Halfway through the 16-game league schedule, the teams that share first place, Wabash and Denison, are 6-2 in NCAC games. John Carroll and Wittenberg share third place at 5-3.
Second-year Wittenberg coach Darren Hertz has guided his team into contention. A 73-65 victory against Wabash on Wednesday at Pam Evans Smith Arena stands as the Tigers’ most important victory yet.
Wabash swept Wittenberg in Hertz’s first season.
“It was really a team effort," Hertz said Thursday. “I thought we got contributions from everyone, to be honest. They don’t get a lot of credit, but I’ve got to give credit to some guys that didn’t play last night. They’re on our scout team, and they help prepare us every single day in practice. I thought they did a tremendous job the last few days getting everybody prepared for what we were going to be dealing with last night.“
Tyler Galluch led Wittenberg with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Noah Frayer scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Jace Wardlow and Eddie Brown each scored 11.
"Noah got us really going offensively early in the first half," Hertz said. “Tyler was out for a few weeks and is kind of getting back in the swing of things, but he was consistent throughout the game and made some big baskets when we needed them. I thought Eddie really stepped up in the second half. I thought Dawson Scott and Cal Bavineau, two seniors, were consistent throughout the whole game. We got contributions off the bench from Sam Miller and Jace.“
Wittenberg (12-5 overall) rebounded from a 54-45 loss Saturday at Oberlin (9-8, 2-6). The Tigers beat a team from the top half of the standings for the first time after losing back-to-back games on the road two weeks ago: 70-43 at DePauw (11-6, 4-4); and 70-65 at Denison.
“The guys have done a good job of understanding the process," Hertz said. “Each game is going to have its own challenges. We had two really tough opponents on the road. We did some really good things, but we didn’t do them consistently enough.“
Wittenberg returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday against Ohio Wesleyan (6-11, 3-5) in Springfield. The Tigers opened NCAC play with a 69-50 victory at Ohio Wesleyan in December.
“We’re certainly focused on winning and competing for this conference championship,“ Hertz said. ”We’re in the mix with four or five different teams right now, but at the same time, we try to focus each day on what we need to do to get better — to max out our potential as a team and as individuals. It may sound cliche, but that’s really what we focus on every day. I think we’re seeing our guys getting better individually and then certainly collectively as a team. The bounce back is more of just learning from mistakes, learning from what we’ve done wrong and learning also from what we’ve done well."
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