GRANVILLE, Ohio – Senior Ashton Price's spinning floater through contact put The College of Wooster men's basketball team ahead with 41.8 seconds remaining, and the Fighting Scots denied 19th-ranked Denison University its first shot at clinching an outright North Coast Athletic Conference title with a 75-72 win on Wednesday evening at Livingston Gymnasium.
Senior JJ Cline and a Denison (21-3, 13-2 NCAC) player were tied up for a rebound with 48.2 seconds remaining, and Wooster (19-5, 11-4 NCAC) had the possession arrow pointed its way. Following the retainment of possession, Price drove to the rim and finished on one of his signature spin moves. Next, junior Jaiden Cox-Holloway stole the ball from Denison star Darren Rubin and upped Wooster's lead to 71-69 at the charity stripe with 19.6 seconds remaining.
Denison's Trevor Reed missed a driving hook shot from about five feet out in the final five seconds. Wooster junior EJ Kapihe secured the rebound and made the two free throws. Denison's Kellen Smith hit a 3-pointer to pull the Big Red within 73-72 with just over a second remaining before Wooster senior Jamir Billings hit both free throws with 0.4 on the clock. Denison was able to find Scotty Dean on the inbounds pass, but Dean could not emerge as the hero on a three-quarter court shot.
Six lead changes took place between the 3:53 and 41.8 marks of the second half. The first was when Denison's Ricky Radtke's hook shot dropped that made it 65-64. Next, Billings logged his second steal of the night and made a floater from the right block that had the score 66-65 with 2:52 remaining. Cam Smith drew a charge, which fouled out a key Wooster starter, then made a driving layup to shift the lead back in favor of the Big Red at 1:54. Two Cline free throws made it 68-67 Wooster before Radtke's lefty hook went down with 1:07 on the clock. Radtke made it 69-68 for Denison's last lead of the night.
Wooster's first lead came with 1:41 remaining in the first half. Cox-Holloway came away with a steal on a bad Dean pass and was wide open when running down the middle of the lane. That led to an easy find for Billings to Cox-Holloway for the 32-31 advantage. The lead was quickly erased, as Rubin tied the game at the free throw line, and later hit a 3-pointer to give the Big Red a 38-34 halftime edge.
Price's 18 points led Wooster. Billings followed with 14 points, three assists, and two turnovers. Kapihe contributed heavily in the win with 13 points and six rebounds. Cline had eight points and led Wooster with seven rebounds, five of which came on the offensive end.
Wooster shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52) for the game and went 21-of-28 at the line. With 11 offensive rebounds, Wooster had an 18-6 edge on second-chance points.
Rubin and Kellon Smith did the heavy lifting for Denison, combining for 41 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Reed added 14 points and four rebounds.
Denison shot 46.3 percent (25-of-54) for the game and was just 6-of-23 on 3-pointers.
Denison, which already assured itself at least a share of the NCAC title and the No. 1 seed for next week's conference tournament, has one more shot to clinch the championship outright. The Big Red will do so with a win over Ohio Wesleyan University (14-10, 9-6 NCAC) on Saturday, or a loss by Wabash College (16-8, 12-3 NCAC) against Oberlin College (13-11, 5-10 NCAC). Wabash remained a game ahead of Wooster for the second seed with its 66-56 win over Wittenberg University (8-16, 4-11 NCAC) on Wednesday. Wooster needs a win in Saturday's 1 p.m. game at DePauw University (12-12, 8-7 NCAC) plus a Wabash loss to Oberlin to move up to the second seed. A DePauw or Wabash win makes Wooster the third seed for next week's tournament.
Seeds one and two have a bye to the Feb. 28 semifinals at Denison with the new six-team NCAC Tournament format. Seeds three and four host games on Tuesday, Feb. 25.