Travis Marmon
Sports Editor
Wooster men’s basketball continued its winning streak last week with a pair of conference victories at home. After an 86-52 shellacking of Kenyon College on Wednesday and a 68-63 win over Hiram College, the Scots have now won 10 straight games, improving their record to 17-2 (10-0 NCAC).
The Kenyon Lords came to Timken Gymnasium on Wednesday looking to improve their middling record (8-9, 2-6 NCAC), but Wooster’s defense tormented them all game. Ikenna Nwadibia was the only Kenyon player to score in the double digits, putting up 16 points as well as seven rebounds. His team was held to 18-of-55 from the field (32.7 percent) and committed 24 turnovers.
The Scots took great advantage of the Lords’ miscues, scoring 33 points off of turnovers. Wooster played smart basketball, only turning the ball over 10 times and allowing five points off of those turnovers.
It was apparent which way the game was going when the Scots had a 30-9 lead just 12 minutes into the game. Kenny DeBoer ’15 led the team with 15 points, while Doug Thorpe ’14 added 13 and Xavier Brown ’15 had 11. The Wooster bench outscored Kenyon’s 40-14.
The Scots had a much tighter contest on Saturday against Hiram (10-9, 4-6 NCAC). Despite outplaying the Terriers in almost every aspect of the game, there was one fundamental skill that almost cost Wooster the win: free throws. The Scots got to the line almost twice as much as Hiram, but only made 10 out of 30 attempts. This helped the Terriers overcome a miserable shooting performance from the field (33.8 percent) and led to Wooster needing some late-game luck to win.
The game was tight in the first half, which featured ugly shooting from both teams. The Scots were a disastrous 1-for-14 from three-point range, and the teams combined to go 21-56 from the field. The game was tied at 26 points apiece going into the halftime break.
Coach Steve Moore made some major adjustments to his offense at halftime, as evidenced by the Scots shooting 64 percent in the second half, including 3-of-4 from outside. However, Wooster was still abysmal at the free throw line, making just seven out of 21 attempts and keeping Hiram within reach.
This inability to close out the game meant that the Scots were holding just a 66-63 lead with 33 seconds left to play. Jalen Goodwin ’15 missed two free throws, which would have made it a two-possession game, and gave the Terriers a chance to tie.
Hiram’s Josh Edmondson missed a three-pointer, but Steve Zivoder got the rebound and kicked the ball out to leading scorer Alan Sheppard. Sheppard’s three hit the rim, but Zivoder got it back to him yet again. This time he missed once more and Thorpe pulled down the rebound for Wooster before getting fouled. He hit both of his free throws with three seconds left to seal the game, 68-63.
The Scots hosted Denison University on Wednesday after press time. They will hit the road to play Wabash College tomorrow at 2 p.m., then return home to play Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday at 8 p.m in Timken Gymnasium.