Men’s hoops continues domination
Travis Marmon
Sports Editor
The Wooster men’s basketball team continued its undefeated start last week with road victories over Kenyon College and Adrian College, improving to 5-0 (1-0 NCAC) on the season and rising to No. 5 in the nation in the d3hoops.com Top 25 poll.
On Nov. 30, the Fighting Scots traveled to Gambier, Ohio to take on Kenyon (2-3, 0-1 NCAC) for their first conference test. The Lords played evenly with Wooster for the entire first half, closing the period on a 17-8 run to take a 34-32 lead heading into the locker room. Both teams shot around 52 percent from the field in the first half and each team hit three of eight three-pointers.
The Scots caught fire in the second half. Two minutes in, Justin Hallowell ’12 hit a three-pointer to give Wooster a 35-34 lead. They never trailed again. The Scots shot a scorching 70 percent from the field in the second half, including six of eight from behind the arc. The defense limited Kenyon to just 40 percent shooting as Wooster pulled away. Up 51-46 with less than 13 minutes to play, the Scots went on a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to go ahead 65-48 and put the game out of reach, ultimately winning 84-68.
Xavier Brown ’15 led all scorers with 22 points, but Hallowell, Josh Claytor ’13, Justin Warnes ’12 and Ryan Snyder ’14 all had double-digit performances as well. The Lords were led by Ikenna Nwadibia, who had 17 points and seven rebounds. Brian Lebowitz added 15 points and John Bray had 10 points.
Wooster’s defense shone last Saturday as they went on the road to Adrian, Mich. to play the Adrian Bulldogs. The Scots held Adrian to less than 30 percent shooting and never trailed during the game. An 11-8 lead six minutes into the game quickly turned into a 24-11 advantage. The Bulldogs made just over a quarter of their shots in the first half, including a paltry 2-for-11 performance from three-point range. Wooster headed into halftime with a 40-24 lead.
The lead was extended to 20 points as the Scots opened the second half on a 7-3 run. Adrian narrowed the deficit to 55-39 with 10 minutes to go, but that is as close as they would get. Wooster left Adrian with a 75-50 victory. Hallowell led the team with 13 points.
Warnes added 11 and Claytor contributed 10. Jake Mays ’13 nearly had a double-double with nine points and 13 rebounds.
The Bulldogs’ Eric Lewis had 13 points off the bench, while Adam Meier and Brad Whitby had 12 points each.
Wooster played arch-rival Wittenberg University (2-2, 1-0 NCAC) at Timken Gymnasium on Wednesday after press time. They will travel to Crawfordsville, Ind. tomorrow to play Wabash College (6-0, 1-0 NCAC).
