MEN'S BASKETBALL | College of Wooster falters after strong start at Wabash
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana — The College of Wooster men’s basketball team was unable to sustain a strong start, and Wabash College went on to solidify its spot atop the North Coast Athletic Conference standings with a 94-80 win Sunday afternoon at Chadwick Court.
Wooster (13-6, 9-3) found success by using a post-up game early against Wabash (15-3, 10-1) . Wooster senior Najee Hardaway drew an early foul on Little Giants guard Jack Davidson and had five points over the first four possessions with his post-up game.
Next, sophomore Carter Warstler denied Davidson a cleanly secured handoff for the first of his four steals in the game and went on to make a fast-break layup to put the Scots up 13-6 at the 16:15 mark of the first half. Junior Turner Kurt’s stick back at 14:44 made it an eight-point game.
Davidson hit his stride from there, starting with a 3-pointer, and scored 20 first-half points on 6-of-9 shooting, including four from deep. A two-man Wabash show, with forward Ahmoni Jones adding 16 points, enabled the Little Giants to open up a 51-38 halftime lead.
Wabash, which entered the day third in Div. III in field-goal percentage, lived up to that ranking, connecting at a 65.4 percent (17 of 26) clip in the first half.
Wooster freshman Jamir Billings’ half-court flip swished through the net at the buzzer, and that fueled the Scots for the first few minutes coming out of halftime. Six second-chance points, including a 3 by senior Brandon Styers, plus two free throws by Hardaway, helped Wooster get within 53-48 at the 16:20 mark.
Later, Billings snuck in behind Tyler Watson, poked the ball away, then hit a 3-pointer to pull Wooster within single digits again. Sophomore Nick Everett’s layup with 8:08 to go made it 70-65, but Wabash’s lead grew back to double digits with just under 6:30 to go.
The very physical and tightly called game featured a combined 57 fouls, 33 of them on Wooster, resulting in several key players battling through foul trouble. Hardaway was among those, and he scored 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting in just over 19 minutes of action.
Kurt finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocked shots. Billings added 11 points, and was the only other Scot to hit double digits in scoring.
Wooster shot 40.6 percent (26 of 64) for the game, was 7 of 23 on 3-pointers, and won the rebounding battle 37-33.
Davidson’s 31 points were the game high, and he now has 2,071 for his career. He passed Josh Estelle (2,065 points) to become Wabash’s all-time leading scorer with 9:09 to go in the game. Jones proved to be a tall order to stop in the paint, finishing 10-of-15 shooting en route to 28 points.
Wabash’s 53.8% shooting (28-of-52) came in just above the team’s 51.3% mark coming into the game. The Little Giants also made 30 free throws in 40 attempts.
Wabash, winners of 11 straight, has a 1½-game lead over Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan University (12-7, 9-3) in the conference standings.
Wooster next plays at Kenyon College (2-16, 0-11) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: First-place Wabash pulls away from Wooster for NCAC victory
