The victory moves Wooster’s record to 22-1 this year, including a perfect 14-0 conference slate, and to 105-11 since current seniors Kyle Witucky and Joe Agler joined the team for the 2002-03 season. The 105 wins are the most during a four-year stretch in program history.
Wooster built a big early lead Saturday, and the difference during that stretch was second-chance points. In fact, more than half (17) of the Scots’ first 33 points came after their initial shot of a possession was missed. Four times early on, a Wooster offensive rebound resulted in a 3-pointer, including a pair by Andy Van Horn, the second of which made it a 33-16 game.
The Scots would go on to extend their lead to as much as 35 (59-24) in the first half before Wabash (14-9, 8-6 NCAC) scored the last five points (59-29), highlighted by a half-court buzzer-beater by Earl Rooks.
The margin stayed between 24-to-33 points the entire second half.
Six players reached double figures in the scorebook for Wooster, led by Tom Port, who had game-highs of 17 points and four assists. Port made three 3-pointers, as did Devin Fulk en route to a 14-point afternoon, while Witucky canned 4-of-7 attempts for an even dozen tallies.
Tim Vandervaart scored 13 and made a bigger impact on defense, as he blocked five shots and corralled nine rebounds. Van Horn and James Cooper chipped in with 10 points apiece.
Andrew Zimmer and Gary Simkus were a couple of bright spots for the Little Giants. Zimmer finished with 15 points and five rebounds, both team-highs, while Simkus achieved a stat line of 13 points, four boards, and three assists.
As a team, the Scots held an opponent to less than 40 percent field-goal shooting for the second consecutive game after going through a nine-game stretch without doing so. Wabash hit at a rate of .366 (26-of-71), which helped offset Wooster’s uncharacteristically low field-goal percentage (.459; 28-of-61).
A lot of the Scots points came at the free throw line, where they connected on 26-of-32 (.813), while the Little Giants also spent a lot of time there, going 16-of-22 (.727). The two teams combined for 40 fouls.
Wooster will play its final regular-season home game of the year on Tuesday (Feb. 14), as the Scots welcome Kenyon College (8-15, 5-9 NCAC) for a 7:30 p.m. tip.