Ian Franks posts up on Wabash's Derek Bailey

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster, ranked No. 25 in this week's D3hoops.com poll, began each half with a substantial run which was the difference in a 78-60 victory over Wabash College during a North Coast Athletic Conference match-up Sunday afternoon at Timken Gymnasium.

Wooster (6-4, 3-0 NCAC) made 8-of-9 field goals at the outset in building a 20-9 advantage. The Fighting Scots pulled ahead by 13 (24-11) and were still leading by double digits at 33-23 with just under 6:00 left in the first half when Wabash (4-5, 0-2 NCAC) rallied. The Little Giants scored on nine of their final 11 possessions before the break, cutting the deficit to 37-36 at one point, and it was 40-36 at halftime.

At the start of the second, Wooster quickly extended that lead, using an old-fashioned three-point play from Bryan Wickliffe – his second of three on the day – and back-to-back buckets by Ian Franks for a double-digit cushion again (47-36). Wabash briefly answered with a Wes Smith three-point conversion on a lay-up and foul, but it was all Scots after that as they rattled off 14 unanswered points to make it 61-39.

The closest margin after that was 65-52 and 67-54 before Wooster put the game away.

Statistically, the key to success was the Scots' season-low seven turnovers. They also outrebounded the Little Giants 34-28 and shot slightly better from the field, 49.2 percent (29-of-59) to 44.7 (21-of-47).

Franks led Wooster again, finishing 9-of-14 from the floor for the fourth time this year as part of a game-high 21 points. He also dished out four assists without a turnover and tallied two steals.

The Scots were pretty balanced overall with Wickliffe scoring 15 points and Josh Claytor adding 13 off the bench. Claytor also came up with a game-high three steals, Brandon Johnson passed out a game-high five assists without a turnover, and Justin Hallowell recorded six boards and four assists.

Smith tossed in 18 points, nine coming during Wabash's late first-half run.

Wooster is off from competition until Dec. 29-30 when it hosts the annual "Mose" Hole/Kiwanis Classic, which will also include Kalamazoo College (0-8), Transylvania University (5-4), and two-time defending national champion Washington University-St. Louis (8-0).