Box Score Wabash shot a season-low 29.6 percent from the field Wednesday night in a 60-46 loss to Wittenberg. Cold shooting marred the Little Giants' NCAC opener — the field-goal percentage and point total were season lows.
 
"I think this game came down to hitting shots," Coach Antoine Carpenter said. "We were getting the shots that we wanted, but you have to really zero in and mentally be prepared to knock the shot down and shoot with confidence — I don't think we were shooting with confidence tonight."
 
Low scoring against the Tigers (5-1, 2-0 NCAC) is nothing new. Wednesday's game was the third time in a row Wabash (0-6, 0-1 NCAC) failed to eclipse 50 points against the 16th-ranked team. The Little Giants scored 45 and 47 points in losses to the Tigers last year.
 
"They were solid at boxing us out," Daniel Scofield said. "We were getting one shot attempt every time. I think we shied away from some of our strengths this game and settled with what they gave us which was jump shots."
 
Wabash held its ground early in the first half. However, with the score tied at 13, senior center Pete Nicksic committed his third foul and remained on the bench for the remaining nine minutes. Wittenberg instantly went on a 9-0 run, led by big men Scott Masin and Cole Bond.
 
"Bond and Masin do a great job of posting pretty hard and creating foul opportunities," Carpenter said. "We have to move our feet and a couple of times we didn't."
 
Masin scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed 9 boards. Bond had 6 points and hauled in 10 rebounds.
 
With Nicksic and backup center Marcus Kammrath in foul trouble, Scofield answered the challenge inside. He drew fouls and snagged a couple of offensive rebounds to help keep the Tigers within five points.
 
"It's nice going up against Pete in practice because he's similar to the big guys for Witt," Scofield said. "I've had experience in practice and I mentally prepared myself. I knew the competition was going to be tough, but I was ready to take on the challenge."
 
Despite his success, Scofield could not escape the fouls either — he committed 4 in the first half.
 
"It's tough because they had a lot of solid big guys on their team as well," he said. "Fouls are up to the referees at the end of the day, so you do your best to get good position and they call what they call. Personally, I know I had a few I shouldn't have committed."
 
Scofield scored 6 points and had 3 rebounds in 17 minutes of action.
 
After a Ross Sponsler free throw cut the lead to five, Wittenberg closed the half on an 8-1 run to a 33-22 lead.
 
The Tigers methodically extended the lead to 17 in the second half as the Little Giants continued their poor shooting.
 
Daniel Purvlicis led Wabash with 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting. Andy Walsh matched Scofield's 6 points with two three pointers.
 
Sam Collins added 15 points for the Tigers.
 
Wabash will play Saturday at Oberlin with a scheduled 1 p.m. tip.