MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[DanTHEman67]

So the under or over 80 points analysis from earlier is where in case of OT? 

[sac]

Oh my!

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wittenberg 87  Wooster 86  OT

Wittenberg gets the big upset tonight in OT.  Marty Bidwell missed two free throws for Wooster with ~12 seconds left and then Greg Hill hit the game winner for Witt with 4.4 seconds left.  Congratulations to the Tigers.

Wittenberg was led by Brandan Barabino with a career high 26 points, Greg Hill with 16 points, Kevin Murray with 15 points and Mark Snyder with 14 points.

Wooster was led by James Cooper with 21 points, Brandon Johnson with 14 points, Evan Will with 14 points, Devin Fulk with 14 points and Marty Bidwell with 12 points.

Witt is now 6-0 NCAC in First Place, Wooster drops to 5-1 NCAC.

[David Collinge]

Congratulations to Witt! 

I wonder when the last time this game was not a classic was?

[DanTHEman67]

The season still has a long way to go, but this win represents a ton of team progress since the beginning of this campaign. Great coaching, Bill Brown, to get so much out of a team which had so little expectations from so many (I am proud I was one of the few that reminded folks not to count the Tigers out). Good, exciting, classic game between 2 rivals (let's keep it a friendly one)! 

GO TIGERS!

[pennstghs]

GREAT GAME!!!!! will have more extensive thoughts tomorrow on the game as i have some celebrating to do, but if a team can show more grit, will, and determination more than Witt did tonight i'd like to see that team......

great win guys-i told you don't count witt out yet

[ScotsFan]

If there was ever a case of 'that's why we play the game', tonight's game was it!  I really can't remember a time in this rivalry when a team went into the game as favored as Wooster went into tonight's game.  Yes, Witt had the impressive win streak going, but as was pointed out, it was against some pretty sub-par competition to say the least. 

You have to tip your hats to the Tigers tonight.  They played one hell of a game.  They shot the ball as good as they have all season and they just never folded when things looked bleak to earn a hard fought come from behing thriller at home.  Wooster had several opportunities to put this game away, especially when they got up 11 almost midway through the 2nd half, but Witt always seemed to hit a big shot when they needed it to keep them within striking distance.  Meanwhile, it seemed that whenever Wooster had a chance to hit a dagger shot, they failed to do so including from the ft line in OT.

If you would have told me before this game that Wooster would shoot 51% from the floor, 47% from the arc on 10 made 3's and they would lose to Witt, I would have said you were crazy.  Add to that that Wooster was 14-17 from  the ft line.  The catch...  Wooster's only 3 misses from the charity stripe occurred in the final minutes of ot when Brandon Johonson missed his 2nd attempt that would have put the Scots up 5.  And then after a desperation 3 by Greg Hill to make it only a one point game, Marty Bidwell missed on both his attempts and that set up the heroics by Hill. 

If there's one thing I would question about the closing moments of the game is why wasn't the ball in the hands of either Fulk, Cooper or Johnson after that made 3 by Hill?  Fulk has only one miss at the charity stripe all season and Cooper and Johnson are both over 80% ft shooters.  Yet, Bidwell and his 66% ft shooting end up on the line...

One other thing.  Any eyewitness accounts of that foul on Barabino's desperation 3 at the end of regulation?  From the radio call, Breck didn't give a definitive account one way or the other.  He just said that Barabino was falling away from the basket as he shot.  That just seems like a pretty tough call to make at that point in the game unless it was a legitimate mugging...

With that said, hats off to Witt for the win.  They are now amazingly in sole possession of 1st place in the NCAC after their forgettable 1-5 start.  But their road doesn't get any easier as they have to now go on the road and put their win streak on the line againt the Battling Bishops of OWU on Wednesday.  They then host Kenyon before another road test in C'ville against Wabash.  I'm already looking forward to Wooster getting their shot at evening the score a month from now at Timken!!!  Hopefully, it will be for a chance to clinch their 4th straight NCAC regular season title!

