MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wooscotsfan]

NCAC Final Scores:
#14 Lawrence 69  Allegheny 57   Gators are now 5-4
Aquinas 80  Ohio Wesleyan 79 OT   Bishops are now 6-4

OAC Final Scores:
Edgewood 72  Baldwin-Wallace 64   Bad Loss by B-W to a 4-4 team
Mount Union 50  Roanoke 48

[smedindy]

Looks like Gheny did pretty well against Larry.

'Bash has the tough draw with Lakeland (though they're spotty this year) at Franklin's tourney, since the hosts 'drew' the 1-7 Alma Scots.

[wooscotsfan]

Here is the Wooster Daily Record preview of the Mose Hole Classic:

Mose Hole/Kiwanis Classic a holiday treat
December 28, 2006
By CHAD CONANT

Daily Record Sports Writer

WOOSTER -- Holiday tournaments rarely get delicious matchups in the first round.

The Mose Hole/Kiwanis Classic gets two.

Calvin College (5-3) will play Wisconsin-LaCrosse (7-3) at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Timken Gymnasium in a rematch of Calvin's 79-71 win in the opening round of last season's NCAA Tournament. Both teams are just a step outside the d3hoops.com Top 25.

The second game is most likely the national game of the week, as top-ranked Wooster (9-1) plays seventh-ranked Ohio Northern (8-1) in a game dripping with postseason intrigue.

"We like to have good teams in for our tournament," Scots coach Steve Moore said. "It's really been that way over the years and I think we have an outstanding field this year."

While the Calvin-LaCrosse game will be spirited, the Scots-Polar Bears game will be the one with national eyes on it.

The Scots sit at the top of a d3hoops.com poll that's on a holiday break, but lost 94-89 at California Baptist in their last game. Ohio Northern handed sixth-ranked Wittenberg its second loss, 68-51 at the ONU Sports Center in Ada.

The Polar Bears will provide Wooster a similar challenge as Wittenberg. ONU gets potent play on the perimeter and has a bruiser in the paint in Bart Hostetler (12 points, 7.1 rebounds a game). The challenge for Wooster will likely lie in slowing guards Greg Badenhop (18.4 points a game, 37.7 percent from 3-point range) and Kyle Gehle (13.0 points a game) while finding a way to scrap with Hostetler on the boards.

"They have very good balance," Moore said. "They play 10 players and they're all very good. They play a tough man defense and are very physical. It's very difficult to score on them."

The teams have played seven times since 1993, with the Scots, who have won the last four, holding a 4-3 edge in that span.

They have met four times in the Mose Hole, with Wooster's lone win coming in the 1979 title game. Wooster leads the all-time series, which started with a 24-17 Ohio Northern win in 1915, 24-16. The last meeting was in the championship game of the 2004 Al Van Wie/Wooster Rotary Classic, a 74-69 Scots win.

If the Scots are to take their fifth-straight win over the Polar Bears, a defensive effort like the second half Dec. 16 against Cedarville might be in order. In seven minutes that night, the Scots turned a 48-47 lead into a 73-56 lead and started to run away on the back of their effort at the defensive end. With better energy and execution, the Scots held Cedarville down, blew the game open and cruised to a win.

Other than a 94-77 loss at home Dec. 9 against Baldwin-Wallace, the Polar Bears have allowed no more than 70 points in their eight wins and they held Wittenberg to 34.7 percent shooting. Before meeting the Tigers, Ohio Northern was averaging 15 offensive rebounds a game.

"We have to play good defense in this game, there's no question about that," Moore said. "They're so good defensively that if they score a bunch on easy baskets, they're going to be even harder to beat. We will have to play good defense and rebound well."

Though they're not back in class until Jan. 15, the Scots got back to a bit of normalcy this week after playing three games in five days last week with a flight to California in the middle. After taking the Christmas holiday at home with family, the players returned to campus Wednesday.

After losing for the first time while in California, the Scots players are ready for the challenge of a NCAA regional-type field before hopping into North Coast Athletic Conference play next week.

