WOOSTER, Ohio – The College of Wooster extended the fourth-longest winning streak in the series between NCAA Div. III's two winningest teams to six, as the Fighting Scots' men's basketball team captured the 127th all-time meeting against archrival Wittenberg University 78-77 on Saturday evening at Timken Gymnasium.
Wooster (8-8, 4-3 North Coast Athletic Conference) sophomore Isaiah Johnson denied Wittenberg (11-5, 5-2 NCAC) a potentially realistic chance at a heroic win by intentionally missing a free throw with eight tenths of a second remaining. That forced Wittenberg's Trey Killens to attempt a near-full-court heave for the win, and it fell way short.
Junior Ashton Price delivered a memorable debut in his first Wooster-Wittenberg game. The transfer's strip on Wittenberg forward Daniel Asher at the rim with 40 seconds remaining preserved Wooster's 70-64 lead. Johnson's free throws had the lead back to six at 72-66 in the final 30 seconds. However, a reach-in foul nearly cost the Scots, as Killens cut the Tigers' lead to 72-68. Wittenberg was within three, then two, and finally one in the final 17 seconds. Killens' three-pointer had the Tigers deficit to 78-77 with 1.1 seconds on the clock.
Offensively, Wooster shot 68.2 percent (15-of-22) in the first half, with that effort spearheaded by a 4-of-5 showing from Price, who had nine points. The guard got going early with a layup in the paint and a floating jumper, yet it took until the 7:50 mark for the Scots to gain separation.
Sophomore Vinni Veikalas and senior Nick Everett staked the Scots to a 22-16 lead with a 9-0 first-half run. Veikalas connected on a corner triple with an assist from Price to tie the game at 16 at the 10:46 mark. Everett's layup bumped Wooster ahead, then Veikalas connected on a driving layup. Everett slipped past the Tiger guarding him, enabling junior Jamir Billings to thread an entry pass to the rim for the run-capper.
Later, Price's three-pointer upped Wooster's lead to 30-21. Then, sophomore Isaac Roeder converted a driving layup and three-pointer to put the Scots up by nine twice more before the team settled for a 38-30 halftime lead.
Wittenberg was the hot team post-halftime, coming out with a 7-0 run to pull within 38-37. The Tigers had the score tied three times in the second half, but ultimately never took the lead.
Price's 21 points marked the junior's fourth 20-point game of the season. Everett backed that up in the scoring column with 16 points, while Johnson and Veikalas combined for 21 of Wooster's 29 bench points. Cline scored eight points and secured a team-high eight rebounds, Billings passed out six assists and recorded his 200th career steal, and Everett added four rebounds.
Wooster shot 53.2 percent (25-of-47) for the game, was 22-of-30 (73.3 percent) at the charity stripe, and cut down the miscues in the second half, finishing with three post-halftime turnovers.
Killens led all players with 26 points. Tyler Galluch scored 13 points off the bench for Wittenberg. Eddie Brown had high honors in rebounding at six.
Wittenberg shot 50 percent (25-of-50) for the game, was 22-of-26 (84.6 percent) on free throws, and outrebounded Wooster 26-24.
Wooster now leads the all-time series 67-60. The Scots' six straight wins trails Wooster's runs of eight games from Jan. 20, 1940 – Jan. 10, 1955, and Dec. 1, 2012 – Feb. 14, 2015, plus Wittenberg's eight-game winning streak spanning Feb. 14, 1979 – Jan. 20, 1990, for the longest in the rivalry's history. Saturday's game marked the 51st decided by five points or fewer, the 18th of the last 41 meetings, and the 31st of the last 70.
Next, Wooster is at Oberlin College (9-7, 3-4 NCAC) for an 8 p.m. game on Wednesday, Jan. 17.