The Wittenberg men's basketball team has rarely enjoyed a Spring Break in the traditional warm-weather locales, unlike many of the university's students, who are off for some fun in the sun next week. The Tigers wouldn't have it any other way.
For the fourth time in five years and an NCAA Division III-record 23rd time overall, the Tigers will spend their Spring Break competing for a national championship. After winning a pair of nail-biters last weekend at the College of Wooster to claim their fifth North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title in 16 years in the league, the Tigers earned a first-round bye in the NCAA Division III Tournament and will face John Carroll at home at 7 p.m. Saturday.
John Carroll, the 2005 regular season Ohio Athletic Conference champion and OAC Tournament runner-up, defeated Bethany, the 2005 champion of the Presidents Athletic Conference, in a first round home game Thursday. The Blue Streaks beat Wittenberg in the second round a year ago en route to an eventual third-place finish.
Wittenberg sports a 25-3 overall record and is ranked No. 4 in the latest d3hoops.com poll. Under Head Coach Bill Brown, the Tigers have made eight appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament, with the best finish coming in 1994, his first season on the bench, as the Tigers advanced to the Final Four.
Wittenberg's 12-team bracket is arguably the most difficult of the four established to determine the four-team field that will battle for a national championship in Salem, Va. on March 18-19. Seven of the 12 teams in the bracket are ranked in the current top 25.
To reach the national tourney, the Tigers had to prove themselves in the most hostile of environments. In the NCAC Tournament semifinals, Wittenberg nearly lost its chance before rallying for a 61-53 overtime victory over the Wabash College Little Giants in a game played at the College of Wooster.
The last three times that Wittenberg had played in an NCAC Tournament hosted by Wooster, the Tigers had stumbled in the semifinals (1999 vs. Allegheny, 2000 vs. Wabash and 2002 vs. Allegheny). The 2005 tournament was nearly another footnote, but the latest edition of the Wittenberg Tigers showed some real mettle in pulling out the win, coming from 10 points down in the final 11 minutes to force overtime and finally ease past Wabash, the No. 3 seed, in overtime.
On a statistics sheet that showed two teams battling evenly throughout, the key statistic was a stunning discrepancy in free throws. Wabash did not attempt a single free throw in the game, while Wittenberg took advantage of 22 attempts by making 21, good for a percentage of 95.5. None were bigger than two foul shots by junior post Dane Borchers (Russia, Ohio/Russia) with just 34 seconds remaining and the Tigers down two points.
Those two free throws tied the score at 50, capping a game-ending 17-7 run. With momentum on their side, the Tigers outscored Wabash 11-3 in overtime, the key being five straight points to open the final five minutes on two free throws by junior post Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) and a clutch three-pointer by senior wing Andy Bucheit (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle).
Wittenberg got huge games from the players it needed most, especially at crunch time. Borchers scored the Tigers' final six points in regulation - four on free throws - and finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Russ added 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots, Bucheit finished with 12 points and junior wing Kenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) added 10 points.
In Saturday's championship game, the Tigers turned a rare hat trick. For the third time in its men's basketball program's history, the Wooster ascended to the No. 1 ranking on a Monday only to be upset by Wittenberg the following Saturday, this time by a 61-59 margin. It was also the third time in 2004-05 that Wittenberg had beaten a No. 1 team - two wins over Wooster and one against NAIA No. 1 Cedarville in December.
Wittenberg led by as many as 10 points in the first half and held a 50-39 advantage before a furious Wooster run cut it to one point with less than five minutes remaining. The Tigers moved out to a 59-52 lead, only to have the resilient Scots score five straight points and take possession of the ball inside of the final 30 seconds.
At that point, Brady clamped down defensively in the post to force an errant shot and Bucheit collared the rebound with 11 seconds left. Then Russ, who was named NCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player, stepped to the line with seven seconds remaining and calmly drained the biggest two free throws of his career, putting Wittenberg ahead by four points and sending them on to the Big Dance.
Russ, who scored 37 points against Wooster in a triple overtime loss on Feb. 12, was the go-to-player for the Tigers as he finished with 19 points. The stats were so even - 25 field each, eight three-pointers each, a five-rebound edge for Wooster, a one-turnover advantage for Wittenberg - that it came down to the charity stripe for a second straight night. Wittenberg finished 3-of-6 from the line, while Wooster was a game-changing 1-of-5.
Wittenberg picked up 12 points from Bucheit, none bigger than a three-pointer at the 4:27 mark of the second half that put the Tigers up 57-52, Brady added nine points in 21 high-quality minutes off the bench, senior guard Danny Brywcynski (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) chipped in with eight first-half points and Borchers finished with eight points and six boards. Finally, senior guard Kenny Molz (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) certainly counts among the Tigers' biggest heroes after he drained a three-pointer to stop the aforementioned 11-1 second-half run and put Wittenberg up 54-50.
This week, the good news continued to roll in as Russ was named NCAC Player of the Year, the first Tiger player to claim that honor since Ryan Taylor in 2001. Russ was the Tigers' lone first-team representative as Borchers and Bucheit both earned second-team nods, the first for each in their careers.