Big Second Half Lifts Scots To 83-52 Win Over Oberlin

Bryan Nelson led five Wooster players in double figures with 18 points.

OBERLIN, Ohio - The College of Wooster, which was ranked as the number-two team in Division III men's basketball for the second-straight week by d3hoops.com, used a 17-4 spurt at the beginning of the second half to put away upstart Oberlin College and eventually win 83-52 Wednesday at Philips Gymnasium.

Wooster upped its overall record to 6-0, which marks the first time since 1950-51 that the Scots have started the season by winning six in a row, and is now 2-0 in North Coast Athletic Conference action, while Oberlin sees its record fall to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in league play.

With 5:30 left to play in the opening half, the Yeomen owned a 29-26 advantage on the scoreboard, but Wooster finished the half strong, outscoring the hosts 11-4 to take a four-point lead into the break.

The Scots carried that momentum into the next 20 minutes of play, as sophomore Bryan Nelson (Kettering, Ohio / Kettering Fairmont) hit a pair of field goals to start the second half. Oberlin responded with a bucket of its own, but then Wooster rallied for seven consecutive points to take a 13-point lead.

The rest of the game the Scots slowly built their lead up to 31 points - the final margin of victory.

Nelson led five Wooster players that reached double figures in the scoring column with a game-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field to go along with his game-high nine rebounds. Fellow forward Brian Carlisle (Dayton, Ohio / Oakwood) contributed a season-high 15 points and added seven boards.

Junior Antwyan Reynolds (Mansfield, Ohio / Mansfield Senior) added 14 points, despite only hitting 3-of-12 field goal attempts, freshman Randy Sistrunk (Canton, Ohio / Canton McKinley Senior) recorded 12 points, and sophomore Matt Smith (Elida, Ohio / Elida) posted 10 points in the win.

The Scot defense held the NCAC's leading scorer - senior James Knight - to 17 points, seven below his average of 24.0 coming into the game. Also for Oberlin, senior Maurice Elrod had 14 points, including his 1,000th career tally, and dished out a team-high three assists.

Throughout the game, both teams struggled to make shots, as Wooster ended up with a season-low 39.7 field-goal percentage (27-of-64), including a dismal 6-of-24 from three-point range, and the Yeomen shot a meager 31.7 percent (20-of-64) on the night, including 17.6 percent (6-of-34) in the second half.

The Scots will put their perfect record on the line on Saturday, Dec. 9, when they travel east to New Wilmington, Pa., for a 3 p.m. match-up against Westminster College, which entered Wednesday night's action with a 6-1 mark.

Oberlin will try and win its first NCAC game of the year this Saturday when it plays at Ohio Wesleyan University (1-6, 1-0 NCAC) in Delaware, Ohio, at 3 p.m.