Wooster Heats Up from Outside During Second Half of 79-59 Win, To Face No. 8 Marietta in Championship of “Mose” Hole

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster made its first four 3-pointers after halftime and were 7-of-12 overall during the second half, as the Fighting Scots defeated the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford 79-59 Tuesday night in a first round match-up at the 53rd annual E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic inside Timken Gymnasium.

Wooster (6-3) will play No. 8 ranked Marietta College, which came back for an 83-80 win against a scrappy Mount St. Joseph University squad earlier Tuesday, in the championship game Wednesday evening.

Against Pitt.-Bradford (2-7), Wooster's 34-24 halftime lead decreased to six points, then the Scots found their shooting stroke. A couple of Dan Fanelly lay-ups preceded a 3-pointer by Alex LaLonde that put Wooster back up by double figures at 41-29.

Shortly after, LaLonde added another from long distance to make it 46-35 and Mitch Balser and Spencer Williams followed suit with 3-pointers to extend the Scots' advantage to 17 points.

Wooster went on to push its lead into the 20s, including as much as 68-42 at the 6:47 mark, before settling for the final 20-point margin.

During the opening stanza, the Scots trailed briefly at 11-10, responded with nine unanswered points, and later went ahead 34-19 before the Panthers accounted for the last five points of the half.

The biggest difference in the game may have been Wooster's defense, as it held Pitt.-Bradford under 30 percent field-goal shooting until a late spurt allowed the visitors to finish at .319 overall (22-for-69), compared to the Scots' 42.6 percent (29-for-68).

Thirteen different Wooster players scored, paced by Williams's 15 points. Fanelly had nine to go with a team-high seven rebounds, while LaLonde recorded a balanced stat line of eight points, six boards, and three assists.

The Panthers' Evan Greening led all scorers with 17 points.

The opener saw Marietta (9-2) trail for the majority of the game, including by 56-42 early in the second half, but the nationally-ranked Pioneers rallied for the three-point win. They had two separate 8-0 runs, the second tying the score at 71, and Brennan McKean came up with a key steal and transition lay-up for a 75-73 lead. Dillon Young and Eddy Grenert combined for Marietta's final eight points to help clinch the comeback victory, and they finished with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

The Wooster-Marietta championship game will tip-off at approximately 7 p.m., and will mark a rematch of a second round meeting in the 2015 NCAA Div. III Championships won by the Pioneers 88-86.