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Notebook

Greg Chandler's
Great Lakes Notebook
Posted Feb. 1, 2000

Otterbein On Roll in OAC
By Greg Chandler
D3hoops.com

After a slow start, the Cardinals of Otterbein have caught fire the past month and seized control of what had been a highly competitive Ohio Athletic Conference race.

In Westerville on Saturday, the Cardinals capped off an 8-1 month of January, coming from behind to defeat OAC preseason favorite Ohio Northern 79-74 at the Rike Center. The win gives Otterbein (9-2 OAC, 13-5 overall) a 2½-game lead over ONU and Marietta, who are both 6-4 in conference play. It also avenged an 84-70 loss to the Polar Bears on Dec. 4 in Ada.

Ohio Northern's Jeremy Thompson had given the Polar Bears a 74-73 lead by hitting one of two free throws with two minutes remaining. The point made Thompson the all-time career scoring leader at ONU with 1,747 points, breaking Dan Foster's record of 1,746 30 years ago.

However, the Polar Bears committed a foul after Thompson missed the second free throw, and Chad Dresbach stuck two foul shots to give Otterbein a one-point lead. The Cardinals then blanked Ohio Northern the rest of the way, adding four more points to ice the win.

Jason Dutcher led Otterbein with 23 points, while Kevin Shay added 16, and Dresbach had a career-high 12 assists. Thompson had 16 for Ohio Northern.

Sophomore center Jeff Gibbs has been a big reason for Otterbein's January surge, with 13 double-doubles in his last 14 games. On Wednesday, Gibbs had a career-high 25 points with 13 rebounds against Heidelberg, then added 11 points and 16 boards against ONU on Saturday. Gibbs has sparked the Cardinals to a 12-2 record in the 14 games since his return to the lineup in Game Six.

With Otterbein now in command of the conference race, there's a wild scramble for second place. At 6-4, Ohio Northern and Marietta are only a half-game ahead of three other teams -- Muskingum, Heidelberg and Baldwin-Wallace -- all at 6-5. It has all the makings of a wild second half as teams jostle for seeding position at the OAC tournament later this month.

In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Knights of Calvin College are in full command. On Saturday in Defiance, Ohio, Calvin remained unbeaten in the MIAA with an 88-80 road victory against second-place Defiance.

The host Yellow Jackets had strung together six straight wins after being clobbered by Calvin 104-70 in its conference opener, but Calvin took control of the game early, then survived several late runs by Defiance to improve to 8-0 in the league, 16-2 overall. Senior guard Nate Karsten was huge for Calvin, firing in a career-high 26 points to lead four Knights in double figures. Karsten, who was this week's MIAA player of the week, has been on a roll of late, hitting 62 percent of his shots from the field (26 for 42) and 67 percent from 3-point range (12 for 18) over his last five games.

Defiance's Chad Kahle tried desperately to rally his team against Calvin, scoring 22 of his 26 points in the second half. The Yellow Jackets slipped to 6-2 in the league and 12-6 overall.

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, Wooster extended its conference winning streak to 25 games with a pair of wins last week, but it wasn't easy. The Fighting Scots had to go into overtime on Wednesday to defeat Allegheny 94-90, then downed Earlham on Saturday, 79-67. Wooster (10-0 NCAC, 16-2 overall) has not lost a North Coast game since Jan. 4 of last year, when they fell to Wittenberg, 67-56.

In the win over Allegheny, senior forward John Ellenwood set school and conference records by hitting a perfect 11-of-11 shots from the field for 26 points. Against Earlham, junior guard Steve Thompson led four Wooster players in double figures with 17 points, while freshman forward Bryan Nelson added 16 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, and Ellenwood, this week's NCAC player of the week, had 15 points.

Wittenberg stayed one game back by demolishing Denison 99-44 and Oberlin 77-45. Against Denison, the Tigers (9-1, 15-3) outrebounded the Big Red by a whopping 55-19 margin, including 26 offensive rebounds.

Wabash (9-2, 13-5) is a game-and-a-half in back of Wooster. The Little Giants' Josh Estelle continues to astound with his scoring. His 26.3 scoring average is more than 10 points higher than the NCAC's second-leading scorer, teammate Brian Latham (15.9). Latham, by the way, became the 19th player in Little Giants' history to score 1,000 points for his career last Wednesday, scoring 14 points in Wabash's 85-55 win over Earlham.

While the "W's" continue to dominate the NCAC, one should not overlook the turnaround season taking place at Hiram. The "other" new conference member has turned it around in a big way from last year' 3-21 season, posting a 12-7 overall mark and holding down fourth place in the NCAC at 6-5. Don Burton (14.5 points per game) and Darnell Primus (11.5 ppg, 44% from 3-point range) have been the key guys leading the Terrier turnaround.

Penn State-Behrend hasn't gotten a lot of attention this season, but the Lions have put together a 14-2 record. Last week, 64 was the magic number for the Lions as they defeated Pitt-Greensburg 64-56 and Frostburg State 64-55 to take over sole possession of first place in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference with a 5-0 conference mark. Matt Keith hit for 18 points in the win against Pitt-Greensburg, which fell one game behind PSU-Behrend in the AMCC standings.

