  How often has Wooster been the team making the concerted effort to slow the game down over the past few years?  This is like good old fashioned Steve Moore basketball!

Hallowell starts the 2nd half like he ended the first missing 2 more from downtown.  He's only 1-7 shooting and Wooster is only 2-10 from deep as a team.

And the turnovers continue to mount for the Scots as they are now up to 18 with just under 13 minutes remaining.  And most of these sound like they are of the careless variety...

Timeout Wooster:

JCU - 42
Wooster - 37

47-43 JCU.  Just over 8 minutes remain

Wooster's having some big time shooting woes in the 2nd half as they are 0-8 (2-17 overall) in the 2nd half from deep but still just trail by one!

48-47 Wooster.  Under 7 minutes to play!

54-53 JCU.  4 minutes to go.  Wooster is now 0-10 from downtown in the 2nd half!

Justin Warnes ties the game at 56 by making Woo's first trey of the 2nd half!

Wooster with maybe their most costly turnover and JCU bumps the lead to 5.

Now 7 with 1 minute to go.

Just like that, 9-0 run by JCU and this one is all but over.

Franks ends the run with an old-fashioned 3 point play and the JCU lead is 6 with 42 seconds left.

[David Collinge]

Halftime scores:
Wilmington 31, Allegheny 29
Mt. St. Joseph 26, Denison 20
Westminster 30, Oberlin 23
John Carroll 33, Wooster 31 (oh, wooscotsfan is at the game, so no halftime update)

[wally_wabash]

Yesterday's hot shooting seems like about a decade ago now.  Wabash has started 3-15 and trails DePauw 16-7 halfway through the first half.  

Halftime from Greencastle:
Wabash 18
DePauw 34

No Little Giant has made more than one single field goal in this game.  The team is 6-30 and an even more miserable 1-14 on 3pt FGs.  The best anlaysis I have for this game so far is: pfft.  

13:01 left to play and Wabash has whittled the lead to 10 points at 43-33.  DePauw has called a timeout, surely to try and halt Wabash's momentum.  Still a long way to go to get back in it, but Wabash is moving in the right direction.

5 minutes to play and Wabash has clawed back.  DePauw leads 52-47...but this is now anybody's game.  

Chase Haltom hits a triple with 4 minutes to play and the score is 52-50!  Great turnaround in the second half for Wabash here.  

Final from Greencastle:
Wabash 57
DePauw 65

Valiant effort in the comeback for Wabash, but once again Wabash learns that you can't lay bricks for an entire half of basketball against a decent team and win.  This first half doldrums thing has been a plague on the Little Giants for the last couple of seasons.  What was youth and inexperience in the previous years are now veterans and strength...these guys are too good to be this inconsistent. 

Burkett and Haltom led Wabash today with 14 points each.  Wes Smith had 12, Aaron Brock had 10 points and 8 rebounds (but his 1-9 on FGs isn't good enough).  Wabash got just six points from the bench today. 

The Wabash road show rolls in to Granville, OH on Dec. 5 for an NCAC contest against Denison. 

[David Collinge]

Finals:
Westminster 67, Oberlin 60...Trailing by 12 with 8:18 left, OC went on a 16-4 run over the next six minutes to tie the game, but the Yeo couldn't get over the hump.
Wilmington 71, Allegheny 57..A 12-0 Wilma run early in the second half decided this one.
MSJ 57, Denison 51...MSJ extended their lead to double-figures a couple of times but never could shake the pesky, but still winless, Big Red.
John Carroll 71, Wooster 63...closer than probably most of us anticipated, especially with foreknowledge that the Scots couldn't buy a three.

and at the half:
DePauw 34, Wabash 18

[ScotsFan]

Wooster falls short and as David noted, it was closer than many of us anticipated.

This game was tied late despite the fact that Wooster shot only 14% from downtown and committed 26 to's! 

Wick continues to shine early this season with another outstanding game!  He led all scorers with 22 points and led Wooster in rebounds as well with 7.  He was Wooster's only double digit scorer as both Franks and Hallowell just missed out on double figures with 9 apiece.

