The road through the 2006-07 season has been an interesting one for the Wabash basketball team. Friday night that road came to an end with a 92-80 loss to the fourth-ranked Fighting Scots from the College of the Wooster in the second semifinal game of the North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.
The road has become all-too familiar for the Little Giants. The game at Wooster was the third road contest in eight days for Wabash. The team advanced to the semifinals after traveling over eight hours to Meadville, Pennsylvania Tuesday night to defeat the Allegheny Gators. Wabash lost at Wittenberg last Thursday before winning its final regular season home game against Kenyon.
Wabash got off to a good start when junior guard Earl Rooks drove the lane and fired home a jumper to start with a 2-0. The Scots responded with back-to-back three-pointers to move in front 6-2 and never trailed again.
Rooks brought the Little Giants back to within two points after Wooster had pushed the lead to eight points when his missed a three-point shot but drew the foul and hit two out of three free throws. Wooster once again rallied with a tip-in by senior Tim Vandervaart, who recently returned to the Scots' lineup after missing most of the conference season with an injury to his left wrist. Wooster pushed the advantage back to seven points before Andy Root drilled a three to cut the lead to 21-17 with 9:38 left in the first half.
Wooster answered again with a three by James Cooper to start a 7-0 run. The Scots finished the half with a 6-0 run to lead 47-31 at the break.
The Little Giants, once last in the conference standings after a road trip early in the season before rallying for victories in seven of their last 11 games to earn the fifth seed in the conference tourney, needed to get off to a good start in the second half. It didn't happen.
Between an athletic, experienced Wooster team and a young and tired Little Giant squad, the Scots opened up 30-point lead seven minutes into the second period. Andrew Zimmer scored 12 points in the opening period and followed with 11 more to lead the Little Giants with 23 in his final game of the season. Chase Haltom, 0-2 from the field in the first half, hit five three-pointers to score 19 in the game. He would lead Wabash on a 14-0 run late in the contest to draw the team to within 19 points. Kyle Schroering and Evan Arnold added late three's of their own and Caleb Mast hit a basket and a free throw to finish off the scoring in the game.
Wabash senior Ryan Stephens played 24 minutes in his final collegiate game before he was forced to leave with a broken nose when he took a shot in the face from Wooster's Robert Melick.
Rooks finished with nine points, tying his career-best effor earlier this season.
The Little Giants finish the season with an 11-16 record. Wooster, led by the 18-point effort of Cooper and 16 from Vandervaart, will play Ohio Wesleyan Saturday night in the championship game. The Bishops upset 10th-ranked Wittenberg 57-52 in the first semifinal game Friday evening.
Photos - Earl Rooks (top left) scored the first two points of the game for Wabash. He finished with nine points, tying his career-best effort.
Andrew Zimmer (middle right) led the Little Giants with 23 points.
Freshman Chase Haltom (bottom right) scored 19 points in the second half, hitting five three-pointers.