Box Score Wabash trailed by 11 at halftime, only to see Wooster stretch the lead to 19 points in the final period before settling for a 77-59 victory in Saturday's North Coast Athletic Conference contest.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Little Giants against Wooster. Wabash defeated the Scots 69-68 in overtime last season in Wooster. Wabash won the first meeting between the two schools this year 72-58.
Wabash took an early 10-4 lead thanks to
Derek Bailey. The senior nailed two three-pointers to open the contest, then hit a baseline jumper to score the first eight points of the game for the Little Giants.
Houston Hodges driving layup put Wabash up six before Wooster rallied with a 12-5 run over the next four minutes.
The Scots would never trail again in the contest. Wooster pushed its lead to double digits with a Matt Fegan triple, taking a 32-21 lead with two minutes left in the half.
Nick Curosh scored four straight points for Wabash to cut the lead to seven, but three-pointers by Doug Thorpe and Justin Hallowell sandwiched another Curosh basket to give Wooster the 38-27 halftime edge.
Bailey started the second half with a basket after scoring 14 of Wabash's 27 first-half points, getting the Little Giants within nine points. Wooster opened up a 15-point lead by holding Wabash scoreless over the next three minutes. Wabash would get back to within nine points on a Hodges three-pointer with 14:18 left in the contest, but would get no closer.
Bailey led Wabash with 18 points, while Curosh tossed in 10 points. Thorpe led the Scots with 18 points, hitting all six of his shot attempts including four three-pointers. Hallowell added 14 points.Wooster (18-3, 9-3 NCAC) shot 15-of-25 in the first half (60 percent) before finishing the game 26-of-48 from the field (54.2 percent). The Little Giants shot 21-of-63 from the field for 33 percent.
Wabash falls to 15-6 overall and 7-5 in NCAC games. The Little Giants will return to Crawfordsville for a home contest Wednesday against conference leader Wittenberg University. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