Matt Crozier led the Blue streaks in scoring and rebounding as he finished with a double double (18-10).

Despite Wooster's frigid shooting from deep, the Scots still managed to shoot 45% overall.  In the end, it was the mounting turnovers that did in the Scots.  Wooster had better figure out a way to take better care of the basketball in a hurry.  In their 3 losses this season, Wooster has committed and uncharacteristic 18, 18 and 26 to's.  That is not going to win you too many games when you are that sloppy with the basketball!

Next up for the Scots is 2 key early season NCAC matchups as they open up on the road this week starting Wednesday in Deleware vs. OWU and then on to Gambier on Saturday to take on Kenyon.

[pennstghs]

Not a good day for the NCAC i must admit by the scores...is that an 0-fer?

One thing to keep in mind for Wooster fans. Although these early season losses are not all in-region, Wooster should be careful as to losing so many games so far....if for some reason they don't win the conference (such as a team from Springfield winning instead) takes the title--losses don't look favorable to the committee.

But then again....who knows what the committee considers

[David Collinge]

Wooster's in no position right now to be worrying about Pool C (!), but if they were, it'd only be the in-region losses that would count against them.  Unfortunately, that only removes the loss to St. Thomas from the evaluation. 

It's not an 0-fer quite yet, as Wabash is making a valiant run at DePauw, trailing 56-53 with 1:14 left.

Aside: wow, I just noticed that this thread has gotten way out-of-sequence today, thanks to the liberal application of the "modify" button.  I confess that I'm probably the worst offender/most frequent modifier around here; in fact...

[David Collinge]

...I was doing it right then!    Maybe we all need to consider how confusing this thread can get with out-of-sequence updates, starting with myself.

[David Collinge]

It's an 0-fer now, as DePauw outlasts Wabash 65-57, ending the game with a dunk as the horn sounded (or so Live Stats suggests), which probably doesn't sit too well with the Wallies.

[wally_wabash]

It's an 0-fer now, as DePauw outlasts Wabash 65-57, ending the game with a dunk as the horn sounded (or so Live Stats suggests), which probably doesn't sit too well with the Wallies.

Losing in any fashion to DePauw doesn't sit well with Wallies.  As has been noted, Wabash will get a chance for a little redemption on 12/11 at a non-holiday weekend Chadwick Court.  Here's hoping for an especially raucous group of students out for that one. 

[ScotsFan]

Wooster's in no position right now to be worrying about Pool C (!), but if they were, it'd only be the in-region losses that would count against them.  Unfortunately, that only removes the loss to St. Homas from the evaluation.  

It's not an 0-fer quite yet, as Wabash is making a valiant run at DePauw, trailing 56-53 with 1:14 left.

Aside: wow, I just noticed that this thread has gotten way out-of-sequence today, thanks to the liberal application of the "modify" button.  I confess that I'm probably the worst offender/most frequent modifier around here; in fact...

While I agree that now is not the time to be worrying about Pool C possibilities, Wooster's losses aren't exactly bad losses.  Of their 3 losses, only 2 count against Wooster as in-region losses.  And of those 2 losses, only the Albion loss could be considered a 'bad' loss.  Wooster's 2 wins are also both in-region and both could turn out to be pretty nice wins as both ONU and CMU could both win 15+ games this season.

All in all, this slow start by Wooster isn't all that surprising.  We all knew how difficult this gauntlet of a non-conference schedule was going to be for the Scots and I can't say that I'm all that disappointed in where the Scots sit record wise at this point in the seasaon.  Yes, the loss to Albion stands out most and that was disappointing and the loss to UST was was disappointing from a margin of defeat perspective.  But, the Scots have nothing to hang their heads over in the effort they put forth against the #2 team in the country this afternoon.  These games are all learning experiences and this experience against all of this tough competition is only going to help the Scots down the strech IMO.

[David Collinge]

The loss to Albion looks a little better in light of how the Britons handled OWU yesterday.  Albion may end up with a pretty good in-region record when all is said and done.