Roundup: Tigers Tied for Top

The Wittenberg University Tigers moved into a tie for first place in the North Coast Athletic Conference with a pair of wins last week.

The Tigers scored a 66-51 win at Wabash (Jan. 17), then pulled a 90-83 upset win over conference leader and nationally ranked Wooster (Jan. 20) at the HPER Center.

Wittenberg and Wooster, both 7-1 in the NCAC, hold a one-game lead over third place Earlham and a 1 1/2 game advantage over fourth place Wabash at the halfway point of the conference schedule.

At Wabash the Tigers got off to a terrible start, falling behind 10-2 and hitting on just one of their first 12 shots from the field. But sophomore backup center B.J. Harris(Riverside, Ohio/Stebbins) came off the bench to spark Wittenberg.

He scored the first five points and seven in all in a 17-1 run that put Wittenberg in front for good. Harris finished with a game and career high 26 points on 11-of -13 shooting from the field, to go along with eight rebounds and three steals.

Sophomore forward Kevin Longley (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) added 12 points. Wittenberg led 26-19 at halftime, despite the fact Longley was the only starter to score in the first half.

That set up the showdown with Wooster, a team that had won three straight games and five of the last seven against Wittenberg.

It was a game of runs. Wittenberg jumped to a 13-4 lead in the first five minutes, only to watch Wooster come back and take a 30-24 lead with 7:41 left in the first half.

The Tigers came back and took the lead for good at 43-40 on a basket and a free throw by freshman backup point guard Mark Borland (Kettering, Ohio/Alter) with 1:03 left in the half.

Wittenberg took a 46-42 lead at halftime on an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer by senior forward Ryan Taylor (Waynesfield, Ohio/Goshen).

The second half was much like the first, Wittenberg opened up a 56-44 lead in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second half, only to watch Wooster rally to within 56-54 less than two minutes later.

The Tigers used another spurt to push the lead to 80-70 with just over five minutes left, but the Scots charged back to within 84-83 with 1:15 left.

But Wittenberg scored the final six points of the game on a Taylor jumper and two free throws each from junior guard Greg Rustad (Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood) and Borland.

Taylor scored a game high 23 points, while Borland added a career high 21. Rustad had 13 points and Longley a game high 10 rebounds.

The win snapped Wooster's 41-game NCAC winning streak dating back to January 1999. And when Wittenberg travels to Wooster on Feb. 17, the Tigers could snap Wooster's homecourt winning streak, which currently stands at 41 games, the longest active in NCAA basketball.

In the NCAC statistics, Taylor leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage (.512) and is second in scoring (18.0), while Harris is first in field goal percentage (.610).

This week the Tigers face the two teams at the bottom of the NCAC standings, traveling to Denison on Wednesday and hosting Oberlin on Saturday.