Steve Heatherly
OBERLIN, Ohio — With a 107-74 victory at Oberlin Saturday afternoon, the Wittenberg men's basketball team moved to a final North Coast Athletic Conference record of 11-5, finishing the regular season tied for third with Allegheny.
The Tigers will occupy the three seed over Allegheny in the upcoming NCAC Tournament by virtue of a 'best win' tiebreaker, with Wittenberg's Feb. 13 victory over Wooster deciding the issue. Thanks to earning the third seed, the Tigers will host Hiram in the NCAC Tournament Quarterfinals at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23, part of an NCAC Tournament doubleheader that will conclude with the Wittenberg women hosting the very same Hiram Terriers at 8 p.m. in Pam Evans Smith Arena.
The triple-digit point total represents Wittenberg's highest single-game scoring total since a 108-66 win at Cedarville on Nov. 27, 2001, and their first 100-point game since a 100-85 victory over Denison in triple overtime on Dec. 2, 2006 in Granville, Ohio. Saturday's score, however, represents the first regulation 100-point game for Wittenberg since a 106-60 rout of Hiram at the HPER Center on Feb. 5, 2002. The team's first-half total of 62 points fell just four points short of the program record of 66 first-half points.
In the win, nine Tigers with three or more field goal attempts shot at least 50 percent, led by junior guard Chris Sullivan (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington), who drained poured in 5-of-8 three point attempts to finish with 15 points on 5-of-9 overall shooting. He was joined by sophomore forward Clayton Black (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) and freshman wing David Hieber (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) at the 15 point threshold. Black was 4-of-5 from the field and an excellent 7-of-8 from the free throw line, while Hieber knocked down 3-of-4 from long range and 4-of-8 from the floor along with a perfect 4-of-4 from the stripe.
Sullivan's knack for knocking down the trey (3.16 per game) earned him a national rank of 18th in the Feb. 14 NCAA Division III statistical release in three-point makes per game, while the team clocks in at 12th in the nation with an average of nine per game.
Sophomore wing Josh McKee (New Carlisle, Ohio/Tecumseh) and freshman wing Steven Heatherly (Mishawaka, Ind./Mishawaka) also posted double figures, McKee with 11 on a 3-for-6 performance to go with 4-of-6 from the line, and Heatherly hitting 3-of-6 from the floor and matching from the free throw stripe.
The Tigers used strong numbers all around in the first half to cruise out to a big halftime lead. The first period ended with the Red & White ahead 62-27, a 35-point margin, on the strength of 20-of-31 field goal shooting (64.5 percent), 10-of-15 three-point shooting (66.7), and 12-of-14 free throw accuracy (85.7) to muscle the Yeomen into the big deficit.
The offensive numbers cooled down in the second half, but Head Coach Bill Brown took the opportunity to play the entire bench. In all, 16 players saw the floor, 14 took at least one shot, and no player played more than 19 total minutes. By the end of the game, the Tigers sank 27 free throws and shot at a 51.6 percent clip, along with a 46.7 percent mark from long range.
One ongoing storyline has been the excellent playmaking of senior guard David Nowicki (Carmel, Ind./Westfield), and he again improved his numbers with four assists and no turnovers in 15 minutes on the floor, in addition to one steal. Nowicki has 97 assists and just 32 turnovers on the season for an impressive ratio of 3.03. As of Feb. 14, when his ratio was still just 2.78, Nowicki was ranked 14th in all of NCAA Division III men's basketball in assist-to-turnover ratio, and his current mark would be good enough for seventh on the same list. As a team, the Tigers are ranked 19th in assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation at 1.25.
Written by: John Strawn '07