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| Devin Zagar |
Wooster Men's Basketball Game Notes - NCAC Semifinals
Outlook: For the 24th consecutive season, The College of Wooster men's basketball team (19-7, 12-6 North Coast Athletic Conference) is playing in the semifinals of the NCAC Tournament. Wooster, the third seed in this year's field, is set to play seventh-seeded Denison University (11-15, 7-11 NCAC) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Wittenberg University's Pam Evans Smith Arena. Fourth-ranked, and top-seeded Wittenberg University (25-1, 17-1 NCAC) and fifth-seeded Oberlin College (15-11, 8-10 NCAC) meet in Friday's 5:30 p.m. semifinal game. Saturday's championship game will take place at 4 p.m. at Wittenberg.
Media Coverage: Friday's game will be streamed live by Wittenberg. The link will be posted on woosterathletics.com when it becomes available. Mike Breckenridge's call of Wooster's games can be heard all season long on WQKT 104.5 FM and online at https://wqkt.com. Fans can also follow the live stats link on Wooster's men's basketball schedule page and check for periodic score updates on the men's basketball team's Twitter account @ScotsBasketball.
Ticket Information: Ticket prices for the NCAC Tournament are set by the conference office. For the semifinals, ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for children (18 & under), holders of a NCAC guest pass, and students who do not have their student ID card. NCAC students are admitted free of charge, but must have a valid student ID card from a NCAC institution. Pam Evans Smith Arena will not be cleared between Friday's semifinal games, and one ticket is good for both games. Should Wooster advance to Saturday's championship game, ticket prices are the same as the semifinal games.
NCAC Tournament History: Wooster has won the NCAC Tournament a league-best 16 times. Wittenberg is next with eight tournament crowns, while Ohio Wesleyan is in third-place with five. Wooster's a remarkable 73-19 all-time in the NCAC Tournament, and is 11-5 when playing in neutral site games. After Tuesday's 92-66 win over Allegheny College, Wooster's now won its quarterfinal game in 24 consecutive seasons. Wooster's 26-4 all-time in the semifinals, and is 10-1 in the last 11 seasons. Last year, Wooster survived Allegheny's upset bid to win 91-89 in the quarterfinals. The Scots went on to beat DePauw University 73-52 in the semifinals before falling to Wittenberg 79-75 in the championship game. Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan are the only teams to appear in every single NCAC Tournament.
Talking Seeds: This year is the first time since 1997 where Wooster isn't the No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the NCAC Tournament. In 1997, the third-seeded Scots beat Ohio Wesleyan 70-45 in the quarterfinals, Denison 68-64 in the semifinals, and top-seeded Wittenberg 51-44 in the championship game. Wooster's won two NCAC Tournaments when seeded third, with the other coming in 1993. Wooster beat fifth-seeded Kenyon College 64-48 that year in the championship game.
A Brief Look at Denison: Wooster's 106-52 all-time against Denison in a series that dates back to the 1905-06 season. The Big Red are one of five programs Wooster has at least 100 victories against. The others are Kenyon (152), Oberlin (116), Case Western Reserve University (113), and Ohio Wesleyan (105). The two teams split this year's regular-season meetings, with Denison winning 72-71 on January 22 and Wooster winning 93-72 on February 12. Wooster's 7-2 all-time against Denison in the NCAC Tournament, with the most recent tourney contest coming in 2017. That year, Wooster beat Denison 87-77 in the semifinals. Denison's lone NCAC Tournament title was won in 2016, when the Big Red beat the Scots 92-81 in overtime in the championship game. On Tuesday, Denison upset second-seeded Wabash College (17-9, 13-5 NCAC) 75-69, and in doing so, became just the third seven seed to win a quarterfinal matchup against a No. 2 seed in NCAC history.
Swan Song: The 2019-20 season is Steve Moore's 33rd, and final, season leading the Scots' storied program. Moore announced last March that he'll retire at the conclusion of the 2019-20 academic year. Moore, who was the head coach at Muhlenberg College for six seasons prior to arriving in Wooster in advance of the 1987-88 season, is No. 12 all-time in NCAA men's basketball coaching victories with 865 (865-252). He's 778-187 at Wooster, and is No. 2 all-time in NCAA Div. III coaching wins. Moore-coached Wooster teams have made 27 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a Div. III record 17 straight (2003-present). Wooster's won a NCAC-leading 18 titles with Moore at the helm of the program. Moore was a 2020 nominee for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was a 2019 inductee to the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
Scots Need One More to Keep the 20 Streak Alive: Wooster enters play on Friday with 19 wins on the season. Should Wooster win Friday, that will give the Scots a remarkable 24th consecutive 20-win season, and move the program back into a tie with Duke University for the second-longest active streak in NCAA men's basketball. The University of Kansas recorded its 31st consecutive 20-win season this year, while Gonzaga University has won at least 20 games in 23 straight seasons.
