Nathan Balch collects a rebound early in the second half of Friday night's NCAC Tournament semifinal game.

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster jumped out to a big early lead and never looked back, rolling past Ohio Wesleyan University 87-70 in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals Friday night at Timken Gymnasium, which sets up a championship match-up between the Fighting Scots and their arch-rival, Wittenberg University, a 61-60 winner over Wabash College earlier in the evening.

Wooster (22-5), seeded No. 1 via its first-place finish in the regular season standings, and third-seeded Wittenberg (21-6) will be meeting in the NCAC Tournament finals for the 10th time, but first since 2006. The game will take place Saturday night, starting at 7 p.m.

Against Ohio Wesleyan (13-14), the No. 5 seed, the Scots scored on six of their first nine possessions, including a pair of 3-pointers from Brandon Johnson, the second of which gave them a 14-3 lead and forced the Battling Bishops into a second timeout less than five minutes into the action.

Ohio Wesleyan kept the margin at a manageable distance for the ensuing 10 minutes, only to see Wooster close the first half with a 14-2 run, resulting in a 51-28 cushion at the break. Bryan Wickliffe accounted for six points during that late stretch.

In the second half, the Scots stretched out their advantage to as much as 30 (74-44) before settling for the 17-point victory.

Statistically, Wooster made over 50 percent of its shots from the field for the fourth-straight game, this time finishing at a rate of .525 (32-for-61), while the Bishops struggled throughout, connecting on 31.0 percent (22-for-71). Also of note, the Scots made nearly half of their 3-point attempts (.480; 12-for-25) and owned a 44-37 rebounding advantage.

Wooster had a very balanced effort with four in double figures, led by Josh Claytor's collegiate-high 17 points. The freshman forward made 3-of-4 3-pointers and four other field goals, and paced the team with nine boards as well.

Nathan Balch contributed 13 points, while Ian Franks and Wickliffe produced 12 apiece. Franks passed out a game-high six assists, too.

Dillon McBride provided Ohio Wesleyan with a bright spot, scoring 16 points off of the bench.

In the evening's first semifinal game, Wittenberg's David Hieber sunk two free throws with 7.2 seconds left and then Lewis Buzzard came off the bench to block a last-second shot by Wabash (18-8), closing out the 61-60 win.

Following the first bucket of the second half, the Tigers gained their biggest lead at 34-17, however, the Little Giants stormed back, first tying it at 42 at the midway point. Wittenberg appeared it was going to pull away again, leading 57-50 with less than 4:00 to play, but Wabash scored the next eight points, including a pair of Chase Haltom 3-pointers, to take its first lead (58-57) since the early moments.

The two teams then exchanged the lead three more times – Clayton Black lay-up for Wittenberg, then a couple of Ben Burkett free throws with less than a minute to play, and after a Little Giant turnover with 10.5 seconds remaining, Hieber got to the line as he was fouled during an in-bounds play.

The Tigers' balanced attack saw Josh McKee and Chris Sullivan share the team high with nine points, while Haltom led all scorers with 16 points in his final collegiate game.

The winner of Saturday's championship game receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.