Marty Bidwell

An inspired Wabash College squad knocked off The College of Wooster 75-58 Saturday afternoon, as the Little Giants led wire-to-wire in giving their coach Mac Petty his 500th career victory during a North Coast Athletic Conference match-up at Crawfordsville, Ind.

Ironically, Petty is a Wooster native, having graduated from Wooster High School before going on to a coaching career that has seen him compile a 500-395 record over the last 36 seasons.

Wabash (7-5, 2-2 NCAC) took control right from the outset, scoring the game's first 13 points. Wooster (8-5, 3-1 NCAC) finally got on the board with a free throw 4:41 in, only to see the Little Giants answer on the next possession to grab a 15-1 lead.

The Fighting Scots eventually settled in, trimming the margin to six (17-11), but it ballooned back to 14 due to an 8-0 Wabash run (25-11). The game remained within the 10-to-14-point range for several minutes, however late in the half, Wooster rallied, reducing a 34-20 deficit to 36-30, keyed by a pair of Marty Bidwell (Middletown, Ohio / Bishop Fenwick) 3-pointers.

A 38-30 halftime score dipped to 38-32 and 40-34 within the opening minute of the second. It was all Little Giants after that, though, as they reeled off another 8-0 run, capped by 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions from Chase Haltom and Andrew Gilman. That made it 48-34 and the Scots were never able to pull any closer than 10 over the final 16 minutes.

Wooster shot a season-low 39.6 percent from the field (21-for-53), which included just 6-of-19 3-pointers (.316). Also of note, the Scots were outrebounded 35-31 and turned the ball over 20 times.

Wabash, on the other hand, hit just under 50 percent of its field goals overall (.469; 23-of-49) and 7-of-17 3-pointers (.412) after entering the game at .396 and .305, respectively, for the season.

Nathan Balch (Westerville, Ohio / Olentangy) contributed a team-high 13 points in the setback, while Bidwell and Bryan Wickliffe (Columbus, Ohio / St. Charles Prep) added 10 apiece for the Scots.

Wooster had trouble containing Wes Smith, as he produced 24 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, and five steals – all team highs for the Little Giants. Haltom had 17 points, including 3-of-7 3-point shooting, and Aaron Brock recorded 11 tallies in the scorebook.

The Scots will look to regroup on Wednesday night when they host the current conference leader, Hiram College (8-4, 3-0 NCAC), at 7:30 p.m.