Wooster Beats Witt 63-59 for Eighth-Straight Win Over Rival

The College of Wooster won for the eighth time in a row against its archrival, as the Fighting Scots overcame an ice cold start, then constructed a 16-point lead and held off a late charge to prevail 63-59 at Wittenberg University's Pam Evans Smith Arena in Springfield, Ohio, Saturday night.

Wooster (18-5, 12-4 North Coast Athletic Conference), which now matches the longest winning streak in the all-time series with Wittenberg (9-14, 7-9 NCAC), was leading 49-33 with 10 minutes remaining, however, the Tigers had an 11-2 burst over the next three minutes to make it a seven-point game.

Out of a timeout, Jalen Goodwin helped settle the Scots with a 3-pointer, but Wittenberg accounted for the next five on the scoreboard to pull within 54-49.

Next to step up with a clutch 3-pointer for Wooster was Chris Logsdon – his second of the game – coming at the 4:24 mark (57-49).

The Tigers cut it to six a couple of times and then neither team scored for an extended stretch. With 31.0 seconds left, Wittenberg's Alex Fultz sunk a pair of free throws to close the margin to four (59-55).

Goodwin was immediately fouled after receiving the in-bounds pass and split a pair at the charity stripe, and after getting a defensive stop via an Alex LaLonde block of a 3-pointer, the Scots missed consecutive free throws, which allowed the Tigers to stay in it.

In fact, the home team made it a one-possession game when Fultz canned a couple more free throws with 13.0 on the clock (60-57).

Xavier Brown, though, connected on 3-of-4 free throws during the final seconds to clinch the victory.

Wooster did not score during the game's opening six minutes, missing its first nine shots from the field and turning it over twice. Also complicating matters, the Scots had to sit their starting point guard due to two fouls and lost the back-up at that position to an injury within the first two minutes.

Despite all that, Wittenberg only led 6-0, and shortly after Wooster finally scored it was 8-3. The Scots proceeded to outplay the Tigers the rest of the half, starting with 12 unanswered points that included 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions from Logsdon and LaLonde.

With the halftime score 28-18, Wittenberg managed to whittle the deficit down to seven a couple of times early in the second, then Wooster responded with a 10-1 run, which featured a Milt Davis 3-pointer and an Evan Pannell dunk.

The game was very even statistically, with the Scots just a bit better in each shooting category as they were 40.9 percent from the field (18-for-44), including 7-for-19 from 3-point range (.368), and 66.7 percent at the foul line (20-for-30), compared to the Tigers' respective rates of .396 (19-for-48), .190 (4-for-21), and .515 (17-for-33).

Pannell led all players with 20 points – his 10th 20-point game of the season – while Wooster's bench came through with more than a third of the team's offensive output. Josh Kipfer had nine points and Logsdon six during 11 valuable minutes, and more important than the four points he contributed, Goodwin committed just one turnover in a season-high 31 minutes.

Cody Phillippi had 15 points to pace Wittenberg.

On Wednesday, the Scots will celebrate "Senior Day" as they play their final regular season home game against Allegheny College (10-13, 7-9 NCAC) at 7:30 p.m.