Matt Fegan gets fired up on defense during first-half action Saturday night.

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster built an 18-point halftime lead and then withstood a comeback attempt by Wittenberg University in the second, completing a wire-to-wire 88-77 victory during the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament championship game Saturday night at Timken Gymnasium.

The win gives Wooster (23-5), ranked No. 19 by D3hoops.com, the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Div. III Championships, which starts March 5, as the Fighting Scots will be part of the national field for the eighth year in a row and 15th time out of the last 16 seasons.

The two rivals split the regular season, with each winning on the others' home floor, but top-seeded Wooster set the tone right from the outset of this one. Within eight minutes of action, the Scots were ahead by 10 (16-6), forcing the No. 3 seed into a timeout.

Shortly thereafter, Wittenberg (21-7) pulled within five on a couple of occasions – 21-16 and 23-18 – only to see Wooster close the half strong. First, the Scots went on a 12-2 run for a 15-point lead (35-20) and then edged it out further to 45-27 at the break. Their defense helped limit the Tigers to less than 30 percent shooting from the field over the opening 20 minutes (.278; 10-for-36).

Early in the second, Wooster extended its advantage to 20-plus points, as much as 51-30 at one point. However later in the half, Wittenberg cut an 18-point deficit (57-39) all the way down to six (61-55) in a span of less than three minutes, keyed by three David Hieber 3-pointers.

Nathan Balch ended that run with a 3-ball of his own from the right wing, setting up a pattern that saw the Scots come up with an answer nearly every time the Tigers scored the rest of the way. The only exception to that was with under 6:00 to play, when David Nowicki and Hieber connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a 76-67 margin.

On Wooster's ensuing possession, Ian Franks got to the free throw line, a place he became very familiar with during the second half, and made both for a double-digit lead again (78-67). Michael Cooper responded with a short jumper in the paint, followed by Bryan Wickliffe connecting on a jump shot at the 4:10 mark that made it 80-69, and the margin never dipped under single digits again.

Overall, the Scots shot just under 50 percent from the floor (.462; 24-for-52), while holding down Wittenberg to 33.3 percent (24-for-72). The other difference in the game was Wooster's ability to get to the free throw line, where it made a season-high 29-of-38 (.763).

Balch scored a season-high 22 points, 14 coming in the first half and 4-of-7 3-point shooting overall, and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Franks made 14-of-16 free throws all in the second half as part of a 21-point, five-assist night, earning a spot on the all-tournament team. In the process, Franks became the 34th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point milestone for his career (1,004).

Also for the Scots, Wickliffe scored 18, Justin Hallowell notched a game-high nine rebounds, and Brandon Johnson led all players with six assists.

The Tigers were paced by Cooper and Hieber with 23 and 15 points, respectively, and they were both selected all-tourney. Cooper sunk 11-of-12 free throws to go with eight boards and Hieber was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.

The NCAA will announce the brackets Monday via a selection show on www.ncaa.com at 10 a.m.