After Slow Start, Wooster Cruises Past Earlham 84-62

Tom Port

WOOSTER, Ohio — The College of Wooster dug its way out of an early deficit, scoring 16 unanswered points during a five-minute span of the first half, and then added another big run in the second en route to an 84-62 win over Earlham College in the teams’ North Coast Athletic Conference opener Saturday afternoon at Timken Gymnasium.

Earlham (0-5, 0-1 NCAC) slowed the pace of the game down and pulled out to a six-point lead on three different occasions (11-5, 14-8, 16-10) through the first nine minutes, with Markous Jewett scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 field-goal shooting.

It was all Wooster (5-0, 1-0 NCAC) from that point forward, though. The Fighting Scots stayed composed and strung together a 22-2 run, including the aforementioned 16 in a row, to take a 32-18 lead with just under 4:00 left in the opening half. The Quakers did creep back into the game, trailing 34-28 at the break.

In the second, Wooster opened with a 12-2 run, getting five of those points from Brandon Johnson (Columbus, Ohio / Groveport Madison) while upping its margin to 16 points (46-30). The Scots, who made 20-of-28 field goals (.714) during the second 20 minutes, cruised from there, leading by 12 or more the rest of the way and eventually settling for the 22-point victory.

Tom Port (Avon Lake, Ohio / Avon Lake) paced Wooster in scoring for the first time this season with 19 points on 8-of-12 field goals, including 3-of-4 3-pointers. He also added five rebounds and four assists, and most importantly, bottled up Jewett defensively, as Earlham’s top offensive threat only ended up with two more baskets after his hot start.

In addition to Port, Johnson had a season-high 17 points, converting two old-fashioned three-point plays and hitting 7-of-9 field goals along the way, while Tim Vandervaart (North Canton, Ohio / Hoover) chipped in 14 markers in the scorebook as well as game-highs of seven rebounds and four steals. James Cooper (Springfield, Ohio / Springfield South) contributed 11 points to the winning cause.

Completing Jewett’s 14 were Tristian Gregory and LaRon Henry with 10 points apiece for the Quakers.

Statistically, the difference in the game was the Scots’ 20 assists, compared to nine turnovers, while Earlham posted 15 in each category. Also, Wooster ended up just under 60 percent from the field (.583; 35-for-60) and owned a slight edge in rebounding (28-27).

Next, the Scots will be on the road twice next week, first traveling to Oberlin College (2-4, 1-0 NCAC), which will be coming off a 52-50 victory over Wabash College from this afternoon, on Wednesday and then to arch-rival and fellow unbeaten Wittenberg University (5-0, 1-0 NCAC) Saturday night.