SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD — Brad Folta played just six minutes for Wittenberg on Wednesday, Feb. 20, but coach Bill Brown was impressed by his play anyway.

Folta grabbed two offensive rebounds within a minute midway through the second half. Although Wittenberg's game against Wabash at Pam Evans Smith Arena would come down to the final minutes, Brown looked at those rebounds as a turning point in Wittenberg's 69-63 victory.

"It's just a killer to the defense," Brown said. "Oftentimes, somebody gets an offensive rebound, and they're not really in a good position to take it back up, but they take it back up anyhow and give it right back to the defense. It is deflating to the defense to have an offensive rebound grabbed on you and then they pull it back out and you've got to play defense all over again."

Senior Night

Wittenberg saluted its seniors Brandon White, Brandan Barabino and Sam Gregory, plus student assistant coach Drew Denisco, before the game.

Gregory made his first start since Dec. 4 and scored six points.

"We needed to get a 'W,' " Gregory said. "Three straight losses would take some wind out of the sails. We needed to get some momentum going into the conference tournament."

Nowicki shines

Guard David Nowicki turned in another solid game for the Tigers, scoring five points to go with a season-high six rebounds in 18 minutes. Nowicki ran the point in the final minutes.

Kenyon next

The Tigers can clinch the No. 2 seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament with a victory at Kenyon on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Kenyon, coached by Witt grad Matt Croci, is now in fourth place in the NCAC, and Brown said, "no deference to (Wooster's) Steve Moore, who's just an awesome basketball coach," but "Matt will be my coach of the year vote."