Senior guard Doug Thorpe sunk this 3-point attempt for his 1,000th career point.

WOOSTER, Ohio – Doug Thorpe scored the 1,000th point of his career during the opening half, and top-seeded College of Wooster piled up 55 points in the second half as the Fighting Scots pulled away to an 89-56 victory against eighth-seeded Oberlin College as the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament got underway Tuesday night with quarterfinal action at Timken Gymnasium.

Wooster (23-3) will serve as host of the NCAC Tournament semifinals and finals this Friday and Saturday nights. The three other favorites won their respective quarterfinal games, thus second-seeded DePauw University (19-7) and third-seeded Wittenberg University (20-6) will tip-off the festivities Friday at 6 p.m., followed by fourth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan University (20-6) taking on the host Fighting Scots.

Oberlin (7-19) and Wooster closed the regular season against each other just three days ago, and Tuesday's tilt played out very similarly to Saturday's 82-53 decision. The Yeomen kept it close for much of the first half, then a late 12-2 spurt by the Scots, capped by a Thorpe 3-pointer that made the senior guard the 39th player in the tradition-rich program to reach the 1,000 milestone, put the score at 30-18.

A sloppy sequence for Wooster the last two minutes helped allow Oberlin pull within 34-28 at the break.

Scott Purcell got the Scots back on track with a 3-pointer from the right corner on the opening possession of the second half, the first points of a 10-2 run, and Wooster stayed ahead by double figures for the remainder.

The storyline of the second 20 minutes was fouls, as a combined 28 were called. Nineteen of the Scots' 55 second-half points came from the foul line, while 17 of the Yeomen's 28 points were made free throws.

Overall, Wooster's defense held Oberlin to less than 35 percent from the field (.347; 17-for-49) and helped cause 21 turnovers, compared to 45.9 percent field-goal shooting (28-for-61) and nine turnovers for the Scots.

Xavier Brown spent quite a bit of time at the charity stripe during the second half (7-for-8) en route to a game-high 17 points, while Dan Fanelly was next in the scoring column with 16, which included a dunk, assisted by Evan Pannell. Fanelly secured eight rebounds, as did Purcell, a career high for the latter.

Kenny DeBoer made a pair of 3-pointers during the game's opening moments and tallied 11 points to go with a game-high five assists. Thorpe's 10 points pushed his career total to 1,005.

For the Yeomen, Geoff Simpson led the way with 16 points, including 11-of-13 free throws.