The defeat was the second straight for Methodist, which slips to 1-2 on the season.
Wooster started strong, jumping out to an early 11-point lead in the first half. James Cooper and Kyle Witucky each drained early 3-point baskets for the Scots, and Tim Vandervaart’s 3-point play gave Wooster a 13-2 lead with 16:38 remaining. Two straight field goals by Evan Will stretched the Scot lead to 20-7 with 13:39 remaining in the first half.
However, Methodist rallied. Sophomore forward Craig Moore scored nine points in a four-minute span to trim the Wooster lead to 22-17 at the 6:36 mark. Robert Lee’s 3-point basket then cut the Scot lead to 24-20 with 3:45 remaining. However, Wooster responded with three straight 3-point baskets, including two by Cooper, to take a 33-24 lead at halftime.
Methodist never got closer than eight points in the second half. Dragan Radmanovic’s 3-point basket with 15:08 remaining trimmed the Wooster lead to 44-35. After that, however, it was all Wooster. The Scots kept the lead at double-digits for a majority of the remainder of the second half. Will converted two straight baskets to give Wooster its largest lead of the game, 63-44 with 8:46 remaining.
The Monarchs were able to cut the lead to nine points one final time, 72-63 on a Eugene Grant 3-point basket with 27 seconds remaining.
Moore had his best game yet in a Monarch uniform, scoring a career-high 16 points along with nine rebounds. Seth Thomas scored 10 points and Lee added nine for the Monarchs. Cooper scored 19 points for Wooster (3-0), while Vandervaart had a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Methodist plays Thomas More in the consolation game of the Emory & Henry Invitational on Sunday at 1 p.m.