MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[smedindy]

Not a good night for Wittenberg. Otterbein outscores them 43-34 in the second half and prevails over the old Tigers 64-61. The game was knotted at 61 with 2:15 to go but Witt couldn't find the bucket again.

RaNeal Ewing led all scores with 28 for the victors. Zach Leahy led Witt with 13 off the bench, Clayton Black added 11 and Michael Cooper netted 10. Witt is now 5-3 on the season.

Hiram, though, had a good night as they beat Westminster (PA) 91-75. Balanced scoring from the Terriers as Adam Stefanov led them with 24, draining six of nine from behind the arc. Andrew Wiegand added 20 points and 15 rebounds. Jamaal Watkins had 17 off the bench and Alan Sheppard also scored 17. Hiram is now 6-3 for the year.

By my count, the NCAC is 40-26 in the non-conference. Corrections gladly accepted.

[hotdawg]

Can any Witt followers chime in on Browns distribution of playing time?

Maybe i'm off base but how can Cam Walton and Jacob Weide, two of the most battle test players of the Tigers roster be burried on the bench. STICK TO YOUR GUNS and trust your veterans.

[David Collinge]

Happy Holidays to all, whichever NCAC program you worship.

[David Collinge]

I'm not sure how long it's been there without my noticing, but the current homepage photo banner (or whatever you call it) has Wooster's Justin Warnes on it, driving around Hayden Rooke-Ley of Williams in last year's national semifinal game. Sweet!

[Pat Coleman]

We did go with little (no) fanfare on changing the banner/masthead/etc. this year. It's been up about a month but depending on how users' browsers cache images, it might have taken a week or so to update.

If you are still seeing the old banner, let me know. But you can get it to show by doing a forced refresh, which on most browsers would be holding down the shift key while hitting the refresh button.

[smedindy]

It's a busy few days coming up in NCAC-land, so let's cover Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday, December 28:

Ohio Wesleyan (8-1) vs. Albion (4-5) @ Otterbein - The Bishops come back after a long, long break to face the Britons in the first game of the Smokey Ballenger tournament. The tip off is 3PM with the Otterbein / Platteville game tipping at 8. (Women's games tip at 1 and 6.) Albion recently bested Denison up in Michigan, but these Bishops know how to finish games and I don't think an 18-day break will affect them that much.

Thursday, December 29:

Ohio Wesleyan (8-1) vs. Otterbein (4-5) or UW - Platteville (7-4) @ Otterbein - Obviously, we won't know who plays who in this one until after Wednesday's contests. But props to Otterbein for putting together a pretty competitive field for a tournament. There's no 'gimme' amongst these four teams.

DePauw (5-4) vs. SUNY-IT (1-6) @ Tampa Prep School - Meanwhile, the New Tigers host a tournament in Tampa for the fifth year in a row. Not a bad gig, really. But DPU scheduled itself a nice gimme of a win in the first round. That's probably exactly what these Tigers need after their recent rough stretch of play. They will move on to face either Maryville or FDU - Florham in the finals. I just can't see SUNY-IT providing much resistance here.

Monmouth (2-6) vs. Wittenberg (5-3) - This is the opening round of the Charles B. Zimmerman memorial classic. The Scots are on the rebuilding trail after a few dreadful years and they'll run into a Witt squad who just dropped a winnable game to Otterbein. I think Bill Brown is going to make a point to his squad, and I pity poor Monmouth. The other teams here are a struggling Olivet team and Marian (IN) - an NAIA squad that's usually quite competitive.

Hiram (6-3) vs. Heidelberg (3-6) @ Wooster - Instead of a tournament, the Scots made this a classic when Hiram was tapped to play, so there won't be a chance of a non-conference conference game here. The Student Princes started out 1-5 and recently lost to Trine. Hiram has won four in a row and the Terriers look like they're going to be pretty stout competition for anyone. I think that Denison game woke them up.

Thiel (7-2) @ Wooster (7-2) - In part B of the "Mose" Hole Kiwanas Classic, the Scots look to keep the momentum they gained down in Puerto Rico. Thiel is already 4-0 in the PrAC and has only lost to Capital in D-3 competition. However, the Tomcats will learn there's a big leap from beating W&J and Westminster and facing Wooster.

Franklin (6-4) @ Wabash (9-1) - No tournaments, classics or shootouts here, it's just a normal ol' non-conference game between a couple of long-time rivals. The Grizzlies started out 1-3 but have had a nice course-correction. Wabash recently lost its first game of the season and Nick Curosh may be lost for a while with a broken hand. His inside presence will be missed.