"Our guys are really excited to have this type of challenge in front of them," Moore said. "Playing a good team like this is good for our guys. These are three outstanding teams."

Chad Conant can be reached at (330) 287-1649 or cconant@the-daily-record.com

[realist]

Wooscot:  2 of Calvin's wins are over Aquinas.  Loses are to Hope, Wheaton, and Carthage.  Calvin is almost as young a team this year as last.  They have played tentatively at best.  They have some potential, but against this level of competition may struggle.   In each of the loses the other teams made early runs, and Calvin could not recover. If they can keep it close they can give someone a good game, but you can say that about most teams.

[realist]

Sadly to say we have seen tonights game before as Calvin fans.  Look like deer in the headlights early, and then mount a fight.  Too little, and too late.  Hard lesson to learn that you shouldn't spot a good team a lead.

[Titan Q]

Final from Wooster:

Ohio Northern 91
Wooster 84


Real nice job by Pat and Jared on the D3hoops.com call.  Great game to listen to. 

Sounded like Wooster did not execute well down the stretch -- some missed free throws, a couple costly turnovers, and a missed wide-open layup that just about sealed it for ONU.

[imderekpoe]

Sounded like Wooster did not execute well down the stretch -- some missed free throws, a couple costly turnovers, and a missed wide-open layup that just about sealed it for ONU.

To say that Wooster did not execute well down the stretch is being very generous.  They really stunk it up!  They missed at least 4 free throws in a row, 3 of them by Port.  When they really needed to score, Johnson first threw a pass wide of Fulk, then missed the layup mentioned above.

Credit to ONU for hitting their FT's when it counted and coming up with a couple of steals in the last minute to seal it.

[David Collinge]

Also credit to ONU for owning the boards.  It's not often that a Wooster team gets outrebounded by a 42-30 clip.  I thought that was decisive tonight.  Wooster has some work to do in the interior defense and rebounding.  That job starts tomorrow vs. Calvin.

Wooster was also pretty cold from long distance.  All Scots not named James Cooper combined to go 3-12 from the arc.  Props to Andy Van Horn and Marty Bidwell, who teamed up on defense to make ONU's All-America candidate Greg Badenhop out of the game (he was just 3/10, and hit one of his two made treys while Andy and Marty were both on the bench), but the other Scots couldn't stop ONU's bigs (Hunter, Cannan, Hostetler) who combined for 41 pts. (on 15/22 shooting plus 11/12 free throws) and 20 rebounds. 

A great win for the Polar Bears, who I now accept as the unofficial NCAC champs this year.  Wooster will regroup and will still be a factor in March, but I think the better team won tonight.

And oh by the way, I thought the game was pretty well officiated. 

[wooscotsfan]

Congratulations to Ohio Northern on a very well played game tonight.  The Polar Bears outplayed Wooster and they deserved the win.   ONU shot 49% from the floor, 84% from the charity stripe and outrebounded Wooster 42-30 as David Collinge noted.  Those 3 stats will usually result in a road win.

Conversely, Wooster lost this game because:
-they gave up too many offensive rebounds to ONU for easy buckets,
-they missed 9 free throws (3 critical ones by Port as cmhscotsfan noted)
-they turned the ball over in the last 2 minutes (Wooster led 81-80)
-both Johnson and Port were largely ineffective tonight

Brandon Johnson only shot 2 of 9 from the floor and he missed a critical layup near the end of the game.  Tom Port did not play like an experienced senior as he committed some dumb fouls (before fouling out) and he was a non-factor tonight with only 6 points.

Props go to Tim Vandervaart who kept Wooster in this game with 24 points and to Van Horn and Bidwell for their tough defense on Badenhop.

Hopefully, Wooster will spend time in practice working on boxing out for rebounds.  This is critical if the Scots are going to play the smaller, quick lineup and not give significant playing time to their big freshmen (Melick, Elam, etc.).

Wooster also needs to focus on practicing free throws or this problem could hurt them in big games at the end of the season.

