Quakers beat Capital in OAC play

Stirling scores career-high 27

|Box Score|

January 18, 2006

Scott Walters

Riding the wave of a 17-4 run over the final 6:50, Wilmington College posted a 74-63 win over Capital University Wednesday at Fred Raizk Arena. The win snaps Wilmington's two-game losing streak and moves the Quakers to 6-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, 13-3 overall. Capital drops to 3-6 in the conference, 6-9 overall.

For WC, the win was its first over Capital since joining the OAC in 2000. Wilmington last defeated the Crusaders during the 1996-97 season.

"They've lost some good players, but they're still Capital," WC head coach Scott Reule said. "They are still competitive. They still play very physcial, very strong basketball, and they play hard. I told our guys before the game this could be the most physical game we play all year. They are young, but they are very good."

With two freshmen and three sophomores in its starting lineup, Capital opened a 16-10 lead when frosh Nate Stahl drilled a three-pointer at 11:50. Eric Stirling (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) — on his way to career-high 27 points — scored to cap an 8-0 run that moved Wilmington into an 18-16 advantage. The remainder of the half was a give-and-take battle that ended with a 36-36 tie.

Brett Carpenter's jumper gave WC a 40-38 lead early in the second, an advantage that stretched to five on Stirling's three-point play. Zach Broermann (Brookville, Ind./Franklin County) kept WC up five with a trey at 15:11, but the Crusaders climbed back into the game and took a 59-57 lead when Stahl hit a three-pointer with 6:50 to play.

The Quakers' signature swarming defense then left its imprint on the game as Wilmington converted five turnovers into eight points in its game-ending surge.

"Our big thing is always to play good, solid pressure, to not come out of our press and to stay aggressive," Reule said. "When you do that, I think there's something there that the kids are going to believe in and understand that's what we're going to do to win basketball games. Offensively, we did a nice job of attacking their zone. We've been seeing zone defenses a lot. We did a much better job of getting the ball to the short corner and attacking gaps, which left us with open jumpers. We hit big jumpers when we needed them. Zach hit a big shot and Nick Berter hit a big shot. When you hit them when you need them, it gives your team a whole lot of confidence to go back and play defense."

Stirling was solid from the first whistle to the final buzzer, scoring 12 in the first half and 15 in the second. Carpenter (Marshalville/Smithville) added 10 for the Quakers, and Berter (Cincinnati/Reading) and Broermann scored nine each. Stahl, who scored 13 points in the first half, led Capital with 16.

Reule said the win — coming on the heels of an overtime loss to Muskingum and a two-point defeat at Mount Union — should provide exactly what his squad needs.

"The biggest thing is our confidence. That's why this victory is so important," Reule said. "We needed to regain our confidence in ourselves, in our teammates, in our whole program. I could sense going into this week that there was a different feel. On Monday, we had one of our best practices of the year. As that ended, I told the guys I wish we could go ahead and jump it up and play right then. By having that intensity, I felt we were going to come out tonight and play well."

The Quakers will host OAC-leading Baldwin-Wallace 3 p.m. Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena. The Yellow Jackets are now 8-1 in the OAC after whipping Heidelberg, 95-75, Wednesday. Wilmington handed B-W its only conference loss to-date, a 64-61 setback Jan. 7 in Berea.