Wittenberg men’s basketball: Tigers still in contention in NCAC after victory against Denison

Nine years after the last of his 23 seasons with the program, Brown was honored by the university, and the timing was good because Wittenberg beat first-place Denison 71-57 to stay in contention in the North Coast Athletic Conference race.

“I thought it was just a great day for Wittenberg basketball,” second-year coach Darren Hertz said. “It was great to be able to bring (Brown) back. So many former players came back. It was just awesome. It says a lot about him and our tradition. After the game, I had a chance to catch up with him. He’s been really supportive of our program. He watches our games. He cheers us on. It was a great day for the program.”

Wittenberg also honored former women’s volleyball coach Paco Labrador, who led the program to a Division III national championship in 2011 before taking a job in 2018 at Navy, where he has now coached for eight seasons.

The victory for Hertz and the Tigers avenged a 70-65 loss at Denison on Jan. 10.

Wittenberg needed the victory after a 61-56 loss at home to DePauw, which completed a two-game sweep of the Tigers, on Feb. 4.

“We came off a tough loss Wednesday night,“ Hertz said. ”Quick turnaround. I thought our guys were locked in for the 48 hours of prep going into Saturday’s game. You always want more as a coach, but I was really pleased with our effort and our competitiveness on both sides of the floor. You think of competitiveness sometimes on the defensive end. We did a good job defensively, but we were competitive on offense, too. We didn’t settle. I thought we were very aggressive and in attack mode the whole night for 40 minutes. With four games to go, we’re in the fight. That’s what you want right now at this time of year.“

Wittenberg (15-6, 8-4) trails Denison (14-7, 9-3) by one game with four to play in the regular season. John Carroll (17-5, 9-4), Wabash (14-7, 8-4) and DePauw (15-7, 8-5) also remain in contention.

Wittenberg plays at Kenyon (10-12, 4-9) at 8 p.m. Wednesday and plays Oberlin (10-11, 3-9) at home at 3 p.m. Saturday. Next week, it plays at Wabash on Feb. 18 and at John Carroll in the regular-season finale on Feb. 21.

Junior forward Tyler Galluch led Wittenberg with 17 points against Denison. He made 4 of 5 shots and 9 of 9 free throws.

Sam Miller had 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting. He made 7 of 8 free throws.

Freshman guard Noah Frayer scored 14 points, making 8 of 9 free throws. Senior forward Eddie Brown added 10 points.

“I think Eddie Brown’s playing really well right now,” Hertz said. “He has been really locked in the last few weeks, which obviously helps us, him being a senior and one of the leaders on our team. He’s been fantastic.

“Tyler’s coming back from injury and has started playing very well again.

“Noah Frayer has just really developed as a freshman. With the amount of games and minutes he’s played, he’s like a sophomore now, and I think he’s really grown up before our eyes this year.

“Sam Miller had an outstanding game the other day. He’s another one. We see the maturation process before our eyes. He’s just really gotten better as the year has gone on. He gives us a threat near the basket and can spread the defense as well.”

Twelve players saw at least three minutes of action against Denison. Only one starter, Frayer, played more than 26 minutes.

“We’ve got a lot of guys doing a lot of good things,” Hertz said. “We’re getting contributions from a lot of guys. One of the strengths of our team is our depth and our ability to play different ways. We can play with a big lineup. We can go small. We can do some different things.”