MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

Wooster and Lake Erie tied at 57, 10:47 left.  LEC led by something like 14 at the half.

It was 43-31 at half.  Scots scored the first 8 I think of the second half.

Johnson-Bidwell-Fulk for a layup on a steal, Wooster by 4, sounded like a pretty pretty play.

Bidwell to the line to shoot two, 9:41 left.  Fulk leads Wooster with 22(!).

Wooster has clamped down on D, outscoring LEC 30-14 in the second half so far.

63-57 Wooster, 9:15 or so left.  Now Thorton (sp?) scores on an old-fashioned 3 pt. play, 63-60.

[kiltedbryan]

Keeping the updates coming:

Will hits two from the line for Wooster. 65-60.
Bidwell picks up his third foul. LEC misses.
Wooster turnover, 2-1 drill for LEC, Thorton lays it in, he has 24.  65-62 Woo
Cooper does as he usually does, makes a 15 footer.
Quick lay in for LEC, Woo left someone wide open.
Johnson picks up a blocking foul, makes them both. Woo by 5, 7:40 left.

Coop gets a transition lay in, Woo by 7. Not sure on time.  71-64, 6:04 left.
Largest lead for Wooster. Thorton drives and scores again, he has 26.  He sounds like a force who will not be stopped sometimes.

A jump ball call gives it back to LEC with 6:41 to play. Fulk picks up his 11-12 board for a double-double, great game for him...Breckenridge says it's a career-high in RBs and only a few points from his career high, too. Fulk has 22, Will 13, Cooper 14.


I can't find any live stats...so I apologize about not knowing the stat line on LEC players as much...

Wooster turnover, 16 in the game, only 4 in second half. LEC makes them pay, 71-68.

Another turnover...LEC misses a three, Fulk with another board. Bidwell misses. Hutt gets a lay in, 71-70, Woo by one. Coop gets a basket, 16 for him, 14 in the second half.  LEC trades the basket back, 73-72, now 4 minutes left.

Huge 3 by LEC's Moore...75-73 LEC.  Wooster misses; fouls on the rebound. LEC to the line for a 1-1.
LEC's Campbell makes the first....and the second. He has 16. Woo trails by four.

3:00 left.  Johnson drives and scores, Campbell scores for LEC, Johnson drives straight to the hole, in and the foul! 
Had to run away from my computer...missed some things.

Now 2:12 left, 80-79 LEC.  Wooster has possession.

Wooster turns the ball over, again...they really need to get better at this.  But they steal it away!  Fulk takes in toward the hole, gets fouled. Almost drew a technical.

Fulk, nearly automatic from the line...makes the first, tied game at 80....second one is good. 81-80 Wooster. Fulk has career highs in points and rebounds.

Dickinson goes to the line for LEC for a 1-1. Fulk rebounds, but Bidwell fouls.

Sorry, missed stuff again (my dryer is acting strangely...) anyway, Johnson misses the first free throw, makes the second...45 seconds left, 85-84 LEC leads, and has the ball.

Timeout. LEC has 14 to shoot, 24 sec. left in game.

Campbell misses in the lane, Evan Will fouled on the rebound. He'll shoot two for the chance to lead.

Will....misses the first...now to tie...misses...Fulk rebounds! but ball comes loose...and jump ball again!  Ball to LEC.

Now Scots have to foul, and hit a shot to have a chance.  5.2 on the clock. LEC uses their last timeout on the inbounds.

Boy, those missed FTs hurt, but the Scots had other chances.

Ryan Benchwick (sp?) sent to the line for two. Will fouls out. Scots still have three timeouts. Only 3.2 on the clock.

First FT is...good.  Second is...no good. Quick timeout Wooster.  They have to go the length of the floor in 2.7 seconds. Bidwell inbounding from a spot.  Fulk takes the inbound and calls another time out. 1.9 on the clock.

Bidwell to inbound, from about half-court...can't find anyone, so burns the last timeout.

Inbound to Johnson, ball tipped/passed to Fulk, who puts it up, but off the back of the rim.

Lake Erie wins, 86-84.

[David Collinge]

That Earlham win over LEC is looking better all the time...

[kiltedbryan]

Yeah, definitely some interesting non-conference results so far this season.

DC- I would imagine that one consequence of this loss will be Wooster's first non-top-ten national ranking this week.  How long was that streak again?

[David Collinge]

Yeah, definitely some interesting non-conference results so far this season.

DC- I would imagine that one consequence of this loss will be Wooster's first non-top-ten national ranking this week.  How long was that streak again?

To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "I'm not dead yet!"  There's been a lot of carnage in the 9 days of action since the preseason poll was released; the teams ranked #7 thru #13 (including Wooster) sit at a composite 18-6, and some of the 18 wins were less than stellar (like Capital's OT win at Kenyon today.)  But you're probably right, and if so, Wooster's string of top 10 rankings will end at 54 weeks.  The last non-top-10 week for the Scots was week 8 of the 2003-04 season (when they were #11).

[ScotsFan]

For the 2nd time in 3 games this season the Scots turned the ball over 20 or more times.  I don't care how good of a team you are, if you are turning the ball over 20+ times per game you are going to get beat sooner or later.  Wooster was able to overcome 26 turnovers in a comfortable win in the opener against Farmingdale, but they couldn't overcome 20 tonight including 12 in the first half that contributed to LEC being able to go into the half with a 12 point cushion. 

