Wooster Cruises to 36-Point Win in NCAC Opener

James Cooper

After an early scare on Wednesday night, The College of Wooster routed Denison University 109-73 to successfully open defense of its North Coast Athletic Conference championship in Granville, Ohio.

Denison (2-3, 0-1 NCAC) scored the game’s first nine points, while on the other end of the floor, it took Wooster (5-0, 1-0 NCAC) more than 3:30 to put a tally on the scoreboard. After a timeout, the Scots collected themselves and played like the No. 2 national ranking that they were issued by D3hoops.com in the popular Web site’s first regular season poll of 2005-06, using a 10-2 run to knot it at 15-15.

Following a brief 18-18 tie, Wooster outscored the Big Red 28-7 over a 7:31 stretch, which saw the Scots’ pressure defense force six turnovers, resulting in several easy baskets as they hit 10-of-13 field goals to take a 46-25 lead. Wooster eventually went into halftime with a 52-36 advantage.

In the second half, the Scots built a 61-40 lead less than three minutes in and Denison only got within a 20-point margin once (65-46) the rest of the way.

Wooster’s traditional balanced offensive attack was in full effect Wednesday, as six players ended up in double figures. Leading scorer James Cooper (Springfield, Ohio / Springfield South) not only posted a game-high 19 points on 7-of-11 field goals, but he led all players by giving out a career-high six assists.

Kyle Witucky (Zanesville, Ohio / Zanesville) connected on 4-of-10 3-pointers on his way to 16 points, Tim Vandervaart (North Canton, Ohio / Hoover) made all seven field goals he attempted for 14 markers and recorded a game-high eight rebounds, and Tom Port (Avon Lake, Ohio / Avon Lake) complemented three 3-pointers with a one-handed alley-oop dunk from Cooper as part of a 13-point night.

In addition to the starters’ output, Devin Fulk (Newark, Ohio / Licking Valley) poured in a career-high 15 points, which included a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range, and Brandon Johnson (Columbus, Ohio / Groveport Madison) contributed 10 points to the winning effort.

Three Big Red players reached double-digits in the scoring column, led by Jordan Krantz, who sparked them off the bench with 17 points.

As the final score indicates, the Scots won the statistical battle. They finished over 55 percent from the field (41-of-74), including 15-of-32 on 3-pointers (.469), while holding Denison to under 40 percent (25-of-64). Wooster owned a 45-37 edge in the rebounding department and turned the ball over 13 times to the Big Red’s 19.

The only concern right now for the Scots appears to be free throw shooting, as their 12-of-23 night (.522) dropped them to 67.6 percent for the season.

Next, Wooster continues conference action with a road trip to Earlham College (2-2) this Saturday. Opening tip in Richmond, Ind., is scheduled for 1 p.m.