Hempy One of Wooster's Best: Senior Danyon Hempy (Waldo, Ohio/River Valley) will be remembered as one of Wooster's best players. He's third all-time in program history with 1,959 points, and trails W Association Hall of Famers Tom Dinger (2,370 points) and James Cooper (2,037 points). Hempy's three-pointer with 5:06 remaining in the NCAC quarterfinals moved the four-year star past Bryan Nelson '03, the 2003 National Association of Basketball Coaches Div. III Player of the Year, for third on Wooster's all-time scoring list. Hempy's one of two players in program history (Tom Dinger '71 is the other) to have two 600-point seasons. Hempy joined that exclusive club with a three-ball with 15:20 remaining in the NCAC quarterfinal. This year, Hempy's leading the NCAC with 23.8 points per game. He's entering the semifinals with 618 points - the exact number of points he scored during the 2018-19 season - and that total is the fifth-most in single-season program history. Dinger (767, 1969-70), Nelson (645, 2002-03), Dinger (630, 1970-71), and Ian Franks (623, 2010-11) are the players ahead of Hempy on the single-season scoring chart. Last year, he became just the second Moore-coached player to average 20 points per game for the season. Nelson averaged 20.8 points per game during the 2002-03 season. Hempy's scored 75 points over his last two games. He scored a career-high 40 points against DePauw on February 22, with that marking just the sixth 40-point game in program history. Against Allegheny, Hempy dropped 35 points, a Wooster NCAC Tournament record.
Williams Settled In at Wooster: Junior Dontae Williams (Girard, Pa./Girard) made an immediate impact last year after transferring in from NCAA Div. II Mercyhurst University. The forward's blossomed even more this season and spent time ranked No. 1 nationally in field-goal percentage earlier this year. Williams is in the top 10 in the NCAC in scoring and rebounding, and he recently matched his career-high in scoring (25) and set a new one in rebounding (15) against Denison on February 12.
Threes in Bunches: Junior Keonn Scott (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) has hit at least six triples in five games this year. Scott was the Most Outstanding Player at the 57th annual E.M. "Mose" Hole/Wooster Kiwanis Classic, where he scored a career-high 29 points in an 87-82 win over Whitworth University. He's tied for third in the conference in three-pointers this season with 74.
Down to the Wire: The margin of victory in 13 of Wooster's 26 games this season has been five or fewer. Wooster's 8-5 in games where that's the case this year. Wooster last had 10 or more games with a maximum margin of victory of five during the 2013-14 season. The Scots were 7-4 in tight games that year.
Notable Wooster Alumni in Basketball: Wooster has several notable alumni currently in, or have held, prominent coaching and administrative roles in collegiate and professional basketball. L.W. St. John '06 served as head men's basketball coach at Ohio State University from 1911-19, and was the Buckeyes' athletic director for over 30 years. Reggie Minton '63, an alternate for the 1964 United States Olympic Team, went on to have a decorated career as a coach and administrator, and he's currently the deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and prior to that, was the head coach at the United States Air Force Academy from 1984-00. Larry Shyatt '73 was an assistant coach at numerous programs, including the University of Florida when the Gators won the NCAA Div. I national championship in 2006 and 2007. Shyatt had two stints as head coach at the University of Wyoming and was the man in charge at Clemson University for a five-year run. Presently, Shyatt's an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks. Recent alumni in prominent coaching roles include Lamont Paris '96 and Ryan Pedon '00. Paris was on the staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for seven seasons, during which the Badgers made back-to-back appearances in the Final Four (2014-15), including the 2015 title game. Paris is currently in his third year as the head coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Pedon is in his third year as the lead assistant at Ohio State, which was ranked as high as second this season in the AP Top 25.
Landing page photo by Spencer Dilyard '22.
