MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster 56  Wittenberg 56  Going to Overtime! 

Scots fought all the way back in the 2nd half and Xavier Brown nails a shot just outside the foul line at the horn!

[smedindy]

This OT is some of the most ultra-intense hoops I've seen.

[smedindy]

BTW, put a beard on Clayton Black and he could be Fabricio Oberto.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wittenberg 68  Wooster 62 OT

Wooster lost this game at the free throw line where they only made 6 of 15 shots (only 40% )

Congratulations to Wittenberg on essentially clinching the NCAC regular season title with this win.

Leading scorers for Wittenberg were Michael Cooper with 14, Josh McKee with 13 and Clayton Black with 10.

Wooster was led by Xavier Brown with 24 points and Justin Hallowell with 12 points.

Wooster is now 19-3, 10-4 NCAC.

[David Collinge]

Remember, children, freedom isn't free, and neither are free throws.

[smedindy]

Foots on the other hand for Witt, since their lack of FT prowess cost them dearly against Wabash Wednesday.

Up to the minute standings:

Wittenberg        12-2
Wooster            10-4     
Ohio Wesleyan    9-5
Wabash             9-5
Denison             8-6
DePauw             7-7
Hiram                6-8
Kenyon             4-10   
Allegheny          3-11   
Oberlin              2-12 

[seinfeld]

While tonight, I think, reinforces that Xavier Brown is Wooster's best player and going to be a great one, the one player that Wooster's fortunes seem to most revolve around are Hallowell. In their four losses he is 12-of-44 from the field (27%) and 5-24 (21%) from three in their four losses. That's compared to 49% from the field and 42% from three-point range in all Wooster's wins. And it looks like Claytor might be hitting a wall at the wrong time of the year. After scoring nine points in 11 out of 12 games, he has only broke that mark once in the last five games. In two games against Witt, he is now 2-of-8 for four points in 52 minutes.

Witt's deep senior class is paying off this year. Of course the year they get to host, the team they will play in the semifinals is probably the strongest any #1 seed has seen in a long time.

[Wabash2011]

Wabash cruises to a 79-51 win over Kenyon. Andy Walsh is nails again with 20 off the bench. Aaron Zinnerman and Pete Nicksic (filling in for Nick Curosh) had 14 and Derek Bailey added 13.

Ikenna Nwadibia led Kenyon with 17.

Not a game changer to tonight's game.....but a Top 10 candidate for d3hoops for this evening.  Aaron Zinnerman with shot clock at zippo....

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=vCERV2JqL20

[fantastic50]

Xavier Brown's shot to send it to OT is on the buzzer-beaters page...
http://www.d3hoops.com/buzzerbeaters/2011-12/index

[BigRedFan]

DING DING DING!!!!!
That's the sound of the BIG RED BAND WAGON pulling in!!!

You may just want to jump on!!! 

Congrats on yet another VICTORY!!!!!!

A quick look at the stats and the of the 12 losses....11 of them are by a TOTAL of 55 points!!!!!

Give me 5 of the 11 and the Big Red is 16-7!!!!!!! 

Our last two wins Hale has sub-par games and yet we find a way to win!!!  How long will that dog stay on the leash???  I'm thinkin NOT LONG!!!

And then you have Farmer AKA "Windex"...........no one cleans the glass better!!!!! :-)

I am sure there are those fans who want to blame the coaching staff for these close losses.................last time I checked not one coach has taken a single free throw ALL YEAR!!!  Yet the team has missed 147!!!!!!  Do the math!!!

Regardless.......the Big Red is playing some good basketball when they need too!!!

Get on the WAGON NOW....it may be a crazy ride to the end!!!

GO BIG RED!!!

[ScotsFan]

Congrats to Witt on a well earned win last night and essentially sewing up the regular season NCAC championship and breaking up Wooster's 7 year reign on the conference championship. 

I really thought this game was Wooster's to win when Brown hit that shot at the buzzer to send it to OT.  Wooster had ALL the momentum on their side climbing all the way back from a 16 point hole.  But to Witt's credit, they didn't let that affect them in OT as they came out and did what they had to do to get the job done and pull out the 6 point win in OT.  As seinfeld noted, Witt's senior leadership really showed through BIG TIME in that extra session!

I don't know what Wooster's problem has been over the last couple of games, but this is the 2nd game in a row where Wooster has struggled coming out of the gates.  They were down by as many as 15 to OWU in the opening half before going into halftime down 10 and last night, the deficit at the half was even larger.  It would be nice to see Wooster come out from the opening tip with the kind of intensity we saw on both ends of the floor in the 2nd half of their last two games which resulted in coming back for a big win vs. OWU and nearly pulling off a Williams-esque come back last night.

So, Wooster's streak is now over.  I don't think we'll see a run like that again in this conference, especially seeing how competitive things were in the conference this year so props to the Scots for such an impressive run. 

BTW, this was the first season sweep Witt has completed over Wooster in 8 years.  Coincidentally, that was the last time Wooster didn't win the NCAC regular season title.

[smedindy]

It's nice to see Denison pumped up for their team. I wish we had some OWU posters. We have some good OWU football posters despite their football issues.

[David Collinge]

I don't know what Wooster's problem has been over the last couple of games, but this is the 2nd game in a row where Wooster has struggled coming out of the gates.

It goes back further than that. Just a few that immediately pop to mind: both games in Salem last year and that accursed Albion tournament game. This seems to be a Wooster meme.

[smedindy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger-college-basketball-blog/division-iii-guard-sinks-no-look-over-head-153353267.html;_ylt=A2KLOzIe.TdPoScAwX1NbK5_

Zinnerman's shot!

[GoRed]

I am sure there are those fans who want to blame the coaching staff for these close losses.................last time I checked not one coach has taken a single free throw ALL YEAR!!!  Yet the team has missed 147!!!!!!  Do the math!!!

Regardless.......the Big Red is playing some good basketball when they need too!!!

Get on the WAGON NOW....it may be a crazy ride to the end!!!

GO BIG RED!!!

BigRedFan,

I love your enthusiasm for the team and I'm on the BRBW with you.  They're playing good ball and finishing games better.  So while things are going well, I'll promise not to focus on the coaching.  It looks like the Big Red have a reasonable shot at hosting a first round NCAC game, and that's fantastic. 

I hate the fact that the Big Red have left 147 FT's at the line, but I did some math, and I don't think the free throws have really been that much of a factor.  Denison is shooting 67.0% from the line – certainly not good by any measure.  Hiram has the best FT% at 78.3% and Wabash is next best at 73.8%.  What would have changed if the Big Red had shot 75% in each game they lost?  We would have scored 27 more points, but the only outcomes that would have changed would have been the Kenyon and Washington & Jefferson losses.  And those two games are the only ones where it could be argued that missed FT's at the end might have been a factor in the outcome.

Now compare us to Wittenberg.  They have left 155 FT's at the line and are just slightly better than the Big Red at 67.7% from the line as a team.  Meanwhile, the Big Red have outshot Witt from both the field and from 3-pt range and have averaged more PPG for the season.  So how does Witt end up on top of the conference and with an 18-5 record?  The right players do the right things more often than not, which is what Denison has been doing of late.

Keep going BIG RED!