No. 24 Wooster Caps E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic & GLI With Thrilling 87-82 Win Over No. 14 Whitworth

WOOSTER, Ohio – Junior Keonn Scott scored a career-high 29 points, and the 24th-ranked College of Wooster men's basketball team strung together several stretches of significance in the second half, as the Fighting Scots capped the 57th annual E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic and third annual Great Lakes Invitational with a thrilling 87-82 win over 14th-ranked Whitworth University on Sunday evening at Timken Gymnasium.

Scott, who earned the Most Outstanding Player award, dropped in points 21 and 22 on a jumper from outside the paint with 12:56 remaining. That started Wooster's (9-1) 9-0 run, during which the Scots took the lead for good. Junior Dontae Williams tied the game at 62 with 11:02 left on the clock, and Scott knocked down a go-ahead triple on Wooster's next possession.

Wooster's bench – in particular sophomores Najee Hardaway and Brandon Styers – was of upmost importance with the game on the line. Whitworth's (6-3) Ben College was seemingly scoring at will most of the night, until Wooster's second-half adjustments helped turned the tide of the game. Key to that was Hardaway serving as the primary defender on College for a majority of the stanza. The Scots' sophomore came through in a big way with five points, three rebounds, and three steals in the second half.

Another key stretch came with just under 6:30 to go. Styers' hustle on the offensive glass was rewarded in the form of an offensive rebound and stick-back, which upped Wooster's lead to 73-70. The biology major corralled a defensive rebound, and then knocked down a three-pointer, which extended the lead to 76-70 with 6:03 left in the tilt.

Two College free throws made it a one-possession game with 87 ticks left, but the Pirates' star senior was well off the mark on a deep step-back three-pointer with 12.3 seconds remaining. Senior Danyon Hempy was left alone down the court on the ensuing press break. A perfect lengthy baseball pass from classmate Trenton Tipton enabled Hempy to put an exclamation point on the victory with a dunk, which upped the Scots' lead to two possessions with under seven ticks on the clock.

Wooster, 9-1 for the first time since the 2013-14 season, twice led by five points in the first half. First, Scott's layup made it a 16-11 ballgame with 14:01 to go, and later, Hempy hit a jumper in the paint with 13:06 on the clock that made it 18-13. However, Whitworth led by as many as six before Williams knocked down a jumper to pull Wooster within 44-40 at the half.

Scott hit 11-of-20 shots from the floor and dished out a game-high six assists. Williams, an all-tournament team honoree, poured in 20 points and finished a rebound shy of a double-double for the second straight game. Hempy chipped in with 17 points and four assists, while Hardaway netted a career-high nine points.

Wooster finished the night 32-of-58 (55.2 percent) from the field, 15-of-19 at the charity stripe, and had a four-rebound edge.

College stuffed the stat sheet with 41 points. He was 11-of-22 from the field, 6-of-12 from three-point range, and 13-of-15 from the line. The all-tournament team honoree's point haul came three points shy of matching the all-time E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic record, and his 61 points over the two games are the fourth-most all-time and the top mark since 1996.

Whitworth connected on 46.7 percent (28-of-60) of its field goals, was 12-of-27 from three-point land, 14-of-18 at the charity stripe, and turned the ball over 10 times.

In Sunday's other games, sixth-ranked Marietta College (9-1) beat York College of Pennsylvania (9-3) 92-86; Ohio Wesleyan University's (6-4) Zane Ries drained a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left to tie the game at 70, and the Battling Bishops went on to beat Salisbury University (5-9) in overtime 82-80; and John Carroll University (7-3) rolled past Keene State College (3-7) 116-88. John Carroll's 116 points are the third-most in the 57-year history of the E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic.

York's Jared Wagner took home the Most Outstanding Defensive Player award. He tallied six steals to go along with his 50 points and tournament-high 18 assists. The Blue Streaks' Sean Flannery and Jackson Sartain and the Pioneers' Jason Ellis rounded out the all-tournament team honorees. Flannery scored 24 points and dished out 17 assists over the two games, while Sartain poured in 49 points, thanks in large part to 11 triples. Ellis turned in a game-high 36 points during the Pioneers' win over the Spartans.

Next, Wooster's (3-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) at Ohio Wesleyan (1-2 NCAC) for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday, January 4.