Ian Franks

WOOSTER, Ohio – Ian Franks led all players in scoring (24), rebounding (9), and assists (4) while paving the way for a 73-58 College of Wooster victory over Kenyon College Tuesday night in the teams' North Coast Athletic Conference tilt at Timken Gymnasium.

With the win, Wooster (22-2, 13-2 NCAC), ranked No. 5 in this week's D3hoops.com top-25 poll, remains in contention for the NCAC championship, as the Fighting Scots stay in second-place in the league standings, a half game behind No. 17 Wittenberg University (17-5, 13-1 NCAC).

Wooster got off to an icy shooting start against Kenyon (9-14, 5-10 NCAC), as it was just 2-for-11 through seven minutes, including 1-for-9 on 3-pointers. At that juncture, though, the Scots only trailed 8-7 and they were actually in the midst of an 11-1 run, which saw an 8-2 deficit turn into a 13-9 lead.

Never behind again, Wooster went on to build a double-digit lead at one point (28-16) before going into halftime up 31-24. The Scots overcame their poor field-goal percentage (.371) by doubling the Lords in rebounding (30-15) the first 20 minutes.

In the second half, Wooster put together a 13-3 run fairly early on in going ahead by 18 points (46-28). The outcome was never in much doubt after that, however, Kenyon cut it down to a 10-point margin (61-51) with 2:06 to play before Justin Hallowell sealed it with a 3-pointer from the left wing.

Taking away that poor start, the Scots made 24-of-52 field goals (.462) the rest of the way to finish at 41.3 percent (26-of-63), while their defense kept the Lords to 34.8 percent for the game (23-of-66). They also wound up with a plus-11 advantage on the glass (47-36).

Franks' 24 points came on 8-of-16 field goals and a perfect night at the free throw line (7-of-7) and he also picked up three steals to go with his rebound and assist numbers.

Hallowell was very productive as well, tallying 19 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while Nathan Balch added 10 markers in the scorebook.

For Kenyon, Kodey Haddok and Evan McCulley shared scoring honors with 11 apiece.

Wooster wraps up its regular season with a visit from third-place Ohio Wesleyan University (14-9, 10-4 NCAC) Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.