Roundup: Tigers Looking For NCAC Title
The Wittenberg men's basketball team has turned the corner in the 2005-06 North Coast Athletic Conference title chase, and now they are headed for home riding an 11-game win streak. The No. 1 ranked team in all of NCAA Division III, Wittenberg stands at 17-1 overall and 8-1 in the NCAC after wins at Allegheny and at home against Wabash in the last week.
The Wittenberg men's basketball team has turned the corner in the 2005-06 North Coast Athletic Conference title chase, and now they are headed for home riding an 11-game win streak. The No. 1 ranked team in all of NCAA Division III, Wittenberg stands at 17-1 overall and 8-1 in the NCAC after wins at Allegheny and at home against Wabash in the last week.
The five-point win over Allegheny on Saturday was Wittenberg's most significant challenge since a Dec. 10 loss at Wooster, the second-ranked team in the nation and the current NCAC leader. In that 11-game stretch, no other team has gotten closer than 11 points to the Tigers.
With 2005 NCAC Player of the Year Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) struggling, the Tigers got a huge lift from senior post Dane Borchers (Russia, Ohio/Russia), who hit for a career-high 29 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds. Borchers did much of the heavy lifting in the game, setting the stage for the biggest shot of junior guard Pat Denbow's (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) collegiate career, a three-pointer with 44 seconds left that made it a two-possession game. Then Borchers and senior wing Phil Steffes (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) combined to hit 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch to ensure the victory.
Against Wabash, the Tigers came out of the locker room on fire by hitting their first six shots, and they effectively buried the Little Giants. Wittenberg, the top-ranked defensive team in all of NCAA Division III, smothered Wabash, winning the battle of the boards by seven and holding the Little Giants to 38 percent shooting from the field. Russ rebounded nicely, going for a game-high 17 points, while senior wing Kenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) added 10 points and six boards.
For the season, Russ, Borchers and Brady lead the Tigers in scoring and rebounding. Only twice this season has another player led Wittenberg in scoring in a game and only twice all season has another player topped the team in rebounds.
The stretch run of the 2005-06 season figures to be an interesting one for the Tigers, starting with road games in the next six days against Denison on Saturday and Earlham on Wednesday. Those two teams both lost to Wittenberg by double figures earlier this season, but both are in contention for an upper division finish in the conference's regular season title chase. A win against the top-ranked team in the nation could make their season.
If forms holds, however, the game of the season will take place Feb. 4 in the HPER Center when Wittenberg welcomes Wooster for their second grudge match of the 2005-06 season. The Tigers won two of three games a year ago between the two teams, but Wooster won the game in Springfield, 102-95 in triple overtime. The Scots also won the first meeting between the two teams this season on a late three-pointer on Wooster's home court.