MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Thanks derek.

Hopefully it's not too serious.  Wooster will need Justin in their next two games.

[wooscotsfan]

11:35 left  Wooster 55 Hiram 35

Wooster is in control but Coach Moore takes another timeout because Wooster is not taking care of the ball.  Just had their 13th turnover.

[wally_wabash]

Sweet geebus...Witt has just two players in double figures....and is beating Earlham 90-52.  At least it's a short drive for Earlham. 

[ScotsFan]

So much for a cake walk for Wooster.  As good as the Scots played in the first half, they are playing equally poor in the 2nd half as their 22 point lead has been trimmed to 14. 

Balch just nailed a trey and now Wooster is at the line to try and bump the lead back to 19.

[wally_wabash]

We're underway in the second half.  Pleiman has a putback bucket for OWU, Brock made three FTs after being fouled shooting a three pointer.  Winters answered with Bishop triple and it's 36-31 Bishops.  18:26 to play.

Brock's three point attempt misses everything.  wally wabash sighs heavily.  Bishops lead 40-31.  

16:24 to go.  Wes Smith scores his first two points of the game.  Wabash trails 40-35.  And as I'm typing, Smith gets whistled for his fourth foul.  The OWU guys aren't sure where that foul actually occurred.  Smith stays in the game.  Oh my.  

This is incredible...Smith with four fouls is attacking.  I'm seeing it.  I'm not believing it.  14:35 to go, Bishops lead  44-39.  Before I can post Smith takes the ball coast to coast for a layup.  44-41 Bishops.

11:17 to play...Smith makes a jumper to cut OWU's lead to 49-43.  Smith is taking over Wabash's offense as he continues to play aggressively with four fouls.  And  he's checking Brady on defense.  This is edge of your seat stuff.  Bailey hits two free throws.  49-45 now.  

10:24 to go and Wabash is now in the bonus.  Shelbourne has two FTs.  They are good.  49-47...we've got a ballgame.  

9:47 to go...Brock gets a technical foul.  This one has probably been coming for a while.  Brock can be chatty with the officials and he's having a rough game here.  That's his third personal foul...and a lot of time to play.  51-47 Bishops lead.  

Wabash took a brief lead on a Derek Bailey three point play.  Tim Brady answered with his own three point play and the Bishops lead 56-54.  Dominique Thomas nails a triple for Wabash!  57-56 LGs back on top!  Wow!!

5:30 to play...Shelbourne hits a jumper for Wabash and the LGs have their largest lead of the game at 59-56.   The second unit for Wabash has been out-stand-ing.  They are saving Wabash's bacon tonight.  The starters, frankly, have looked tight and maybe pressing a bit.  Great to see everybody contributing here.  

It's clutch time and Mac Petty has over 3,000 career points sitting next to him on the bench.  He's riding the second unit.  As I say that, Smith checks back in.  It's 59-57 for Wabash with 4:30 to go.

3:21 to play...Pellerite scored an easy layup driving by Smith's matador D...Curosh answered with a layup for Wabash, OWU answered back with a jumper.  It's 61-61.  

1:33 to go...Pellerite gets fouled after getting an offensive rebound.  He makes one of two.  62-61.  Wabash has been just brutalized on the boards in this game.  

1:10 - Shelbourne drives to the hoop and scores!  Wabash retakes the lead 63-62.  Mac Petty gets a timeout.  This is every bit as intense as the game vs. Wooster on Saturday.  

Pellerite gets behind the Wabash post players and Brady lobs the ball up to him for an easy layup.  Yeesh.  64-63 Bishops with 47 seconds to go.  

Haltom makes his first bucket of the night!  It's a three!  33.5 seconds to go and Wabash now leads 66-64.  I hope to all things holy that that shot holds up.  Nobody on planet Earth has needed to make a big bucket more than Chase.  

Bishops turn the ball over by missing a cutting Brady!  Wabash inbounds and Brock takes the foul.  Brock makes just one of two.  Ouch.  67-64 LGs lead.  26.9 seconds to go.  Petty calls timeout again.  Poise, gentlemen.  Stick to your man.  

Bishops rush up the floor...Winters drives to the hoop for what looked like an easy layup but Derek Bailey came out of absolutely nowhere to block the shot!!  Wabash corrals the loose ball.  Haltom is shooting free throws.  Haltom misses the first shot.  Ouch.  Come on Chase....he rattles the second one in.  

Brady hits a three for OWU with 8 seconds to play!  Holy cow.  I think it's 68-67 Wabash.  Timeout OWU.  

Inbounds goes to Brock, Brock gets fouled.  It's worth noting that he is shooting into the dark end of the gym.  You know the one.  Here come the shots....first one is short.  Wabash has left the door open.  Second shot rolls off the iron.  Brady drives the length of the floor....throws up a wild shot near the rim, it misses, Wabash rebounds and the LGs win!  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  What a freaking game.  And what a HUGE win for Wabash.  

And I'm spent. 

[David Collinge]

Allegheny defeats Oberlin, 70-54.  

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 69  Hiram 50

Wooster clinches their 6th straight NCAC conference title!

Scots were led tonight by Ian Franks with 17 points, Nathan Balch with 14 points and Bryan Wickliffe with 10 points and 10 boards.

Hiram top scorers were Chris Roberts with 13 points and Glenn Campbell with 10 points.

Wooster had 21 turnovers   but they shot 47% from the floor to only 34% for the Pups.  Scots won the boards 44 to 21!

Wooster is now 18-4, 13-0 NCAC     Next up is Wittenberg at home on Saturday

GO SCOTS!