It was good to chat with both David Collinge and cmhscotsfan at the game this evening.  Hopefully, Wooster will bounce back tomorrow vs. Calvin.

GO SCOTS!  

[ScotsFan]

Also credit to ONU for owning the boards.  It's not often that a Wooster team gets outrebounded by a 42-30 clip.  I thought that was decisive tonight. 

I thought the rebounding disparity was going to be worse than that!  ONU won this game with their rebounding IMO.

Props to Andy Van Horn and Marty Bidwell, who teamed up on defense to make ONU's All-America candidate Greg Badenhop out of the game (he was just 3/10, and hit one of his two made treys while Andy and Marty were both on the bench

It was mosty Marty because of Van Horn getting into foul trouble early in the game.  I thought Bidwell played one of his best games as a Scot tonight.  Unfortunately, I think Tom Port played one of his worst games.  

The Scots also need to rediscover their outside touch.  David touched on the fact that Scots NOT named Cooper combined to go 3-12 from beyond the arc and one of those 3 treys belonged to Evan Will!  Fulk has been in a bit of a funk from beyond the arc.  He did manage double figures, but only 1-3 from beyond the arc.  I'd like to see more attempts from him.

Coach Moore put it best in the post game interview.  He basically said we'll definately find out what this team is made of tomorrow.  Unlike last year, they don't have a gimme in the consolation game.  Calvin showed a lot of heart and determination to fight back the way they did vs LAX.  We'll see exactly what Wooster is made of tomorrow night.  Hopefully this loss will re-ignite the fire that I saw in this team in games against Walsh and Georgetown because it certainly was not there tonight!  

As I told my dad after the game, I'd certainly rather lose a game like this in December as opposed to March.  Hopefully the Scots can learn from this, put this loss behind them and move forward on to bigger and loftier goals like reaching Salem and winning a National Championship!  I still think this team has what it takes.  Just not if they play like they did tonight!

[TigerFan_1973]

Sounds like a great game at Wooster tonight.

ONU has now beaten both Witt and Wooster.  Since the Top 25 is almost two weeks old, there will be all kinds of changes when it comes out.

The Tigers won in their tournament tonight, but I have to say that the Mose Hole definitely had the matchup of the week. 

The final tomorrow night looks pretty good with ONU against Wisconsin LaCrosse.  An opportunity exists for Wisc. LaC to make some noise but it looks like ONU from here.

TigerFan_1973

[wally_wabash]

Wabash handled their tough draw against Lakeland 89-71 (after trailing 13-0 in the game) and will play host Franklin tomorrow in a game where Wabash can hopefully make a better showing than they did in the pre-holiday game vs. the Grizz. 

Tough break for Wooster tonight...Scots fans, it's not how you play in December that matters, it's how you're playing in late February and March that matters.  Stay the course...you'll be fine. 

[woosterbooster]

Reflections from Timken:

It was, I thought, a very uneven game from The Scots.  They'd have a couple of very good offensive possessions and then come down and take a very quick, and poor, shot.  Examples would be a long and flat three-pointer by Port in the first half and some overly-determined one-on-one penetration by Cooper that ended in forced shots or turnovers.  These particular attempts happened while Tim Vandervaart was having some real success inside and the Scots took no time to try to get him the ball.

Earlier in the year, Wooster seemed to do a much better job on the defensive boards.  Although not big and physical, their boxing out was excellent.  That's become a problem of late, as they're starting to look like last year's team in that regard.  If this doesn't change, the bigger more physical teams (which most of the good ones are) will continue to give them problems.

In looking at the boxscore, I saw that Port played 26 minutes.  That number surprised me, I'd thought he missed more time than that due to his foul trouble, an impression that came because due to his ineffectiveness it seemed like he was hardly on the floor at all.  I'd agree it was probably his worst game as a Scot.

