Wooster Beats Oberlin 97-56 to Finish Regular Season as NCAC Co-Champions

WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster executed well on both ends of the floor and never trailed during Saturday's regular season finale against Oberlin College at Timken Gymnasium, as the Fighting Scots celebrated "Senior Day" with a 97-56 victory, which earned them a share of the 2015-16 North Coast Athletic Conference championship.

With matching 15-3 league records during the regular season, Wooster, 19-6 overall, and No. 11 ranked Ohio Wesleyan University are NCAC co-champions. It marks the first time there was a tie atop the final league standings since 1992-93.

The Scots and Battling Bishops split two head-to-head meetings, however, Ohio Wesleyan earned the edge in another tiebreaker to take the top seed for next week's conference tourney. Thus, Wooster will be the No. 2 seed and welcome Oberlin (12-13, 7-11 NCAC) back to Timken Gym on Tuesday for a quarterfinal match-up.

While the Scots have now won their league-leading 17th NCAC championship and 10th of the last 12 years, this one may have been a bit unexpected. With six newcomers seeing significant minutes from the outset, and some injuries along the way, Wooster mixed its personnel around, including using a 12th different starting lineup of the season on Saturday.

The Scots ended up shooting a sizzling 58.1 percent from the field – their second-best rate of the season – but got off to a relatively slow start. They made five of their first 11 shots, mixed in with three turnovers, but still owned a 17-12 advantage at that point.

Josh Kipfer – one of three Wooster seniors along with Alex LaLonde and Chris Logsdon making their final regular season appearance at Timken Gym – accounted for the next four points, kick-starting a 9-1 run as the Scots doubled-up the Yeomen at that point (26-13).

It was still a 13-point margin at the 3:39 mark, when Wooster closed the first half strong with six unanswered points, including a Mitch Balser baseline jumper right before the buzzer that made the score 42-23.

Shortly into the second half, the Scots went on a 19-0 run, turning an 18-point lead (47-29) into a game- and championship-clinching 37-point cushion (66-29). Six different players scored during that stretch.

In addition to its strong shooting night, which included going 12-of-23 from 3-point range (.522), Wooster limited Oberlin's possessions by forcing 20 turnovers and winning the rebounding battle 36-22. The Yeomen did hit on 40.4 percent of their field goal attempts (19-for-47).

Five Scots reached double figures, with Balser scoring a game-high 16 points. Reece Dupler and Kipfer each finished with an even dozen in the scoring column, while Alex Baptiste and Dan Fanelly were next with matching 11-point totals.

Baptiste added 11 rebounds for his second double-double, and Balser, Fanelly, and Spencer Williams distributed four assists apiece.

Scott Miller came up with 14 points off the bench to pace Oberlin.

The two teams' NCAC quarterfinal meeting will take place Tuesday night.