Roger An
Contributing Writer
Last weekend, The College of Wooster Fighting Scots men’s basketball team kicked off the 2016-17 season with an exhibition match against the Rollins College Tars in Winter Park, Fla. The game was set up by former Wooster President Grant Cornwell.
Rollins College started off the game with the ball, and hit a three-pointer to give the home team the lead, which was matched shortly after by a Milt Davis ’17 three-point shot, assisted by Alex Baptiste ’18.
The Scots were competitive throughout the half, despite never holding the lead.
At the end of the first half, the Scots were down 41-28. Spencer Williams ’18 started off the Scot’s second half with a pass to Dan Fanelly ’17 for the score, making it 41-30. After that, Fanelly blocked a Rollins shot and Baptiste gave the ball to Davis for an easy score. The Scots rallied, and with a little over 12 minutes remaining in the game had narrowed the score to 55-51. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Fighting Scots got, as they eventually fell 89-71. The Fighting Scots went 23-61 from the field, as opposed to the Tars’ 27-45.
Notables in the game included Fanelly’s 21 points, Davis’ 12, and Baptiste’s seven points and 10 rebounds, falling just short of a double-double.
“It was an outstanding experience for our players,” said Fighting Scots Head Coach Steve Moore. “The game was overall very challenging, as Rollins is a strong Division-II team, having won their conference last year. Playing tough competition like that in the preseason is a very good thing, as your weaknesses are exposed, and then you can go back and work and improve.”
The Scots played well on the offensive glass, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds to only five for Rollins. However, the shooting of Rollins proved too much for the Scots, who shot over 50 percent from three for the game.
When asked about the intangibles, Moore said, “Rollins played a very aggressive, tough zone defense. Since we had only practiced for a week and a half before we went down there, we did not have a chance to work on zone offense much. That was a real challenge working against that zone, [it was] a big reason why we struggled offensively.”
Rollins’ zone defense stifled the Scots’ shooting, who hit only 38 percent of their shots. Additionally, the Scots frequently sent Rollins players to the free-throw line, where the Tars shot 26-32.
“It definitely was both a great challenge and trip, provided to us by President Cornwell,” said assistant coach Doug Cline. “They are a very good Division-II program, they won their league and went to the Division-II tournament last year. We are probably not going to see anyone as good as them. If we could learn from our mistakes, it should help us in our quest in winning the conference championship again.”
Wooster will continue their preseason this Friday, Nov. 4, in an exhibition game against Ashland University at Monroeville High School in Monroeville, Oh.
Following that, the Scots will begin their regular season by competing against Oberlin College and Defiance University at the Al Van Wie/Rotary Classic in Wooster.