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| Marty Bidwell |
WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster scored 23 of the game's first 24 points Wednesday night en route to a 104-54 win over visiting Oberlin College in the teams' North Coast Athletic Conference opener for the 2008-09 season.
One game after making the fourth-most 3-pointers in team history with 19, Wooster (3-3, 1-0 NCAC) connected on 16 more for the seventh-highest total in school annals. Five of those came during the first 6:30 of action, as the Fighting Scots built a 23-1 cushion before Oberlin (2-4, 0-1 NCAC) even made its initial field goal.
The Yeomen did sustain a mini-rally to pull within 14 at 34-20, only to see Wooster explode for a 12-2 run (46-22), capped by a dunk from Marty Bidwell (Middletown, Ohio / Bishop Fenwick). The Scots pushed their lead out to 50-27 at the halftime break.
The second stanza, which opened with a 24-6 stretch for Wooster to make it a 74-33 margin, was highlighted by the play of Mike Evans (Pickerington, Ohio / Pickerington North), as the freshman scored 18 points, highlighted by 4-of-5 3-point shooting.
Bidwell was the only player to outscore him for the game. The senior was just one point shy of his career high with 19 on 8-of-9 field goals. The Scots' balanced effort also included a 12-point night from Justin Hallowell (Worthington, Ohio / Thomas Worthington) and Ian Franks' (Greenwich, Ohio / South Central) nine points, eight assists, and three steals, the latter two categories being game highs.
Three Oberlin players reached double figures, led by Jordan Beard's 13 points.
As the score indicates, Wooster dominated all facets of the game. The Scots made two-thirds of their field-goal attempts (40-for-60) and held the Yeomen to 36.0 percent (18-for-50). Interestingly, Wooster shot better from 3-point range (.593; 16-for-27) than at the free throw line (.571; 8-for-14). Also, the Scots dominated the glass, outrebounding Oberlin 41-16, paced by Hallowell's five.
Next, Wooster will host Ohio Wesleyan University (3-2, 0-0 NCAC) Saturday night in a key early season match-up, starting at 7:30 p.m.