[ScotsFan]

Well, the 2nd half wasn't pretty but the Scots get it done and that's all that really counts.  Despite 14 second half turnovers, Wooster still cruises to the 19 point victory. 

Wooster now extends their win streak to lucky 13. 

Congrats to the Scots for winning their 6th straight NCAC regular season title! 

[David Collinge]

Denison extends Kenyon's misery, 67-54.

[wooscotsfan]

All the 2/10 NCAC Final Results:

Wabash 68  Ohio Wesleyan 67
Denison 67  Kenyon 54
Wittenberg 90  Earlham 52
Wooster 69  Hiram 50
Allegheny 70  Oberlin 54


Current NCAC Standings with 2/10 Results:

1.  Wooster 13-0
2.  Wittenberg 9-4
2.  Allegheny 9-4
2.  Wabash 9-4
5.  Ohio Wesleyan 7-6  
5.  Hiram 7-6
7.  Denison 6-7
8.  Kenyon 2-11
8.  Oberlin 2-11
10. Earlham 1-12

[pennstghs]

I think I"m right by saying this but Wittenberg essentially controls its own destiny for the 2 seed right now. As Coach Brown said in his post game talks tonight, if anyone can figure out all the specific scenarios for tiebreakers for 2-6 then you deserve something in recognition cause its virtually impossible.

Ho hum win for Wittenberg tonight as all 16 players played at least 2 minutes tonight for Wittenberg. Wittenberg actually came out very lethargic as I thought they would just by watching their warmup. From halfway through the first half to about 10:00 minutes left in the second half, Wittenberg was unstoppable or Earlham is just not good....as blunt as it sounds.

[pennstghs]

Also, congrats to the Wittenberg Lady Tigers for clinching the regular season NCAC title tonight and Stephanie Boardman for becoming the sixth Wittenberg women's player to eclipse the 1,000 point totals.

[wally_wabash]

I think I"m right by saying this but Wittenberg essentially controls its own destiny for the 2 seed right now. As Coach Brown said in his post game talks tonight, if anyone can figure out all the specific scenarios for tiebreakers for 2-6 then you deserve something in recognition cause its virtually impossible.

As does Wabash.  The game at HPER is going to be huge...likely will decide that #2 seed that I believe is so important (again, would you rather play Denison or OWU/Hiram...it's an easy choice).  And as I look at the standings, I can't help but think back to that game at Denison that Wabash dropped and how huge that result looms now.  Consider Wabash having not lost that game....they'd be sitting at 10-3 with one game up on Witt and virtually two games up on Allegheny.  Unless Witt beats Wooster on Saturday, the Wabash/Witt game in Springfield would be a throwaway as far as it relates to Wabash getting that #2 seed.  Beat Oberlin and Kenyon at home, and it's a done deal.  But Wabash didn't get that win at Denison and now we have drama in the last week of the season. 

As for the 2-6 situation...I think we know who 2-4 are in no particular order and we know who 5-6 are in no particular order.

Wabash/OWU final thoughts are forthcoming....

[wally_wabash]

Alright...absolute barnburner at Branch Rickey tonight between a couple of teams that really had to have this game.  Wabash needed the game to keep pace with Witt and Allegheny, OWU needed the game to have any shot at getting a home game in round 1 of the tournament. 

Wabash battled through foul trouble and off nights by their top line tonight.  Wes Smith missed the last 7 minutes of the first half with three fouls.  Smith only scored 8 points tonight, all in a five minute window in the second half.  Right after he scored his first basket, he picked up a chincy foul for his fourth personal.  Petty left him on the floor, Wes played with The Rage™ for about three minutes, scored six more points pretty quickly, before finally coming out of the game.  but after the 11:00 mark of the second half, Smith didn't score another point. 

The day was carried by the second unit.  Brian Shelbourne and Derek Bailey helped supply the offense that wasn't coming from Smith/Brock/Haltom tonight and their effort really helped Wabash not only get back into the game but get back over the hump.  Once back on top, Wabash and OWU went back and forth over the last five minutes.  Pellerite put OWU up by a point with under a minute to go.  Chase Haltom answered with his only field goal of the evening...a deep three pointer to give Wabash the two point lead that managed to hold up despite some shaky free throw shooting by the LGs.  Tim Brady had a shot (way too close to the hoop for my comfort) at the end that could have won for OWU, but the shot was a little wild and didn't find the basket. 

Huge, huge, huge win for Wabash.  Road wins are always nice, road wins against good teams that you don't really match up that well against are even better.  And doing it three days after the gut-punch loss on Saturday is even better still. 

Game ball tonight to Derek Bailey who played superb off the bench.  11 points on 4-4 shooting, 2 steals, and one absolutely enormous block in the final minute.  This kid is so completely unassuming on a basketball court, yet every time he's on the floor he does something good.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention Haltom and his enormous three pointer in the final minute to put Wabash up 66-64.  That's a shot that I really Chase  needed to see go down and I hope that's the shot that lights the fuse.  We've been waiting all season for Chase to heat up....Wabash is so so so much better offensively when Chase commands a defender.  Wooster had all but stopped guarding him on Saturday.  Hopefully this kind of big time basket lights the fuse for Haltom and he can start pouring it in down the stretch here. 

Next up for Wabash is Oberlin on Saturday.  No live tweets from me this weekend as I won't be able to make it to Chadwick this weekend.   

WAF!

[smedindy]

The Earlham farewell tour is turning the Quakers into Tomato Cans.

(Picked that up from Charlie Steiner when he was talking about the George Foreman comeback. Steiner said Foreman's seen more Tomato Cans in his comeback than the night manager at Safeway.)
(Also, Steiner called it the "Bang The Bums Slowly" comeback tour.
(Miss him on Sportscenter...)