[kiltedbryan]

One other thing.  Any eyewitness accounts of that foul on Barabino's desperation 3 at the end of regulation?  From the radio call, Breck didn't give a definitive account one way or the other.  He just said that Barabino was falling away from the basket as he shot.  That just seems like a pretty tough call to make at that point in the game unless it was a legitimate mugging...

I was there...but honestly I didn't have the right angle to determine if a foul should have been called.  There wasn't a foul on the arm...I think it was called for a bump on the body by Johnson.  What was exceedingly hard to tell from my angle was whether Barabino was off-balance because of contact or because of desperation. He was definitely off-balance when taking it and the shot never had a chance.

I can say it wasn't a mugging, but there may have been contact. What I thought was strange about the call was that Barabino was falling away to his left, while Johnson was coming out toward him and jumping in front of him moving away to Barabino's right.  It didn't seem like a position where a lot of body-to-body contact would have happened.  When Barabino landed, he feel backward, but Johnson was a good 4 or 5 feet away from him on the court at that point, because they had been moving in opposite directions.  The foul call was immediate, though, the whistle almost seemed to blow before the ball was even out of Barabino's hand, so the call wasn't about contact after the shot.

Johnson didn't protest at all, but he looked directly at Moore immediately after the play and gave a flabbergasted expression and shook his head "no" to Moore's non-verbal question.

I can't and I won't blame the loss on that call- Wooster certainly forgot to execute at other key moments in the game.

Incidentally, I actually felt that there was a non-call that was worse: Wooster probably has a decent argument for an intentional foul on the foul of Bidwell in overtime.  He saw the defense coming and tucked the ball in a la a football running back, and he ended up shoved or tripped onto the floor-- for a moment I thought he was hurt, too.  Three Witt players came to that play and in total they gave much more contact than was necessary for the foul.  I was about 15 feet from that play.

Again, I just want to provide an eye-witness account of the plays.  I don't think that either one of them "cost" Wooster the game.  The Tigers played an incredible game, and really rose to the occasion.

[David Collinge]

Judging from where I sat, which was on my futon holding my transistor radio, Witt deserved the win by virtue of coming up with the clutch plays down the stretch.  Don't forget they erased an 11-point second half deficit just to make Barabino's and Hill's heroics possible.  A great win for a great program.

On the other side, I'll bet the Wooster players feel like they let a winnable game slip away, and they're probably pretty frustrated.  I sure wouldn't want to be the team that plays them next.  Now let's see, who would that be...? 



Uh oh. 

[kiltedbryan]

Going back to my pre-game post:

Keys to the game:

1) Who controls the tempo? This game was pretty up-tempo all night, and it becomes another game to go against form, because I'd say Wooster controlled the tempo, but Wittenberg came out with the victory.

2) Who out-rebounds whom? This is the stat of the night.  This is why Wittenberg won this game:  Rebounding.  Witt- 39, Woo- 28.  +11 rebound margin for Witt.  Also, exceedingly impressive, Witt held Wooster to only 2 offensive boards for the entire game.  I wonder when the last time was that Wooster posted that low of a number??  Witt took down 9 offensive boards by comparison.

3) Turnovers.  An impressively clean game by both sides- very few breakaway points.  Only 15 turnovers total, and virtually even: Wooster had 8, Wittenberg 7.

4) Outside shooting.  Can Wooster turn this into the advantage it looks like on paper?  Answer: No, not really. Wooster made 10 and basically hit its statistical percentage, and Witt made 8 while shooting only slightly better (36% vs. 32%) than its season average.  More or less a statistical wash.

[kiltedbryan]

Judging from where I sat, which was on my futon holding my transistor radio, Witt deserved the win by virtue of coming up with the clutch plays down the stretch.  Don't forget they erased an 11-point second half deficit just to make Barabino's and Hill's heroics possible.  A great win for a great program.

Absolutely agreed.

On the other side, I'll bet the Wooster players feel like they let a winnable game slip away, and they're probably pretty frustrated.  I sure wouldn't want to be the team that plays them next.  Now let's see, who would that be...? 



Uh oh. 

Things are not looking good for the Big Red.   

[TigerLady]

The officials are going to make both some bad and questionable calls...it happens in any sport.   