Bidwell did play a terrific game, especially defensively.  Used his feet well, hustled, and kept his arm-windmilling to a minimum, which held his fouls down.  Andy Van Horn continues to get called for ticky-tack fouls and I don't know why.  He must be a good guy, his mom and dad certainly are.  Well, he is, anyway, she's not a guy, etc...

Evan Will had probably his best game as a Scot.  He was fanatical on defense, coming up with 3 steals and another few deflections.  He made the one three-pointer, but had a couple more open looks that he passed up, which he often does.  It almost seems as if he feels there's a quota on his three-point attempts.  I wish he'd shoot more, when they're there, as he has an excellent touch.

I don't think that Devin Fulk played poorly, or that there were more shots that he could have taken.  He took what was there, and at least a couple of times even created on short jumpers, one on an especially nice move when trapped in the corner.  He did hurt the Scots with his intentional foul when he threw that clown to the ground, but I have a hard time blaming him after seeing what led to it, something that the officiating crew obviously missed.

Wooster will get a chance to see if they're made of stern stuff, or not.  Calvin is the outclassed team in this tournament, but they'll be up for tonight's game, as there's now the smell of blood in the gym.  If they can manage to hang close early, and Wooster has not sufficiently regrouped after last night, a ballgame might develop.  I don't think this will happen (I see the Scots by 15 to 20), but the possibility exists.

I think LaCrosse will give ONU all they can handle.  The Wisconsin team looked very solid when dismantling Calvin early, and if they hadn't lost interest (who can blame them?) would have won that game by 30+.  I see a dogfight in the championship, and I hope tonight's crowd hangs around to see it.

DC, I don't know what game you were watching; maybe you're just trying to be diplomatic.  In my opinion, it was another very poorly officiated game, where ridiculously blatant calls were either missed or called the wrong way while ticky-tack calls were made left and right.  At one point, an ONU player dribbled the ball, once, in the corner, then picked it up.  Then he put the ball on the floor again in a baseline move.  An obvious double dribble, ignored.  Another time Port was moving down the lane, got smeared from behind which knocked him into an ONU player in front of him, and he was called for a charge.  Unbelievable.

These lousy calls went both ways.  Maybe some of them were makeup calls, who knows?  These officials really need to work on their game.

[roadtrip]

I couldn't get the Wabash game on the web last night....is that because of Christmas break?? It seems that if the Little Giants pound the paint and limit turnovers the kids will be a handfull for the better teams...I tuned into D3hoops and listened to the Mose Hole Classic....good broadcast and good basketball

[division3hoops]

I don't know what to say for Wooster but that they will definitely have to step it up.  They can't afford to play tough teams the way they played last night.  I was impressed with ONU...even though Badenhop had only 11 (thanks to some very good defense by Bidwell and Van Horn) you could tell what an athlete that kid is.  I remember watching him last year vs. Baldwin Wallace; he is quick, moves very well off the ball, and plays very good defense.  (He was on Cooper most of the game, who is very, very tough to defend). 

About the referees...I think there could have been some changes in the way they called the game.  They didn't even let the guys play.  ONU was shooting freethrows with 10+ minutes left in the second half.  They called such a tight game and it seemd to get to the players.  Fulk committed that intentional foul and at one point the refs called all the players on the floor over in the middle of the game to have a huddle.  Does anyone know for sure what that was about? I think it was to tell the guys to calm down and knock it off.  Someone had said that ONU's bench started heckling the Wooster players on the floor and vice-versa.  Regardless, the high-number of calls kept some Wooster players off the floor again tonight: Port and Van Horn.  I agree with WB in that I was surprised to see Port actually played 26 minutes.  I also thought he was on the bench way more than that. 

One more thing to add - Wooster needs to really start practicing their foul shots.  In close games like tonight foul shooting makes A HUGE difference when the game comes down on the line.  And because the refs were calling such a tight game, it makes THE difference IMO.  Props to Northern for making them when they count.

Hopefully Wooster will pull it together, shake off these 2 losses and play like the team they were against Georgetown and Walsh and pull out a great 3rd place finish in the Mose Hole.