No. 5 Wooster Falls at No. 25 Wabash in Battle of Nationally-Ranked Foes

A remarkable streak came to an end on Saturday afternoon in Crawfordsville, Ind., where The College of Wooster dropped a second-straight North Coast Athletic Conference game for the first time in 14 years, as the Fighting Scots suffered a 72-58 setback to Wabash College in a match-up of nationally-ranked teams.

Wooster (5-2, 1-2 NCAC), ranked No. 5 and coming off a heartbreaking loss to archrival Wittenberg University on a buzzer-beater Wednesday, has now lost back-to-back conference games. The last time that happened came Jan. 15-18, 1997. That covers a stretch of 233 NCAC games and 11 NCAC championships for the Scots during that time.

Facing 25th-ranked and undefeated Wabash (8-0, 2-0 NCAC) on Saturday, Wooster used a 10-2 run to start the second half, featuring six points from Josh Claytor, to tie the game at 35. The Little Giants answered right away with seven unanswered tallies, and another key stretch came after the Scots pulled within 48-44. At that point, the hosts accounted for eight points while holding Wooster scoreless for four-plus minutes.

That made it a 12-point margin (56-44), and the Scots never got any closer than nine during the final seven minutes.

The first half was close before another offensive drought proved costly for Wooster. Wabash turned a 15-13 lead at the midway point into a 29-15 cushion with just under 4:00 remaining before the Scots pulled within 33-25 at the break.

Statistically, both teams shot around the same field-goal rate, Wooster at .414 (24-for-58) and Wabash at .407 (22-for-54), but the Scots were done in by their 14 turnovers, the fourth time this season they've had at least 14 in a game. The rebounding battle was dead even at 35-35, while the Little Giants were effective at getting to the free throw line where they were 22-for-25 (.890).

Xavier Brown and Claytor shared team-high scoring honors with 17 points in the loss, while Justin Hallowell collected eight boards.

Wabash's backcourt of Aaron Zinnerman and Brian Shelbourne caused problems for Wooster, as the duo combined for 43 points, 25 for Zinnerman and 18 for Shelbourne. Those figures marked career highs for both.

The Scots have final exams next week and then will look to snap out of their skid when they travel to Puerto Rico for games against St. Mary's College of Maryland (7-2) and the University of Sacred Heart on Dec. 19-20.