I did not have a good view of the Bino foul either....but Witt also got called for two fouls on Cooper that were also questionable.  And, there is also the whole timeout issue that occurred once Hill scored in the last seconds of the overtime. 

It was by far the best basketball game I have seen in my life.  I waited 4 years to see Witt beat Woo on our home court.  Usually, we lose at home, and win at Wooster during regular season.   The last time we beat Wooster at home was January 17th, 2004. 

[ScotsFan]

And, there is also the whole timeout issue that occurred once Hill scored in the last seconds of the overtime. 

If anything, that favored Witt in that situation.  Wooster has been in these situations before and this has been a trademark of Moore to not call timeout.  Wooster did it to Walsh and it seemed to catch them off guard as Johnson drove the length of the court to hit the game winner at the buzzer.  It seemed as though that was the case again, however, the clock operator must have just assumed that Wooster was going to call a timeout as they never restarted the game clock after Wooster inbounded and pushed the ball up the court.  So instead of Wooster having the opportunity to catch Witt on their heels in the closing seconds, Witt not only got to have an opportunity to regroup, they also got to call an additional timeout after Wooster took the floor to gameplan what they were going to do. 

Johnson still got a good look, but that element of surprise was lost for Wooster when that clock operator made the mistake of assuming that Wooster was going to call a timeout in that situation.

Witt deserved the win by virtue of coming up with the clutch plays down the stretch.  Don't forget they erased an 11-point second half deficit just to make Barabino's and Hill's heroics possible.

In the end I agree with David.  As TigerLady pointed out, bad calls happen.  And I'm sure that had Wooster pulled out the win, there would have been some calls that Witt could have pointed to that were questionable in Wooster's favor.  The bottom line is that this was yet another classic in this rivalry.  As David noted, Witt made all of the plays down the stretch to get in the position to force OT.  If Wooster makes ft's to close it out in OT, they likely win this game.  Furthermore, if Wooster could have taken advantage of the few opportunities they had to blow the game open in the 2nd half, they may have been able to prevent the Witt comeback.

One thing I do find disconcerting concerning Wooster is their pension for losing leads late in games.  I touched on this earlier, but it has reared it's ugly head again.  Wooster squandered a 7 point lead late in their loss to LEC.  They also led by as many as 13 in the 2nd half vs. OWU.  Wooster also held a 10 point lead with just 5 minutes to go and allowed the Bishops to come all the way back to retake the lead.  Wooster was fortunate to escape with the win on that day.  And last night, Wooster had Witt on the ropes leading by 11, but they couldn't deliver the knockout punch once again.  Wooster has also had their share of comeback wins including their win over Wabash last Saturday, but, if the Scots are going to have aspirations of playing basketball deep into the NCAA Tournament, they are going to have to figure out why they can't close teams out when they get the chance.

[Valley]

A note about Coach Moore - As the game ended the Wooster players began running off the floor to the locker rooms.  Coach Moore chased them down and told them to get back on the floor to congratulate the Witt team.  It was a tremendous touch of class by a great coach.  By the way, I'm a Witt fan.

[jscwittfan]

Good overall analysis, ScotsFan.  Sadly, I think we've come to the point where we can't be "outraged" at any bad calls that happen in this series.  It seems (at least with every Witt/Wooster game that I've been to in person, as well as accounts that I have read from everybody else from games I have not attended) that there are two guaranteed things we can all expect heading into these games: #1, they'll be extremely competitive and show everybody in attendance why this is such a great rivalry, and #2, there will be a myriad of bad calls from the officials.  Everyone here I believe is right when they've said the game was decided in other areas of the game besides a few bad calls (and I'm just going off what you all have to say, as I couldn't even listen to the game last night), but it's gotten to the point where bad calls are about as common as someone making a 3-point shot.  Much like you have to expect the other team to shoot a few threes, you have to also expect that the other team will shoot a couple questionable free throws.  Again, it's sad that we've come to expect bad calls by officials in these games, but it is what it is.

Congrats to Witt on a huge victory, and for finally beating Wooster at home!  I'm sure round 2 (and possibly round 3) will be just as exciting.