Dancing With The Stars finale
Missing in America Memorial
Madison Commencement
Home > Blogs > Springfield, Ohio High School Sports > Archives > 2009 > January > 17 > Entry
On this date in area sports history …
Five years ago on this date, January 17, 2004, the Wittenberg men’s basketball team knocked off No. 5 Wooster with a huge night at the free-throw line. Complete story on the jump:
WITT WALKS A FINE LINE
FREE THROWS KEY AS TIGERS KNOCK OFF NO. 5 SCOTS
By KEITH WALTHER, News-Sun Sports Writer
With under a minute to play Saturday, the vocal Wittenberg student section at the HPER Center chanted a message to the fifth-ranked Wooster Scots.
“Overrated … Overrated …”
Probably not. More accurate is the notion that the Tigers just could be underrated.
Wittenberg, receiving no votes in the latest D3hoops.com poll, made a statement on this night. Hitting a school record 96 percent of their free throws (27 of 28), the Tigers rolled to a 72-62 win over the Scots in front of 2,445 fans.
“That’s what this game is all about — respect. We have mutual respect for each other — whatever the rankings might be,” Witt senior Rod Emmons said. “Hopefully we’ll get some votes not but I don’t really care about that. What matters most is we are on top in the league.”
The Tigers, winners of eight straight and five of their last six games against Wooster, improve to 12-3 overall and 6-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Wooster falls to 12-2 and 5-1, and Ohio Wesleyan, which comes to Springfield on Wednesday, is also 5-1 (11-4 overall).
Wittenberg’s performance at the free-throw line boggles the mind — especially considering the Tigers made just 19 of 40 attempts from the charity stripe in their win at Wabash earlier in the week.
“Who can figure?,” asked Wittenberg coach Bill Brown after being informed of the near-perfect shooting performance. “That (free throw shooting) was one of our salvations early in the year when we weren’t doing other things. But during our winning streak it’s kind of turned south on us. But my hat’s off to my players in having confidence and a little bit of will to make them tonight and getting it done out there.”
In typical Wittenberg-Wooster fashion, nothing came easy. Every shot was contested. Every loose ball had several bodies diving on it. In all, there were nine ties and nine lead changes.
“It’s a huge win any way you look at it,” said senior forward Peter Walker who led Wittenberg with 14 points. “We were just better tonight, played a little harder, and the ball bounced our way.
“Wooster always comes in with a great reputation and we just want to play well against them … Geesh, I can’t believe we’ve had that kind of success against them lately.”
The Scots trailed 59-55 with 3:13 to play. Out of a time out, Wittenberg junior Danny Brywczynski took a pass from Emmons and drilled a 3-pointer from the left baseline — his first points of the game — to give Wittenberg a 62-55 cushion.
Kenny Brady and Brywczynski each added a pair of free throws and Wittenberg was in control with a 66-55 lead with 1:36 left — and the Scots never challenged after that.
“That was a big shot Danny made there and you have to give him credit,” Wooster coach Steve Moore said. “The second half we just didn’t execute the way we needed to but their defense had a lot to do with that.”
The Scots shot 53 percent from the field in the first half but still trailed 32-30. But the Tigers held them to 37 percent shooting in the second half, despite never finding an answer to center Matt Schlingman who led the Scots with 21 points.
“How many Schlingman score? It seemed like 40,” Brown moaned. “They never changed (from going to him). But you have to pick your poison against a team like Wooster. I guess on this night we were trying to take away their great balance.”
Two other Scots — Rodney Mitchell and Blake Mealer — reached double figures with 12 and 11, respectively. However, the Scots, who had canned 13 treys in their win Wednesday at Kenyon, finished a meager 5 of 15 for beyond the arc against Wittenberg.
“They were very good and not just with their free throw shooting, but with a lot of different things,” Moore said. “They played very good defense and we didn’t get the movement on offense we needed to.”
Brady and Daniel Russ added 13 and 10 points, respectively, for Wittenberg. Andy Bucheit, who came off the bench to spark Witt when it was down 16-9 early in the contest, chipped in nine points and four assists.
The two teams will hook up again Feb. 14 at Wooster.
Reach Keith Walther at
kwalther@coxohio.com
WOOSTER (62) — Mitchell 5-9 1-2 12, Witucky 0-7 2-2 2, Port 3-9 2-2 9, Mealer 4-6 0-0 11, Schlingman 8-15 5-6 21, Snyder 1-1 2-2 4, Ridder 0-0 0-0 0, McCloud 0-2 0-2 0, Stevens 0-0 3-4 3. Totals: 21-49 15-20 62.
WITTENBERG (72) — Emmons 1-7 4-4 7, Brywczynski 1-2 2-2 5, Brady 3-8 7-7 13, Walker 5-10 3-3 14, Russ 4-10 2-2 10, Bucheit 3-8 1-2 9, Molz 1-3 2-2 4, Bowen 0-1 2-2 2, Hemenway 0-0 4-4 4, Borchers 2-3 0-0 4. Totals: 20-52 27-28 72.
Halftime: Wittenberg 32-30. 3-point goals: Wooster 5-15 (Mitchell 1-3, Witucky 0-4, Port 1-3, Mealer 3-4, McCloud 0-1); Wittenberg 5-21 (Emmons 1-4, Brywczynski 1-2, Brady 0-2, Walker 1-4, Russ 0-2, Molz 0-1, Bowen 0-1, Bucheit 2-5). Rebounds: Wooster 33 (Port 8); Wittenberg 31 (Borchers 7). Shooting percentages: Wooster .429; Wittenberg .385. Assists: Wooster 10 (Port 4); Wittenberg 11 (Bucheit 4). Turnovers: Wooster 13, Wittenberg 7. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: None. Records: Wooster 12-2, 5-1 NCAC; Wittenberg 12-3, 6-0 NCAC.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Boys Basketball, On this date, Wittenberg, Wooster
Tweet
Comments
By XRumerTest
March 14, 2011 7:10 PM | Link to this
Hello. And Bye.