Ian Ricoy
Sports Editor
The men’s basketball team rebounded from some tough losses with wins over Kenyon College and Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU). The Scots first defeated the Kenyon Lords on Wednesday, Feb. 5 with a score of 76-57. On Saturday, Feb. 8 they followed up with an 80-71 win over OWU. The team hopes to continue this streak into the end of the regular season after stumbling midway through the season with four conference losses.
The Scots came out of the gate strong against Kenyon, with a halftime score of 36-18. Danyon Hempy ’20 led the team with a career-high of 38 points. Hempy went five for seven from three and had eight other field goals. In addition, he had six re- bounds and four assists. With his career night, he surpassed W As- sociation Hall of Famer Tom Port for the fourth most career points scored by a Scot. Dontae Williams ’21 also had a double-double with 11 rebounds and 14 points. The Scots’ defense was stellar as they held the Lords to making 34.4 per- cent of their shots compared to the Scots’ 45.2 percent.
Hempy continued to dominate against OWU the next week with 28 points to become the ninth North Coast Athletic Conference player in history to surpass 1,800 career points. On his two achievements, Hempy said, “it is an absolute honor to have surpassed 1,800 career points.” However, Hempy also emphasized the contribution his teammates and coaches made to help him reach this milestone, “To be up there with some of Wooster’s all-time greats is an accomplishment I never thought I would reach, but with the help of my coaches, teammates and family I was able to. Most of the credit goes to them!”
OWU tested the load management of the team more so than Kenyon this time around. OWU came close to taking the lead late in the second half. The Scots had a 7-0 run with 7:50 remaining. Hempy grabbed a rebound to finish a score, then Keonn Scott ’21 made a three from Williams’ offensive rebound. Finally, Najee Hardaway ’22 got a fast break off a rebound from Brandon Styers ’22 for two more points to put Wooster ahead 64-54. Hempy attributes runs like these to the team playing hard on defense to get the ball back. “When we’re active on the defensive end and get stops it gives us momentum and allows us to be more efficient on the of- fensive end. We found our shooters and knocked down shots,” Hempy said. Scott put up 22 points with six rebounds. Williams lead the team in rebounds and assists with nine and seven. The whole team only missed one free throw the whole game going 15 for 16.
These two wins come at a great time with just four conference games left in the season. While Wooster is currently second in the conference behind rival Wittenberg, they trail with a 10-4 conference record compared to Wittenberg’s 13-1 record. Wooster is not in control of their regular season conference destiny, as Wittenberg would have to lose three of its last four conference games including one at home to Wooster in order for the Scots to win the regular season title. Even if Wittenberg prevails, Wabash is hot on the heels of Wooster with a tied conference record of 10-4. The Scots really want to secure the two seed in the conference tournament to avoid presumably playing Wittenberg in the semi-finals.
Head Coach Steve Moore understands the situation the team is in and the value these wins have on the team’s morale. “It was very good to get back into the win- ning column and they were very important games as we want to place ourselves in the best position we can for the conference tournament. I believe our players were very focused in practice last week as they were determined to improve and bounce back from the close losses,” Moore said. Though excellence is always the aim, it might be better the team hits their stride late in the season as that means the team is at its best for the conference tournament. Hempy is very confident the team will stay hot if it can stay focused.
“This momentum is going to be huge for us down the stretch. We kind of dig ourselves a little bit of a hole losing a few conference games, but if we are focused and intense, we believe we can beat any team. We just need to stay locked in for the remainder of the season if we want to accomplish our goals!” Hempy said.