MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

After starting fairly raggedy, Steve Moore calls a timeout, and the Scots come out with a 13-0 run that blossoms to a 26-6 half-ending run.

[ScotsFan]

At the Half:  Wooster 34  Wittenberg 19

In the half, Wooster was led by Xavier Brown, Doug Thorpe and Evan Pannell each with 8 points.

Witt led 13-8 at one point in the first half before Wooster closed out the half on a HUGE 26-6 run.  To be honest, Witt is fortunate to only be down 15 in this one...

[ScotsFan]

Anyone else having issues watching Witt's live feed?  Mine is constantly buffering and it is quite maddening?!   

[sac]

I'm watching, links been working fine but I'm probably going to have to shower to get all this hyperbole off.

[David Collinge]

Anyone else having issues watching Witt's live feed?  Mine is constantly buffering and it is quite maddening?!   

Same here. I finally gave up and switched to WQKT.

[ScotsFan]

I'm watching, links been working fine but I'm probably going to have to shower to get all this hyperbole off.

I have it on mute.  I can't take Witt's broadcasters...

Plus I was watching Michigan pick up their first win at the Kohl Center in Madison since 1999... 

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 69  Wittenberg 62 

Terrific road win for Wooster!    Scots were led by Scott Purcell with 14 points, Doug Thorpe with 12, Xavier Brown with 12,  Evan Pannell with 11 and Kenny DeBoer with 10.

Wooster is now 14-1, 8-0 NCAC    Wooster now has a 2 game lead and only 1 very tough road game left at DePauw

Stat of the Game:  Wooster only had 10 turnovers and forced Wittenberg into 20 turnovers

[David Collinge]

I'm watching, links been working fine but I'm probably going to have to shower to get all this hyperbole off.

I have it on mute.  I can't take Witt's broadcasters...

Plus I was watching Michigan pick up their first win at the Kohl Center in Madison since 1999... 

I think Scott Leo does a pretty good job, actually. He's not impartial, but I don't expect him to be. He's well-informed and well-spoken, and respectful of the opponent. He's no Mike Breckenridge, but there have been many worse broadcasters, both at Witt and elsewhere.

Oh, and Go Blue!

[ScotsFan]

Final:  Wooster 69  Wittenberg 62 

Terrific road win for Wooster!    Scots were led by Scott Purcell with 14 points, Doug Thorpe with 12, Xavier Brown with 12,  Evan Pannell with 11 and Kenny DeBoer with 10.

Wooster is now 14-1, 8-0 NCAC    Wooster now has a 2 game lead and only 1 very tough road game left at DePauw

Stat of the Game:  Wooster only had 10 turnovers and forced Wittenberg into 20 turnovers

Wooster having a 2 game lead with road wins over arguably their 2 toughest competitors @Witt and @OWU is big!

Witt made a valiant effort in coming back in the second half after being down by as many as 19.  I thought I was watching Witt/OWU part 2 at one point.  But Wooster was able to do just enough down the stretch to hold off the Tigers and come away with the big road win! 

And how about 5 Scots finishing the game scoring in double figures!    That is some serious balance in scoring by the Scots!  This is what makes them so difficult to defend because they don't really have any one player they rely on in scoring the basketball.  You take away one threat and they have several others who can step up to pick up the slack.

[ScotsFan]

I think Scott Leo does a pretty good job, actually. He's not impartial, but I don't expect him to be. He's well-informed and well-spoken, and respectful of the opponent. He's no Mike Breckenridge, but there have been many worse broadcasters, both at Witt and elsewhere.

Oh, and Go Blue!

I suppose you're right regarding Witt's broadcasters.  I wasn't tryin to say that they do a poor job, I just can't stand the homer slant and I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I can't stand anything Witt related.    And I'm sure Witt fans would probably have a similar opinion of Breck who I think is one of the best in D3.

And yes, Go Blue!     Nice to see Michigan, who struggled through a very tough non-conference schedule, get off to a great start in the B1G and seeing OSU and Wisky now lose 3 and 2 in a row respectively after waltzing through relatively weak non-conference schedules... 

