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Wilmington
reclaims Quaker Bowl
Eric
Stirling scores 24 in win over Earlham
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Score|
December
28, 2005
Eric Stirling |
Wilmington
College overcame a sluggish start to defeat Earlham College,
78-71, in the battle for the Quaker Bowl at Fred Raizk Arena
Wednesday. The win is Wilmington's fifth straight and raises
the Quakers' overall record to 9-1. Earlham — with losses
to nationally ranked Wooster and Hanover — falls to a
misleading 4-7.
"They
are a team that has played only three home games and haven't
won one at home," WC head coach Scott Reule said. "They've
done a lot of work on the road, and they're good. They've
got three players who are tremendous. They are difficult to
stop. They made some tough shots late in the game when we
were doing a pretty good job guarding them. With players like
that, that's why they're a good team."
Earlham's
big three — LaRon Henry, Markous Jewett and Brandon Miller
— led the Indiana Quakers to a quick 10-0 lead before
Reule called timeout at 15:42. "At the beginning we had trouble
defensively finding who we were guarding or matching up in
transition, and we gave them some easy looks at the basket,"
Reule said. "But even with that trouble in the beginning,
we had a lot of poise, overcame it and got ourselves back
in the game."
Wilmington's
bench — led by Justin Gaines (Cincinnati/Colerain), Travante
Leftenant (Columbus/Africentric), and Scott Walters (Mentor/Perry)
— launched a spirited turnaround that brought WC to within
20-16 at 7:45. Both teams shot the lights out early, with
Earlham hitting 58 percent of its first-half shots to Wilmington's
57 percent. Earlham took a 38-36 lead into halftime.
"I expect
that kind of play from our bench, and they expect that," Reule
said. "When I go to them, I know good things are going to
happen, that they are going to pick up the pace. They are
hungry to get in there and make something happen for us. Defensively,
they give us so much quickness."
Senior
Eric Stirling (Brooklyn, N.Y./LaSalle Academy) scored 16 of
his team-high 24 points in the second half as Wilmington built
a 61-52 lead with 11:02 to play. But Earlham reeled off 12
straight points to take a 63-61 advantage. With Stirling in
foul trouble, senior Josh Rohrbacher (Columbus/Beechcroft)
stepped up down the stretch, scoring eight points in the final
six minutes of play. Zach Broermann (Brookville, Ind./Franklin
County), however, may have contributed the most significant
plays of the game. The sophomore guard stole the ball and
fed Rohrbacher to put WC up, 71-67, at 2:04, then swiped the
ball and assisted Gaines to give Wilmington a six-point lead
at 1:46.
"Those
were big plays at big moments from Zach," Reule said. "And
when Eric fouled out, Josh gave us that senior leadership
on the floor to make things happen. We mixed our lineup a
little bit at the end of the game. We left Fred Harrison (Cleveland/East)
on the floor because he gave us some length defensively and
some help on the boards."
Rohrbacher
scored 12 points for WC, Gaines added 10, Leftenant scored
eight, and Nick Berter (Cincinnati/Reading) and Harrison scored
seven apiece. Henry led all scorers with 25 points and Miller
scored 17. Wilmington connected on 59 percent of its field
goal attempts while Earlham made good on 52 percent of its
shots from the field. Wilmington also won the rebounding battle,
31-25.
"We did
a really good job of shooting the ball, in large part because
we did such a great job of getting the ball into areas where
it's easy to score, to get to the rim," Reule said. "Eric
was eight-for-12 from the field and shot only two three-pointers,
so hešs really eight-for-10 inside. That's what we are looking
for from him. Justin and Fred and Josh did a nice job of getting
the ball to the basket."
The victory
returns the Quaker Bowl to the Wilmington campus for the first
time since the 1999-2000 season. The five-game winning streak
is the longest for WC since the Quakers won 10 straight on
their way to a 15-10 record in 1996-97.
Wilmington
closes out the 2005 portion of the season with Mount St. Joseph
providing the opposition 3 p.m. Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena.
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