Men’s basketball bounces back from pair of NCAC defeats

Men’s basketball bounces back from pair of NCAC defeats

Travis Marmon

Sports Editor

The Wooster men’s basketball team suffered two tough conference losses in a row last month, falling 56-55 at the buzzer to Wittenberg University on Dec. 7 and 72-58 to Wabash University on Dec. 10.

TheFighting Scots (14-3, 5-3 NCAC) have come back strongly from this setback, winning nine of their next 10 games, seven by double digits.

The team traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for games on Dec. 19 and 20, where they dispatched St. Mary’s College of Maryland 63-61 and the University of the Sacred Heart 78-50. On Dec. 29 and 30, the Scots hosted the “Mose” Hole/Kiwanis Classic, where they earned a 78-68 victory over Thiel College and a 73-61 win over Heidelberg University.

Wooster rang in the New Year with three consecutive home wins, starting on Jan. 4 with a 100-48 thrashing of Geneva College in which every player on the team scored at least once and five players reached double digits. The Scots returned to NCAC play on Jan. 7, beating Oberlin College 70-58, and three days later disposing of Hiram College 92-64.

Wooster suffered their first loss of 2012 against DePauw University (12-5, 6-2 NCAC) on Jan. 14 in Greencastle, Ind. With the game was tied at 57 with four minutes left to play, the Tigers went on a 13-0 run to pull away. Doug Thorpe ’14 and Justin Hallowell ’12 combined for three field goals from three-point range in the final 35 seconds, but their efforts proved futile as DePauw won 75-66. This was the third conference loss of the season for the Scots, which is the most they have suffered in 10 years.

The Scots traveled to Meadville, Pa. on Jan. 18 to take on Allegheny College (3-14, 1-7 NCAC). Wooster thoroughly dominated the Gators in the paint, as big men Josh Claytor ’13 and Jake Mays ’13 combined for 30 points and 14 rebounds. The Scots outscored Allegheny 36-16 inside and had 12 more rebounds. Wooster shot just under 59 percent from the floor en route to a 73-51 victory.

The game was competitive in the first half. Although the Scots scored the first eight points of the game and had a 27-17 lead with four minutes left in the period, the Gators went on a run of their own and cut the deficit to 31-28, before Hallowell drilled a three-pointer at the end of the half to give Wooster a six-point advantage at the break.

The Fighting Scots outscored Allegheny 39-23 in the second half, as their 34-31 lead turned into an insurmountable 60-38 advantage over the first 14 minutes of the half.

Wooster played a tight battle against Ohio Wesleyan University (13-4, 5-3 NCAC) last Saturday at Timken Gymnasium. The Scots got out to a hot start, gaining a 10-2 lead to begin the game, but both teams went scoreless for four minutes before the Battling Bishops took a 15-14 lead with nine minutes to go in the half.

Wooster responded with a 16-5 run to take a 31-20 advantage with four minutes left in the period, but the deficit was soon narrowed and the Scots held onto a 37-32 lead at halftime.

Wooster looked ready to pull away when they went up 54-44 with 11 minutes left to play, but OWU took a 62-61 lead with less than six minutes remaining. The Bishops had the

ball down 69-68 with 11 seconds to go Ryan Snyder ’14 stole the ball from Eric Easley and got the ball to Matt Fegan ’12, who was fouled and made two free throws. The Bishops missed a three-pointer to tie the game and Justin Warnes ’12 made a free throw to seal the game, 72-68.

The Scots played Kenyon College (8-9, 2-6 NCAC) on Wednesday after press time. They will travel to Hiram (11-6, 4-4 NCAC) tomorrow for a 3 p.m. game.