2002 North Coast Athletic Conference
Men's Basketball Tournament

Hosted by Wittenberg University
Friday, Feb. 22, 2002
Semifinals
5:30 p.m.
#2 College of Wooster (21-6) def. Wabash College (15-11)
83-80
It was physical. It was entertaining. It was well-played. It was everything one would expect from a much-anticipated North Coast Athletic Conference semifinal between two hot teams. In the end, the second-seeded College of Wooster Fighting Scots scored a hard-fought 83-80 win over the Wabash College Little Giants to advance to their eighth straight NCAC tournament title game.

The difference was on the offensive end as Wooster shot a sizzling 71.4 percent from the field in the first half, including a 7-of-9 performance from three-point range, and finished the game at 58.2 percent on 32-of-55 shooting. Wabash was hardly struggling offensively, knocking in just less than 54 percent of its shots in the second half to finish the game at 51 percent on 26-of-51. But the Little Giants were outscored 36-21 from three-point range.

The Scots went on a big run late in the first half to take a 47-34 lead into the locker room. The main man for Wooster was junior forward Matt Smith, who canned all six of his three-point attempts and finished the first half with 20 points. Four of his threes came during what turned out to be a decisive 13-2 run late in the half that turned a one-point Wabash lead into a 10-point Wooster advantage. He then added another triple with 55 seconds remaining before halftime to push the lead to 13.

For the game, Wooster got 25 points from last year's tournament MVP, junior forward Bryan Nelson. Nelson, who hit 8-of-13 shots from the field and all six of his free throws, also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. Smith finished with 23 points and senior guard Antwyan Reynolds, who broke the school record for career three-pointers with two treys in the game, concluded the contest with 17 points.

Wabash was paced by 25 points from guard Brady Claxton, who hit 7-of-12 from the field and 8-of-9 from the line. Junior forward Joe DesJean was also strong with 24 points, but no other Little Giant player finished in double figures.
Box Score Wooster def. Wabash, 83-80


7:45 p.m.
#1 Wittenberg University (24-3) def. #4 Ohio Wesleyan University (12-15)
75-69
It's never easy to beat a team three times in one season, especially when the first two games were so hotly contested. But first-seeded Wittenberg bucked the odds on Friday night, defeating fourth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan 75-69 in another hard-fought but fairly well-played NCAC tournament semifinal game.

Wittenberg, which had won the first two meetings between the two teams by a combined total of five points, advanced to the NCAC championship game for the second straight year and the eighth time since joining the league prior to the 1989-90 season. The Tigers were runners-up a year ago to Wooster, the second seed in this year's competition and Saturday's championship game foe.

The difference in Friday night's semifinal slugfest was rebounding. The Tigers, who lead the nation in rebound margin for a second straight year at more than 12 per game, topped their visitors on the glass by a 41-32 margin, including a 17-8 advantage in offensive boards. Otherwise, things were amazingly even as both teams shot just under 50 percent from the field and around 40 percent from three-point range. Wittenberg struggled from the free throw line, particularly in the second half, allowing Ohio Wesleyan to cut the lead to three on two occasions in the final minutes.

Wittenberg, which took out eighth-seeded Earlham in Tuesday's quarterfinals, was led offensively by sophomore guard Rod Emmons, who knocked down four first-half three-pointers en route to 13 total points in the game. He was joined in double figures by junior center B.J. Harris, who had 12 points and seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end. All 10 Tiger players who saw action in the game scored at least three points, and every one of them had at least one rebound.

Ohio Wesleyan, which advanced to the semifinals by virtue of Oberlin's forfeiture of its season due to the use of an illegal player, got 21 points from sophomore guard Shawn Kindred and 19 points from sophomore forward Travis Schwab. But just as they had all season, the Bishops got minimal offensive contributions from the rest of the lineup as just four other players even scored a point and none finished in double figures. Kindred and Schwab took 28 of the team's 55 shots and 10 of the team's 13 free throws.
Box Score Wittenberg def. Ohio Wesleyan, 75-69


Championship Game
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2002
7 p.m.
#1 Wittenberg (25-3) def. #2 Wooster (21-7) 58-57
 
It was only the second lead Wittenberg University had all day, but it was the one that mattered. Trailing the second-seeded College of Wooster Fighting Scots by two points, the No. 1 seeded and nationally ranked Tigers were rescued by three clutch foul shots by senior guard Greg Rustad with eight seconds remaining as they pulled out a 58-57 win at the HPER Center and earned an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament, which begins Thursday, Feb. 28.

Wittenberg trailed the entire first half, at one point by 10 points at 22-12, before rallying to within one by halftime. They did it not by executing their offensive game plan to the best of their ability but by ratcheting up the defense and limiting the Scots to just two points in the final 10 minutes of the first half.

In the second half, the two teams traded blows repeatedly, with Wooster pulling out to leads as large as eight points as late as the 10:07 mark. But Wittenberg showed a great deal of heart, once again clamping down on the Scots and asserting itself on the boards. Freshman forward Andy Bucheit, who led the Tigers with 10 points off the bench, hit a key shot to tie the game at 49 with 4:01 remaining, senior center Brian Gratsch knocked down a clutch shot in the lane with 2:05 remaining to force another tie at 55, setting the stage for Rustad to respond to a strong move to the hoop by Wooster junior forward Bryan Nelson, whose basket with 41 seconds remaining in the game gave the Scots their final lead.

The Tigers ran a final play for Rustad, isolating him on Wooster's Matt Smith at the top of the key. Rustad pulled up and faked a three-pointer, getting Smith in the air, and then leaned in hard to draw contact while throwing up an errant shot. Rustad then calmly toed the line and knocked three straight free throws without even drawing iron.

Wittenberg improved to 25-3 overall with the win, which sealed an NCAC regular season and tournament title in the same year for the first time since 1996. The Tigers, who also got a huge performance from sophomore Peter Walker off the bench with six points and 11 rebounds, will learn their NCAA tournament fate on Sunday evening. Wooster, which likely concludes the year at 21-7, was paced by Nelson's 18 points and senior guard Antwyan Reynolds, who knocked down 13 points.

Box Score Wittenberg def. Wooster 58-57


B.J. Harris (Wittenberg) - MVP
Rod Emmons (Wittenberg)
Bryan Nelson (Wooster)
Antwyan Reynolds (Wooster)
Shawn Kindred (Ohio Wesleyan
Joe DesJean (Wabash)