HIRAM, Ohio – The College of Wooster men's basketball team had no trouble dismantling Hiram College on Wednesday evening, as the Fighting Scots heated up as the game progressed to roll to an 83-54 victory at Price Gymnasium.
Wooster's (16-8, 12-3 North Coast Athletic Conference) win, plus Wabash College's (16-8, 12-3 NCAC) 90-76 victory over Ohio Wesleyan University (10-14, 7-8 NCAC) sets the stage for a winner-take-all championship game on Saturday between the Scots and Little Giants. The winner of Saturday's 2 p.m. game at Wabash wins the NCAC title outright and earns the top seed for next week's NCAC Tournament. Additionally, Wooster's winning streak is now at 10 games, marking the 42nd 10-game winning streak in program history and first since the Scots won 12 consecutive games during the 2018-19 season.
Junior Jamir Billings continued to close in on multiple records. He had four assists on the night to move within seven of becoming the program's all-time leader. Additionally, Billings logged seven steals, giving him 79 on the year, and he is just five shy of the record 84 recorded as a first-year. The seven steals are tied for the second-most in program history, trailing just the 10 Billings had at Hiram as a first-year, and it marked his third-career game with seven steals.
While Billings' length, quickness, and keen instinct to deflect the ball away from the Terriers (2-22, 0-15 NCAC) was consistently on display over the game's first 28 minutes, an early steal by senior Nick Everett charted Wooster's blueprint to the runaway victory. Everett deflected the ball away from Trent Jakacki, the NCAC's leading scorer, at the first half's 16:33 mark. Unselfish basketball – with every Scot getting involved in the ensuing transition – resulted in Billings scoring an open fastbreak layup off a junior Ashton Price assist. At that point, Wooster's lead was already 9-0.
Wooster's game-opening 10-0 run was not the biggest of the night, as a 15-0 stretch by the Scots had the lead north of 20 by the first half's 5:31 mark. Everett stepped in front of a Dushawn Hill pass and finished the transition dunk to grow Wooster's lead to 30-9. The Scots' lead fell below 20 twice, and both times it was back to at least 20 within 20 seconds. Sophomore Isaac Roeder's three-pointer with 1:34 before halftime put Wooster up 39-17, and the lead never dipped below 20 the rest of the night.
The sizable scoring margin enabled Wooster to showcase its depth in the second half. First-year Nick Prince took advantage of the blowout, scoring eight points on the strength of two three-pointers. Sophomore Vinni Veikalas added five points, while senior Nolan Burk and first-year Colton Martin had four points each over the final eight minutes and change.
Billings and Everett led Wooster with 14 points apiece. They combined to shoot 11-of-16, which included a 4-of-7 ledger from Billings from deep. Sophophomore Jaiden Cox-Holloway and Everett corralled seven rebounds each, and that led to a more-than-double rebounding edge for Wooster at 41-20. Senior JJ Cline and Price followed in the scoring column with 10 points each.
Wooster, which entered the day with the fifth-highest team field-goal percentage in NCAA Div. III, overcame a slow start to finish at 55 percent (33-of-60) for the game. That marked the team's ninth time shooting above 52 percent over the last 10 games. Wooster dominated the glass, leading to a 20-5 second-chance points margin. The Scots scored 48 paint points to the Terriers' 18.
Manuel Devora Violan led Hiram with nine points. Jakacki had just six points again. He entered play averaging 22.1 points per game on the season and has a 22.9 per-game average for the year against non-Wooster competition. Of note, Wooster is the lone team to hold him below 12 points in a game.
Hiram finished at 39.6 percent (19-of-48) from the floor for the game. The Terriers had 19 turnovers.
Wooster will be in search of its league-leading 20th NCAC title on Saturday, which would give the program half of the league's all-time titles. Saturday's Wooster-Wabash game marks the second straight year the teams are playing for the NCAC title. Wooster entered last year's regular season finale with at least a share of the NCAC title guaranteed, then alumnus Turner Kurt gave the program the title outright by hitting a game-winning buzzer-beating three-pointer in a 75-74 win over Wabash.