Late WC rally falls short

WC falls to No. 10 B-W, 80-68

|Box Score|

January 21, 2006

Travante Leftenant

Despite a strong second-half rally, Wilmington College fell to No. 10 Baldwin-Wallace, 80-68, in Ohio Athletic Conference play Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena. The loss drops the Quakers to 6-4 in the OAC, 13-4 overall. The Yellow Jackets remain atop the conference with a 9-1 mark and are 15-2 for the season.

"Baldwin-Wallace is a very good basketball team and they do an excellent job of taking care of the basketball on the offensive end," WC head coach Scott Reule said. "We got 21 turnovers and 15 steals against them, but when they were successful in handling our press, they were very productive in the half-court and getting the ball to Tori Davis, allowing him to make plays."

Davis, the OAC's leading scorer, finished with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field. As a team, B-W hit 74 percent of its second-half shots and connected on 62 percent for the game. Wilmington hit 40 percent of its field-goal attempts.

Josh Rohrbacher (Columbus/Beechcroft) served up three treys and scored 11 of his team-high 16 points in the first half as the Quakers — who handed B-W its only conference loss — overcame an early six-point deficit to take a 25-21 lead at 7:16. For the balance of the half, though, WC managed just three more points while the Yellow Jackets scored 12 to take a 33-28 intermission lead.

Baldwin-Wallace gradually pulled away and took a 64-44 lead on Chad Clark's jumper at 8:57. The Quakers, sparked by the high-energy play of Fred Harrison (Cleveland/East), cut the Yellow Jackets' lead to 10 when Harrison swiped the ball and slammed it home with 5:59 to play.

"We didn't give up. We had a timeout and I asked them if they were going to pack it in or get after it," Reule said. "They responded, as they always do, and worked hard and gave ourselves an opportunity. We just didn't get over the hump."

The Quakers twice reduced the deficit to nine in the closing minutes, but got no closer as the Yellow Jackets avenged a 64-61 loss to Wilmington in Berea Jan. 7.

Eric Stirling (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) scored 15 for the Quakers and Harrison scored 10, all coming in the second half. Wilmington pulled down 28 rebounds to B-W's 34. Brett Carpenter (Marshalville/Smithville) led WC with seven boards.

Wilmington takes to the OAC highway Wednesday, with a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at Muskingum. The Muskies defeated WC in overtime Jan. 11.