Wooster actually did a much better job of taking care of the basketball in the 2nd half and look at the result.  They turned a 12 point deficit into a 7 point lead.  And then the turnover bug hit again over the last 5 minutes of the game as Wooster committed at least four more costly turnovers down the stretch!

Wooster has got to do a better job taking care of the basketball.  Plain and simple.  And they don't have a lot of time to get this turnover thing figured out as they travel to NAIA ranked Cedarville next Saturday and also to Delaware for an early conference tilt with OWU.  Oh yeah, and there's a tilt at Oberlin sandwiched in between.  We'll find out in a hurry where this Wooster team is!

[kiltedbryan]

For the 2nd time in 3 games this season the Scots turned the ball over 20 or more times. 
Wooster has got to do a better job taking care of the basketball.  Plain and simple. 

ScotsFan, what I find really frustrating about the turnover problem is who is turning the ball over.  Johnson (3), Cooper (6) and Fulk (7) accounted for 16 of the 20 turnovers tonight. That's supposed to be Wooster's established, experienced backcourt guards. Cooper and Johnson each had 5 turnovers in the season-opening Farmingdale State game.

The radio broadcast noted that many of tonight's turnovers happened well out in the backcourt. It sounded like Lake Erie again had athletic, quick guards, which is what Farmingdale also presented.  With Cooper in particular, it seemed like when he went into his shimmy-shake moves he was getting his pocket picked off the dribble much more than in previous seasons, both tonight and in the opener against Farmingdale.

Again, could be a mis-guided notion and I didn't personally see the game tonight, but Wooster places so much emphasis on letting its guards create offense off the dribble, that this would be a crucial weakness if the high turnover count continues.

[David Collinge]

Alas, the upset was not in cards tonight at Hiram.  Heidelberg's 1000-point scorer Shawn Shriver nailed a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the game, and the Terriers never got any closer as the Student Princes sailed to a 105-76 victory at the Terrierdome.  The 'Berg put six players in double figures, shot 56.3% (53.8% from the arc), and held Hiram to 43.1% shooting (and just 23.8% on threes).  Hiram was only down by 11 at the half, but Heidelberg blistered the nets for 65 second-half points on 65% shooting to remove any doubt.  Chris Roberts and Mike Staley led the Terriers with 18 and 17 points, respectively.  Box.

[David Collinge]

This Saturday:

2:00 #9 Wash. U. at Denison (women)
3:00 #18 Capital at Ohio Wesleyan (men)
3:00 Wabash at Kenyon (men)

what to do...

[David Collinge]

Congratulations go out to this week's NCAC Player of the Week, Ohio Wesleyan's senior post Dustin Rudegeair, who's tougher to defend than his name is to spell.  Dustin dropped 25 and 12 on then-#20 Baldwin-Wallace at Rochester, then added 14 more points in the Bishops' narrow loss to the now-sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets.   Congratulations, Dustin!

[wally_wabash]

This Saturday:

2:00 #9 Wash. U. at Denison (women)
3:00 #18 Capital at Ohio Wesleyan (men)
3:00 Wabash at Kenyon (men)

what to do...

1:00 Wabash at UW-Whitewater 

[zu1414]

David
Thanks for the Hiram update. A double digit season in the win column is looking less likely than ever....by the way we used to have some 'battles' with the Big Red, I remember a couple of overtimes...great games often decided who got to face Witt or Wooster in the first round

[pennstghs]

Wittenberg vs Ohio Northern tomorrow night should be a good game!

If we want to play the "comparative game" as well. Wooster travels to Cedarville Saturday night and Wittenberg to Cedarville Tuesday night, so possibly we can get a sense of how things might work out between these two teams. Probably not.

I think tomorrow night's game vs Ohio Northern is key for Wittenberg. If they can keep competitive and steal a game vs a "top" opponent then that could be big momentum wise. I'd also like to see improvements in the low post game.

karma points for me anyone?

[David Collinge]

Wittenberg vs Ohio Northern tomorrow night should be a good game!
[...]
I think tomorrow night's game vs Ohio Northern is key for Wittenberg. If they can keep competitive and steal a game vs a "top" opponent then that could be big momentum wise. I'd also like to see improvements in the low post game.

karma points for me anyone?

I'll gladly give you a karma point, while at the same time questioning ONU's designation as a '"top" opponent.'  ONU was picked to finish 4th in the OAC by the coaches, and is off to a 2-2 start which includes an 11-point loss at Carnegie Mellon.  Hmmm.  I hope Witt wins this game, and if so you can spin it any way you please.  For me, I'd prefer to rest on the closer-than-expected 4 point loss to the OAC's preseason #1, Capital (with the caveat that I think Capital is wildly overrated and will not win the OAC.)

So here's your karma point. 

[David Collinge]

By most measures, the team Oberlin faced tonight was not a "top" opponent (well, academically, but in that regard Oberlin could give them a game and then some), but still Case Western Reserve was able to squeeze out the victory by a score of 88-51.  Here's all you need to know, courtesy of the recap on the Case website:

The Spartans used a 24-0 run to take a 30-point lead, 49-19, into the intermission.

Oberlin falls to 0-5 while Case improves to 5-1.  Like Lake Erie, CWRU's lone loss this season came at the hands of Earlham.