Wabash head coach Mac Petty earned his 400th career victory at the helm of the Little Giants program with a 62-52 win over Ohio Wesleyan University in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Tuesday night at Chadwick Court.
Caleb Lyttle (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) picked up his second career double-double with a 12-point, 12-rebound effort to send Wabash to semifinals against the Wittenberg University Tigers Friday afternoon in Wooster, Ohio.
Petty is 400-325 in 29 seasons as the head coach at Wabash. His 32-year career records stands at 448-353 after spending his first few seasons as the head coach at Sewanee.
The Little Giants jumped out to a five-point lead on a putback layup by Lyttle with 8:57 left in the first half. A layup by Ohio Wesleyan’s Dustin Rudegeair and a three by Brian Cafarella tied the game at 16-16 before Ben Chojnacki completed an 8-0 run by the Battling Bishops with three straight free throws for three of his game-high 23 points.
Junior Adonis Joseph (Mishawaka, IN/Mishawaka) answered with three free throws of his own to tie the game at 19-19. That sparked an 11-2 run that gave Wabash a 30-21 lead at the half.
Wabash combined a strong inside presence by Lyttle and junior Kyle Coffey (Greenwood, IN/Center Grove) along with driving attacks by Joseph and David Wagner (Belleville, IL/Belleville) at the guard spots. Coffey scored half of his 12 points in the opening period, going 3-of-7 for the half, while Joseph and Wagner combined for 10 points, including six from the free throw line after drawing fouls against the OWU defense after penetrating the lane on drives.
The Little Giants held their lead after Bryan King opened the second half with a three-pointer to trim the advantage to six points. A three by Coffey and a basket by Lyttle improved the Wabash edge to 11 points four minutes into the second period. The Little Giants led by as many as 18 points when Michael Woods (Indianapolis, IN/Cathedral) drove for a layup to put Wabash up 46-28.
Wabash held a 58-41 edge before Chojnacki tried to bring the Bishops back, trimming the lead to 11 points with five straight points in the final minutes before fouling out. The Little Giants connected on four free throws in the final two minutes to advance to the conference semifinals for the fourth consecutive year and fifth time out six attempts since joining the NCAC at the beginning of the 1999-2000 season.
The Little Giants snagged 17 offensive rebounds and scored 21 second chance points. The defense held OWU to 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from the three-point arc. The Bishops came into the game averaging 34.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Wabash will play Wittenberg at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Wooster will play Earlham at 7:45 p.m. in the other semifinal. The two winners will meet at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Photos: Caleb Lyttle led Wabash with 12 points and 12 rebounds for his second career double-double.
Coach Mac Petty talks to his players during a timeout. Petty is among the top-20 winningest active Division III coaches with 448 victories. The win over Ohio Wesleyan was his 400th at Wabash.
Adonis Joseph scores three of his nine points.