Scots Unable to Cool Off Little Giants

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana – The College of Wooster men's basketball team was unable to sustain its strong start, and Wabash College went on to solidify its placement atop the North Coast Athletic Conference standings with a 94-80 win over the Fighting Scots on Sunday afternoon at Chadwick Court.

Wooster (13-6, 9-3 NCAC) found success at the onset posting up Wabash (15-3, 10-1 NCAC) star Jack Davidson. Wooster senior Najee Hardaway drew an early foul on the Little Giants' guard and had five points over the first four possessions via his post-up game. Next, sophomore Carter Warstler denied Davidson a cleanly-secured handoff, with that leading to his first of four steals in the game. Warstler went on to make the fast-break layup to put the Scots up 13-6 at the 16:15 mark of the first half, and junior Turner Kurt's stick back at 14:44 made it an eight-point game.

Davidson hit his stride from there, starting with a three-pointer. He went on to finish with 20 first-half points on 6-of-9 shooting, with four of the buckets coming from range. A two-man Wabash show, with forward Ahmoni Jones adding 16 points, enabled the Little Giants to open up a 51-38 halftime lead. Wabash, which entered the day third in Div. III in field-goal percentage, lived up to that ranking, connecting at a 65.4 percent (17-of-26) clip in the first half.

Wooster first-year Jamir Billings' half-court flip swished through at the buzzer, and that fueled the Scots for the first few minutes coming out of halftime. Six second-chance points, including a three-ball from senior Brandon Styers, plus two Hardaway free throws helped Wooster get within 53-48 at the 16:20 mark.

Later, Billings snuck in behind Tyler Watson, poked the ball away, then hit a three-pointer to pull Wooster within single digits again. Eventually, sophomore Nick Everett's layup with 8:08 to go had Wooster within 70-65, but Wabash's lead grew back to double digits with just under 6:30 to go.

The very physical and tightly-called game featured a combined 57 fouls, 33 of which went against Wooster, resulting in several key players battling through foul trouble. Hardaway was among those, and he scored 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting in just over 19 minutes of action. Kurt finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocked shots. Billings added 11 points, and was the only other Scot to hit double digits in scoring.

Wooster shot 40.6 percent (26-of-64) for the game, was 7-of-23 on three-pointers, and won the rebounding battle 37-33.

Davidson's 31 points were the game high, and he now has 2,071 for his career. He passed Josh Estelle (2,065 points) to become Wabash's all-time leading scorer with 9:09 to go in the game. Jones proved to be a tall order to stop in the paint, finishing 10-of-15 shooting on his 28-point afternoon.

Wabash's 53.8 percent (28-of-52) field-goal percentage came in just a touch above the team's 51.3 percent mark coming into play. Forty free throw attempts, of which Wabash made 30, factored heavily into the win.

Wabash, winners of 11 straight, now has a 1.5-game lead over Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan University (12-7, 9-3 NCAC) atop the NCAC standings.

Next, Wooster's at Kenyon College (2-16, 0-11) for a 7 p.m. game on Wednesday, February 2.