Quick hits: Heidelberg forward Nate Walters went over the 1,000-point mark for his career against Otterbein last week. He currently has 1,025 career points and is ranked 17th on the 'Berg's all-time list. Muskingum guard Andy Connell hit five 3-pointers, including the game-winning triple with four seconds left in regulation play, to lift the Muskies over Capital 70-67 on Saturday.

Alma's Seth Stapleton gunned in 29 points as the Scots got off the schneid in the MIAA, upsetting Kalamazoo on Saturday 70-64 for their first league win of the season. After a promising start that included an upset win over Wooster and a 3-1 record in its first four MIAA games, Kalamazoo has dropped four in a row.

Hope's Ryan Klingler was dealing against Olivet on Saturday -- despite being saddled with four fouls for nearly the entire second half, he had 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as the Flying Dutchmen rallied to beat the Comets 80-77. Despite Marietta's recent slide, OAC scoring leader Jesse DuPerow isn't tailing off. He hit 18 of 24 shots from the field last week for 75 percent, scoring 46 points in two games.

From the "Would you like a burger with that" department, Ohio Northern freshman guard Aaron Fries scored a career-high 15 points against Baldwin-Wallace on Wednesday. (Rim shot.)

In the MIAA women's basketball race, what had been a three-way tie for first place was whittled to two on Saturday as Hope came from behind to defeat Alma 75-65, in Holland. Trailing 36-34 at the half, the Flying Dutch defense held the Lady Scots to just 25 percent shooting from the field in the second half, limiting Alma to eight baskets. Lisa Hoekstra had a big game for Hope (9-2, 14-4) with 27 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Meanwhile, Calvin kept pace with a 61-52 victory over Albion, as Robyn Fennema led the Knights with 21 points and Mindi Andringa added 19. The Knights are 9-2 in the MIAA and 13-5 overall.

The loss to Hope dropped Alma a game back in the league standings at 8-3, while Kalamazoo continues its amazing rize. The Hornets defeated Adrian and Albion last week to improve to 7-3 in the MIAA and 14-4 overall, assuring Kalamazoo and coach Michele Fortier of its winningest season in school history. The Hornets' previous best had been a 14-8 mark during the 1988-89 season.

In the OAC, the beat goes on for B-W. Baldwin-Wallace stayed unbeaten in the conference with victories over Ohio Northern, 70-59, and John Carroll, 78-57. The latter win came at the Women's College Basketball Classic at Cleveland's Gund Arena, home of the NBA's Cavaliers. B-W freshman forward Holly Koepp came off the bench to record her third double-double of the season with 14 points and a career-high 13 rebounds against JCU.

Baldwin-Wallace is now 11-0 in the OAC, 18-1 overall.

Capital maintained its hold on second place as the Crusaders downed Muskingum 58-46 and Mount Union 86-66. Junior forward Kendra Meyer led Capital (9-2, 16-3) in both games, coming up with 18 points and 10 boards against Muskingum, then scoring 18 points against Mount Union.

After a couple of surprising conference losses early in the season, Ohio Wesleyan is starting to assert itself. The Battling Bishops regained first place in the NCAC by defeating Denison 68-56 and Hiram 82-42.

Center Katy Sturtz has definitely been Y2K compliant for OWU, posting double-doubles in eight consecutive games since Jan. 1. Sturtz went for 17 points and 10 rebounds against Denison, then put together a 20-point, 10-board effort against Hiram. She now averages 15.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, third in the NCAC in scoring and second in rebounding.

Ohio Wesleyan (8-2, 15-2) holds a one-game lead over three other schools -- Wittenberg, Kenyon and Denison. Wittenberg (7-3, 11-7) won four contests in a row to claim a temporary share of the conference lead, but then stumbled Saturday to Oberlin 75-56 as Nzinga Broussard stung the Tigers for 22 points, six assists and six rebounds.

Kenyon (7-3, 13-5) slipped a game behind after losing to Wittenberg last Monday, 59-56. After a 7-0 start, Denison (7-3, 12-6) has dropped its last three conference games, including the loss last week to Ohio Wesleyan.

In the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, Franklin has opened up a two-game lead over second-place Wilmington. The Grizzlies last week defeated Manchester 75-58 and Anderson 60-51 to improve to 7-0 in league play, 12-7 overall. Center Anne Heile had 18 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots against Manchester, then came back with 14 points, 12 boards and five rejections in the win over Anderson.

More quick hits: In her last six games, Baldwin-Wallace center Anjee Beard is shooting 75 percent from the field (33 of 44), including a NCAA Division III record-tying 18 consecutive field goals without a miss over a four-game span.

Otterbein guard Kara Grishkat is only a junior, but she's already broken the Cardinals' all-time career assist record with 385. Grishkat last week moved past Donna Peters, who held the previous mark of 380 from 1984-88. Ohio Northern sophomore forward Stephanie Meller grabbed a career-high 18 boards against Otterbein on Saturday.

Mary Barnhart, Mary Barnhart: My apologies to the Alma women's point guard, whom I misidentified in last week's column. Barnhart is one of the top playmakers in the MIAA, with 38 assists in 11 league games this season, including 12 in a win against Albion last month.

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