Late surge lifts Wittenberg to win

Wittenberg fights off Oberlin to maintain  two-game lead in NCAC.

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Staff Reports 11:05 PM Saturday, January 28, 2012

OBERLIN — As Saturday’s results show, nothing is certain in the North Coast Athletic Conference. It’s not important how you win, but that you do.

Wittenberg didn’t dominate last-place Oberlin, even after taking an 11-0 lead. It had to fight to pull away in the final minutes, but it headed home with a 68-56 victory on a day that saw two of the four teams tied for second fall.

“Oberlin had an excellent game plan,” Wittenberg coach Bill Brown said. “They used a soft press when we had the ball, and offense, they worked the shot clock quite extensively and made some shots at the end. It kept the game close.”

After falling behind 11-0 in the first 4 minutes, Oberlin tied the game twice before the end of the first half. Wittenberg led by 8 at halftime and stretched its least to 16 points with 12 minutes left in the game.

Oberlin got as close as 5 points with 6:58 to play, but Wittenberg put the game away with a 5-0 run.

Josh McKee and Clayton Black led the Tigers with 13 points each, and Zack Leahy had 12. Michael Duffy had a career-high 7 points.

McKee shot 6-of-11 from the field after making 4-of-19 shots in the last two games.

“He took a different tact at the start of the second half and drove the ball and finished a couple of shots and got to the free-throw line,” Brown said.

Jacob Weide had a career-high 10 rebounds to go with 6 points.

“Jacob played outstanding defense, and defense doesn’t end until your team has possession of the ball,” Brown said.

The Tigers improved to 15-4 and 9-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. They maintain a two-game lead over Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster (both 7-3) with six games to play. With Wabash losing 72-62 to Denison at home and DePauw losing 74-61 at Ohio Wesleyan, the two Indiana teams fall three games back of first.

The Tigers host Ohio Wesleyan at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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