[wooscotsfan]

All the NCAC 1/18 Final Scores:

Wooster 69  Wittenberg 62
Ohio Wesleyan 75  DePauw 64
Denison 55  Allegheny 46
Hiram 73  Oberlin 71
Wabash 61  Kenyon 52


Current NCAC Standings with 1/18 Results:

1. Wooster 8-0 (14-1)
2. Wittenberg 6-2 (12-3)
2. Ohio Wesleyan 6-2 (12-3)
2. DePauw 6-2 (11-4)
5. Kenyon 4-4 (7-8)
6. Denison 3-5 (7-8)
6. Wabash 3-5 (4-10)
8. Hiram 2-6 (4-11)
8. Oberlin 2-6 (5-10)
10. Allegheny 0-8 (3-12)

[woosterbooster]

I think Scott Leo does a pretty good job, actually. He's not impartial, but I don't expect him to be. He's well-informed and well-spoken, and respectful of the opponent. He's no Mike Breckenridge, but there have been many worse broadcasters, both at Witt and elsewhere.

Oh, and Go Blue!

I suppose you're right regarding Witt's broadcasters.  I wasn't tryin to say that they do a poor job, I just can't stand the homer slant and I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I can't stand anything Witt related.    And I'm sure Witt fans would probably have a similar opinion of Breck who I think is one of the best in D3.

And yes, Go Blue!     Nice to see Michigan, who struggled through a very tough non-conference schedule, get off to a great start in the B1G and seeing OSU and Wisky now lose 3 and 2 in a row respectively after waltzing through relatively weak non-conference schedules... 

Leo's your standard B-Grade DIII announcer.  It's the other guy that I can't tolerate.  The color guy that Scott Leo calls "Coach".  What a clown.  There was one play fairly late where Scott Masin just ran over Kipfer down low.  The charge was called, and this COACH starts yelling out "That's AWFUL!"  Unbelievable.  And this coming after Masin had hit Kipfer at least twice in the face with hard elbows.

Everything about Wittenberg stinks.  Always has, always will.

[enjoymoreradio]

What a great win for the Scots. Got a little close there in the second half, but Coach Moore knows how to keep his players calm. Having a two game edge is huge, looking forward to the NCAC Tourney. My hatred for Witt knows few bounds.

Also an introduction is due to the other Scots fans on the boards. I'm a Wooster alumnus, class of 2012, and a columnist for d3hoops for ODACcess. Pleased to meet you all.

[ScotsFan]

Welcome to the board radio... 

[Urban For Prez]

Smart enough to avoid falling into the trash-talking trap, especially after a loss.  However, I have to agree that Scott Leo's counterpart on Witt's broadcasts is atrocious. Based on his commentary, I seriously question whether he has spent much time around basketball. Leo's not great, but he would be better served covering the game on his own.

Now about the game: First, credit Wooster for doing what they needed to do to win. They built an early lead through creating 12 first-half turnovers, and hit big shots down the stretch to seal the victory.  I felt Witt should have come out of the zone after they cut the lead to to five without about ten minutes left. Their zone became too stagnant late in the game, allowing Wooster to run their sets against only little resistance.  It's hard to dictate the pace of the game and create turnovers in a zone.  When Wittenberg desperately needed a stop with about five minutes left, Wooster ran the exact same play twice in a row (sending a cutter to the deep corner near the Wooster bench and reversing the dribble for a pitch to that shooter) and scored on both possessions.  You have to hand it to Coach Brown for benching his starters early in the second-half and letting his bench carry the team back into contention, but his inability to make in-game adjustments hurts the Tigers. The game may have been different if Leahy had been able to play at full-speed.

More importantly, Wittenberg now finds themselves on a costly two-game losing streak, which has me wondering if this team may have been slightly overrated.  A look at their last four games shows a team struggling to put together two solid halves:

Home v. OWU- Down by 22 before rallying for an OT win.
Home v. Hiram- 1 point victory after giving up 52 points in the second half.
@Depauw- 26 point drubbing after shooting 23% in the second half.
Home v. Wooster- Seven point home loss after committing 20 turnovers in the first half.

Final comments: Ben Bowen and Justin McDowell bring energy every time they are in the game.  They are limited offensively, but they epitomize what I love about D3 basketball. You can tell they love the game. Bad couple of weeks for me as both my Buckeyes and Tigers are struggling.  Here's to better times ahead.