Evan Pannell slammed home this alley-oop dunk midway through the second half of Wooster's season-opening win.

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster's defense stood out in its season opener Friday night, as the No. 13 ranked Fighting Scots recorded five blocked shots and 11 steals during a wire-to-wire 79-67 victory over Carnegie Mellon University in the first round of the Al Van Wie/Rotary Classic at Timken Gymnasium.

Wooster (1-0) will meet Adrian College (1-0), a 61-49 winner earlier in the evening, for the championship of the 19th annual event Saturday night.

The Fighting Scots blitzed Carnegie Mellon (0-1) early on, accounting for the game's first nine points, but the Tartans hung around the rest of the way. After Wooster extended its initial lead to 11 a couple of times at 13-2 and 15-4, Carnegie Mellon steadily chipped away to within 23-19 late in the opening half. The Scots did push it back to an eight-point margin of 29-21 at the break.

The second stanza started similar to the first, as Wooster used an 8-3 stretch for its largest lead to that point (37-24). While the Scots weren't able to put away the Tartans until late, they also were ahead by 7-to-15 points the whole half.

Carnegie Mellon had one opportunity to make it a two-possession game with less than 4:00 to go, but didn't convert, and shortly thereafter, Evan Pannell drained a 3-pointer from the left for a 67-57 cushion that just about sealed the Wooster win.

Statistically, the Scots' offense had mixed results. Thanks to several transition baskets, resulting from the blocks and steals, they shot nearly 60 percent from the field (.582; 32-for-55), including 19-of-26 during the second half (.731), however, they also committed 25 turnovers on the night. Also of note, Wooster took advantage of its experience on the inside, outrebounding the Tartans 38-23.

Xavier Brown put together a solid all-around performance with a team-high 16 points and six assists, and the sophomore guard also contributed seven rebounds. He made 8-of-12 from the field.

Also scoring in double figures were Josh Claytor and Pannell with 14 apiece and Jake Mays with an even dozen. Mays grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and Claytor added seven, while Pannell produced the highlight of the night, slamming down an alley-oop dunk off a feed from Brown.

Carnegie Mellon's Asad Meghani hit 5-of-9 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 20 points.

In a back-and-forth affair that featured 10 lead changes and six ties, Adrian slowly pulled away from Otterbein to a 12-point triumph. The Bulldogs were paced by Eric Lewis, who had 19 points, and Adam Meier, who posted a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Adrian and Wooster will tip Saturday at approximately 8 p.m., or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the consolation match-up between Carnegie Mellon and Otterbein, which starts at 6 p.m.