MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[sac]

Arizona Christian beat Spring Arbor (5-8) last night by 10. Spring Arbor, a frequent opponent of Hope and Calvin (but not this year, for whatever reason), lost at Albion in November, 51-50. The Britons stand at 5-3 (about to be 6-3 when they finish murdering Earlham tonight) including a five-point loss at Kenyon.

Which is another way of saying, meh.

Calvin and Spring Arbor have played very infrequently, in fact I can't remember the last time that happened. 

Spring Arbor typically plays Albion which is about 10 miles away and founded by practically the same people.  You are more accurate about Hope/Spring Arbor.   To further your 'meh' point, SAU is in a rebuilding year after graduating a good chunk of last years team.

Carry on!   

[ScotsFan]

Arizona Christian beat Spring Arbor (5-8) last night by 10. Spring Arbor, a frequent opponent of Hope and Calvin (but not this year, for whatever reason), lost at Albion in November, 51-50. The Britons stand at 5-3 (about to be 6-3 when they finish murdering Earlham tonight) including a five-point loss at Kenyon.

Which is another way of saying, meh.

LOL!   

Westmont is up 19 on SAU btw.  Also, I think that final score of the AC/SAU game wasn't as close as the final score indicated.  Westmont was up by almost 20 at one point and led by 14+ the majority of the game. 

[David Collinge]

Maybe I was confusing Spring Arbor with Cornerstone. Those southern Michigan NAIAs are all the same to me.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 40  Arizona Christian 26

Wooster played a very crisp first half with strong defense.  Scots also hit a number of three point shots.  Live Stats don't appear to be working but I believe that Xavier Brown led the Scots in scoring for the half and he also had a nice steal for a breakaway layup.

[kiltedbryan]

At the Half:  Wooster 40  Arizona Christian 26

Wooster played a very crisp first half with strong defense.  Scots also hit a number of three point shots.  Live Stats don't appear to be working but I believe that Xavier Brown led the Scots in scoring for the half and he also had a nice steal for a breakaway layup.

I also have been unable to get live stats working - too bad because they were working last night.

[David Collinge]

Sure wish I could see the clock...

[David Collinge]

Heckuva comeback for ACU, who were down 19 at one point of the second half. Nothing dropping for the Scots right now.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Arizona Christian 62  Wooster 60

Tough road loss for Wooster against a strong NAIA team.  Key stretch in the second half when Arizona Christian outscored Wooster 20-3 (score went from 50-31 Wooster to 53-51 Wooster).  Scots had too many possessions in the second half when they came up empty.  Wooster only scored 20 points total in the second half and missed a number of free throws that could have made a difference in the outcome.

Wooster is now 8-1.  Next game is against Thiel in the Wooster Mose Hole Classic on 12/29.

GO SCOTS!

[woosterbooster]

Jesus, these media people are idiots.  Can you please show the clock ONCE besides during halftime?  And how does Arizona Christian get away with having twenty or thirty CLEAN BLOCKS on the inside IN THE SECOND HALF?  It's no wonder these schools aren't in the NCAA, it's because they get away with murder on the court.

[ScotsFan]

Tough loss, but it could be a good thing in the end.  Brings them back down to Earth a bit?  If you're going to lose, might as well be a game that means absolutely nothing in the eyes of the NCAA.  Needless to say though, that loss is gonna make for a loooong flight home as blowing a 19 point 2nd half lead is a very tough pill to swallow regardless of how talented ACU was.

One concern I have for this team so far this season is their ability to close a game out.  They had HUGE 2nd half leads vs. Wheaton, OWU and now tonight vs. ACU and those are just off the top of my head as there may have been others.  And in each of those games, Wooster struggled down the stretch allowing each of those teams back in the game late. Hell, I was waiting for the 2nd half collapse when they played DePauw, but it never came.  The Socts were fortunate to come out on the winning end vs. Wheaton and OWU, but their luck ran out tonight as ACU's only lead of the game came at the end of the game.  They've got to figure out how to finish and put teams away when they have the chance.  It's almost like they forget what they were doing to build the lead they had and go into some sort of shell where they're just settling for poor shots.  Not good...

