Scots Too Much for Denison in NCAC Opener

James Cooper

WOOSTER, Ohio —The College of Wooster men’s basketball team got off to a quick start, scoring the game’s first nine points, and barely had to look back as it methodically worked its way to a 90-60 win over visiting Denison University in the North Coast Athletic Conference’s lid-lifter for the 2004-05 season.

 Just over three minutes into the action, Wooster (5-0, 1-0 NCAC) was ahead by three possessions (9-0) with four different players scoring during that stretch. After Denison (2-4, 0-1 NCAC) interrupted the opening run, the Scots extended their lead to 11 on two different occasions (17-6, 19-8).

Midway through the first half, the Big Red put together their best stretch of the night, trimming a 10-point margin (20-10) down to four (20-16) with six unanswered points all coming after offensive rebounds. Following a timeout, Wooster built its lead back up to eight (24-16), then 10 (28-18), and it remained an 8-to-12-point game for the rest of the half, including 40-28 at the break.

Denison’s Robb Hern opened the second with a 3-pointer to bring the advantage back down to single-digits (40-31), but that would be as close as the Big Red would get all second half. The Scots’ biggest run was a 17-1 stretch, in which James Cooper (Springfield, Ohio / South) and Devin Fulk (Newark, Ohio / Licking Valley) did most of the damage as the freshmen backcourt duo scored 11 of those points (Cooper five, Fulk six). That made it a 66-39 score just past the midway point.

Wooster’s balanced attack wound up hitting exactly 60 percent from the field (33-of-55), including more than half of its 3-point attempts (11-of-21). Tom Port (Avon Lake, Ohio / Avon Lake) paced the Scots with 17 points, including three 3-pointes, Cooper added 14 markers on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor, and Matt Schlingman (Ashland, Ohio / Ashland) posted his fourth-straight double-digit game with 13 points.

Hern and Dan Hodgkinson were the bright spots for a Denison squad that made just one-third of its field goals (18-of-54). Hern had 12 points, while Hodgkinson added 10, and the duo shot 9-of-19 from the floor.

The one area where the Big Red competed with the Scots was on the glass, as each team ended up with 31 rebounds apiece. Hern paced the Big Red with five, while Tim Vandervaart (North Canton, Ohio / Hoover) led Wooster in that category for the second game in a row, this time with five.

The Scots will play the first of four-straight on the road this Saturday (Dec. 4), when they travel to Ohio Wesleyan University (2-3, 0-0 NCAC) for a 4 p.m. tip.