Washington & Jefferson (4-6) @ Kenyon (3-6) - The Lords broke a six-game losing string in a convincing win against Earlham. Of course, most every win against the Quakers is convincing. The Presidents come calling after losing to Hiram, also in convincing fashion. Kenyon's 3-6 is deceiving, and I can see them gaining another win for the NCAC over the PrAC.

[pennstghs]

Glad to say I"ll finally have some Witt insight after Thursday as I'll be in attendance for my first Witt game this year. That's almost embarassing to say, but officiating takes a lot of time.

I'm interested to see how Ohio Wesleyan does at the Otterbein tournament. I am hoping the Witt loss to Otterbein won't come back to haunt them, but Otterbein is a team that's hard to get a read on. They're the OAC version of Denison, not really quite sure what their rotation and team is doing but always a chance to be dangerous.

[David Collinge]

OWU 78, Albion 66

41-26

[smedindy]

For OWU, Marshall Morris had 22 rebounds. He grabbed seven offensive rebounds and 15 on the defensive end. Yeah, he shot 1-10 from the floor, but still, 22 boards! Tim Brady led the Bishops with 19.

[smedindy]

Meanwhile, Platteville hit a buzzer-beater three to tie the game and now Otterbein and UW-P are in OT.

Late Note: Otterbein outlasts UW-Platteville in OT and will face OWU in the championship game.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 78  Thiel 68

Back from Timken where I watched Wooster's deep roster notch a victory over a scrappy 7-2 Thiel squad.  Xavier Brown hurt his leg/knee midway through the first half and he sat the rest of the game though he appeared to be walking ok.

Game ball goes to Doug Thorpe who led the Scots and had a career game with 21 points including 3 of 6 on three pointers and 8 of 9 on FT's.   Thiel is a quick team that forces turnovers and Wooster had too many of them (19 total).  The Scots offset this weakness by dominating the boards with a 46 to 29 margin.  Both teams shot in the low 40% range and Wooster really won this game at the charity stripe because they drew more shooting fouls in addition to a few foul shots at the end when Thiel had to foul in the last 2 minutes.  The Tomcats cut the margin to 6 points several times late in the 2nd half but could draw no closer as the Scots maintained control.

Justin Warnes had some foul trouble and Ryan Snyder only played ~10 minutes tonight as the Wooster coaches gave the most playing minutes at guard to Doug Thorpe and Jalen Goodwin (Matt Fegan got his usual minutes as the starter).

Wooster is now 8-2.    Next up is Heidelberg tomorrow.  Hiram beat them by 11 points tonight in the opening game.

GO SCOTS!

[sac]

Ohio Wesleyan 75 Otterbein 65

[Wabash2011]

Wabash wins in OT over Franklin 75-68.  Houston Hodges with a bucket to tie it with a second left on the clock in regulation.  Wabash puts 5 guys in double figures, sharing the ball makes this team very good.

[wooscotsfan]

Ohio Wesleyan 75 Otterbein 65

Congrats to the Bishops as they are now 10-1 with a nice win over the host Cardinals.  Great to see the NCAC notch another win over an OAC team! 

Props to Tim Brady who led OWU with 26 points vs. Otterbein and was named the Tournament MVP.

Ohio Wesleyan is a real threat to win the NCAC title this season, IMO.

[smedindy]

Time to recap the day! It was an NCAC SWEEEEEEEEP!

DPU 72, SUNY-IT 56 - Shawn Haseley led the New Tigers with 13 points and 12 rebounds. DPU galloped in front and cruised to the win, playing 15 players.

Hiram 88, Heidelberg 77 - Jamaal Watkins with 21 points and 12 boards led Hiram past the Student Princes. The Terriers put up 52 points in the second half.

Wabash 75, Franklin 68 - Great performance by Houston Hodges, as noted above. Zinnerman led the LG's with 15, with Pete Nicksic adding 14 while filling in for the injured Curosh.

Kenyon 79, Washington & Jefferson 64 - Ikenna Nwadibia led the Lords with 19, while Brian Lebowitz added 18 points and 11 rebounds and Marcus Healey tallied 17 points. Kenyon amassed a 12-point lead at halftime and didn't look back.

Wooster 78, Thiel 68 - As noted above.

OWU 75, Otterbein 65 - A tourney title for the Bishops! Tim Brady was stellar again, scoring 26 to lead Ohio Wesleyan.

Wittenberg 80, Monmouth 54 - The Old Tigers had no problem with the Scots. Josh McKee led Witt with 18 while Clayton Black added 15 points and 11 boards.

NCAC is 48-26 in non-conference competition! Not shabby, guys!