Roundup: Tigers Fall To John Carroll In NCAA Second Round

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Dane Borchers

The Wittenberg men's basketball team ended its season in disappointing fashion, falling to John Carroll University in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament at home on March 5. The Tigers capped the season with a record of 25-4 overall after finishing second in the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season standings with a 14-2 record and winning the NCAC Tournament for the fifth time in school history.

For the second straight year, John Carroll pulled out a second round tourney victory on Wittenberg's home court, this time rallying for a 75-68 double overtime victory over the fourth-ranked Tigers.

After a choppy first half, the physical game seemed to move in the Tigers' direction heading down the stretch as Wittenberg owned a held slim lead for much of the final 20 minutes. But John Carroll worked the clock in the closing seconds to force the game's sixth tie at 57-57 and force overtime.

Perhaps the biggest play of the game occurred at the outset of the first overtime period as junior NCAC Player of the Year Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) fouled out just seconds in. His absence left the Tigers lacking a key offensive and defensive weapon in the two extra sessions, and it came back to haunt Wittenberg as JCU won the rebounding battle, 15-9, in the two overtimes.

John Carroll led by as much as four in the first overtime, but the Tigers clamped down defensively to hold the Streaks scoreless in the final 3:18. Junior wing Kenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) tied it on a lay-up with 49 seconds left, and then the Tigers were unable to get a score on three different in-bounds plays in the final 24 seconds.

Wittenberg, which lost three of its four games in 2004-05 in overtime, just seemed to run out of steam in the second extra session. Four of Wittenberg's 15 missed three-point attempts came in the second overtime.

Junior post Dane Borchers (Russia, Ohio/Russia) and Brady combined for 16-of-26 shooting from the field as both met or exceeded scoring career highs in the game. While the Tigers handled the JCU pressure well, committing just 15 turnovers, they shot 17 percent from three-point range, 63 percent from the free throw line and were beaten on the boards. Borchers finished with a career-high 23 points, and he added eight rebounds and six steals. Brady capped his night with a career-high tying 20 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes off the bench before fouling out in the waning seconds of the second overtime.

The game wrapped up the careers of four players: senior guards Danny Brywczynski (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont), Kenny Molz (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont), Andy Bucheit (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) and Brett Bowen (Arcadia, Ind./Hamilton Heights).