Back to tonight's game, correct me if I'm wrong, but did Wooster even make a fg over the last 5 minutes or so?  Of course it could have been more as I'm guessing on the time because we never got to see the clock  , but it seemed like they ended the game on a significant drought in fg's made.  The only scoring they were doing that I could tell was at the line.  Bad time to go cold from the field and it was punctuated with Thorpe's missed 3 at the end that was more than halfway down and rimmed out?!   

[ScotsFan]

Jesus, these media people are idiots.  Can you please show the clock ONCE besides during halftime?  And how does Arizona Christian get away with having twenty or thirty CLEAN BLOCKS on the inside IN THE SECOND HALF?  It's no wonder these schools aren't in the NCAA, it's because they get away with murder on the court.

I'm guessing those were NAIA officials?  Yet another advantage of playing at home for ACU as I don't see them getting away with most of that crap had that game been played at Timken with NCAA officials for the game...

[David Collinge]

I think it is worth considering the week that the Scots have had, it may have played a role in last night's second half collapse.
(I'm assuming some of this, but it must be pretty close to accurate.)

Friday: the long, snowy drive to Crawfordsville.
Saturday: Game at Wabash, followed by the long, snowy drive back to Wooster
Sunday: Bus to airport, fly to Phoenix, doubtless an all-day affair with a layover somewhere
Monday: Game vs. Westmont
Tuesday: Game at ACU

I wouldn't be surprised if they were pretty tired by the second half last night. Tired legs can kill your defense, and tired arms can kill your jumpshot, and when that happens against a good, better-rested team, bad things can happen.

[GoRed]

I agree with you, David.  I watched the Westmont game and thought they were very sluggish on defense.  They mustered the energy and torqued up the defense in the last ten minutes of the game to get the win, but up until then, they weren't challenging the ball like they normally would. 

I turned off the ACU game thinking they had it in the bag, but they must have lost their legs at the end.  Lets see what impact their first loss has on them . . .

[ScotsFan]

I think it is worth considering the week that the Scots have had, it may have played a role in last night's second half collapse.
(I'm assuming some of this, but it must be pretty close to accurate.)

Friday: the long, snowy drive to Crawfordsville.
Saturday: Game at Wabash, followed by the long, snowy drive back to Wooster
Sunday: Bus to airport, fly to Phoenix, doubtless an all-day affair with a layover somewhere
Monday: Game vs. Westmont
Tuesday: Game at ACU

I wouldn't be surprised if they were pretty tired by the second half last night. Tired legs can kill your defense, and tired arms can kill your jumpshot, and when that happens against a good, better-rested team, bad things can happen.

Good point.  Not to mention, the week before the Wabash game was finals week for Wooster which can be quite grueling in and of itself.

[KnightSlappy]

Arizona Christian beat Spring Arbor (5-8) last night by 10. Spring Arbor, a frequent opponent of Hope and Calvin (but not this year, for whatever reason), lost at Albion in November, 51-50. The Britons stand at 5-3 (about to be 6-3 when they finish murdering Earlham tonight) including a five-point loss at Kenyon.

Which is another way of saying, meh.

Calvin and Spring Arbor have played very infrequently, in fact I can't remember the last time that happened. 

Spring Arbor typically plays Albion which is about 10 miles away and founded by practically the same people.  You are more accurate about Hope/Spring Arbor.   To further your 'meh' point, SAU is in a rebuilding year after graduating a good chunk of last years team.

Carry on!   

Spring Arbor came to the Calvin tipoff tournament in the fall of 2008 (they beat Baldwin Wallace then lost to Calvin). I think they played maybe one other time in the last ten years.