Zach McCorkle ’16 advances the ball in a game earlier this season. The Scots’ 11-game streak ended against Wabash College last weekend (Photo courtesy Wooster Athletics).
Lincoln Plews
Senior Sports Writer
The men’s basketball team shot its worst field goal percentage (31.9 percent) in eight years and suffered its only conference loss of the season this past Saturday, falling to Wabash College 55-48. The Scots now stand at 18-3 for the season (11-1 in conference), and have fallen to No. 14 in the national rankings after the loss.
After handling Denison 94-64 at home on Jan. 30, the Scots travelled to Wabash’s Chadwick Court in Crawfordsville, Ind. to take on the Little Giants on Saturday.
Going into the game as the heavy favorites, the then eighth-ranked Scots were riding an 11 game win streak and had the added confidence of having defeated the Little Giants 97-56 earlier in the season. The game began as expected, as Wooster jumped out to an early 15-2 lead in the first eight minutes while going a perfect 4-4 from the three-point line.
The rest of the first half also went well for the Scots. Although they shot a relatively low 40 percent from the field, they managed to hold Wabash to 21 percent and took a 27-17 lead into the halftime break.
The second half was back and forth, with the Scots maintaining at least a slim lead all the way until 4:21 left in the game, when Wabash guard Ross Sponsler lined up a three and put the cap on a 9-2 run to give the Little Giants their first lead of the game, 44-45.
Kenny DeBoer ’15 tied the game 45-45 off a free throw on the next possession, but the Giants tacked on six unanswered points in the next two minutes to gain a 51-45 lead with 25 seconds to go. The Scots saw a glimmer of hope when Jalen Goodwin ’15 completed a three point play to bring the Scots within three with 17 seconds remaining, but Wabash made its free throws to close out the game and take home the win, 55-48.
In addition to the Fighting Scots’ historically low shooting percentage; the turnover differential was certainly a contributing factor in the loss. The Scots turned the ball over 15 times to Wabash’s ten, while allowing 20 points off turnovers and gaining only seven.
Sponsler scored a game high 20 points on 5-15 shooting, while Jake Mays ’13 led the Scots with 10 points on 3-5 shooting.
The Scots still sit easily atop the conference standings at 11-1, with Ohio Wesleyan in second place at 9-3. Wooster has three regular season games (all against conference opponents) remaining before the conference tournament begins on Feb. 19. They played Ohio Wesleyan University on Wednesday after press time.