Wittenberg Rallies Past Ohio Wesleyan To Clinch Outright NCAC Title

DELAWARE, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tiger men's basketball team has been pushed into "gut check" time on a couple of occasions recently. Once again on Wednesday at Ohio Wesleyan, the Tigers did what they had to do at the times it counted most, using a 10-1 run in the closing minutes to open up a tight game and earn a hard-fought 60-50 victory.

The win clinched the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season title for the Tigers, their third in the last four years and their 10th won or shared crown since joining the conference in 1989. Wittenberg, ranked seventh in the nation in the latest d3hoops.com poll and first in the Great Lakes Region, improved to 21-3 overall and 15-0 in the NCAC. It was the Tigers' 17th straight win in the 2003-04 season and their 21st straight in NCAC regular season action, dating back to last February and a road game against Allegheny, Saturday's opponent in the HPER Center. Ohio Wesleyan, which lost to the Tigers for the 49th time in the last 50 meetings and the 100th time in the 141-game history of the rivalry, fell to 18-6 overall and 12-3 in the NCAC. The Battling Bishops can still earn a tie for second place with a win over visiting Wooster on Saturday, but their hopes of a share of the NCAC regular season title were dashed with the loss.

Ohio Wesleyan led 25-22 at halftime after rallying from an early 6-0 deficit. The second half was back-and-forth throughout until Wittenberg senior forward Peter Walker (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) hit the same kind of big shot that he made in Saturday's road win over nationally ranked Wooster. He buried a three-pointer that gave the Tigers a 50-46 cushion with 3:35 to go. Wittenberg closed the game on a 13-4 run to sealed the game. Down the stretch, the Tigers hit 8-of-10 free throws, finishing the game an outstanding 19-of-21 from the charity stripe.

Wittenberg was paced offensively by sophomore center Dane Borchers (Russia, Ohio/Russia), who came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points and add six rebounds. Sophomore forward Kenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) added 14 points and seven rebounds, sharing the team-high in the latter category with Walker, who added 13 points. Another stat line worth mentioning - junior point guard Danny Brywczynski (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) wasn't credited with a shot in 29 minutes of action, but he contributed three assists and no turnovers.

Ohio Wesleyan picked up 15 points and eight rebounds from All-America senior center Travis Schwab, 15 points and seven rebounds from Charlie Smith and 12 points and six rebounds from Andy Warnock. The other five players who saw action for the Bishops scored a combined total of eight points on 3-of-21 shooting from the field.