Basketball season has come to a close on the campus of Wabash College. A 68-55 loss in the semi-finals of the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament at the hands of the Wooster Fighting Scots ended the Little Giants' year.
 
In a game where Wabash led by a pair at the break, the 13-point loss is hard to take. Uncharacteristically, the Little Giants lost the rebounding battle by a 41-34 margin. For a team who entered the game fourth in the country in rebounding margin per game, the negative split, along with only shooting 34.6% from the floor, was the nail in Wabash's coffin.
 
"We missed so many shots," Coach Kyle Brumett said. "Things would have been more in our favor if we had offensive rebounded on more of those shots. I think the actual rebounding number was a combination of them being more physical and then also the fact that we couldn't get the ball to go in the basket."
 
Marcus Kammrath paced the Little Giant's with a career-high 18 points along with four rebounds, much of which came in the first half. Picking up his fourth foul with more than thirteen minutes to go, Kammrath, along with fellow big Daniel Scofield who also had four fouls, spent much of the second period on the pine. Sophomore guard Kyle Aiton, with 12 points, was the only other Little Giant to join Kammrath in double figures.
 
Along with Aiton and Kammrath, Austin Burton and Zach Patton both chipped in seven points. Houston Hodges and Scofield both had a pair of points to round out the scoring for Wabash.
 
The Scots held Daniel Purvlicis in check all night, only allowing a meager seven points. Purvlicis entered the game averaging over 16 points per game on the year, good for second in the NCAC.
 
"I thought Wooster did a really good job, especially in the second half, of being very physical," Brumett said. "They did a much better job on [Purvilicis] than they did the second time we played them and, honestly, a much better job than most people were able to do on him."
 
Along with the rebounding battle, Wabash also turned the ball over 16 times compared with Wooster's 13. Both team's managed 12 points off turnovers in the contest.
 
"Turnovers have been a problem of ours all year," Brummett said. "Usually, we've kind of counterbalanced it with offensive rebounds, but that wasn't the case today."
 
Senior swingman Kasey Oetting was out injured for the Little Giants on the night. Oetting rolled his ankle in Tuesday's game against Allegheny after landing on a shooter's foot. After spending much of the morning shoot-around working out the ailment, he was ruled out at game time.
 
"We were playing things by ear," Oetting said. "We were going to make it a game time decision. We wanted to give myself as much time as possible before running on it. Before the game I was working it out and it just wasn't happening tonight.
 
"Kasey adds so much to what we're able to do," Brumett added. "Whether it's just being bigger across the front line, neutralizing their rebounding, or when we get in foul trouble we can move him to the four and play Patton at the three. We just weren't able to do any of that tonight."
 
Senior forward Evan Pannell led all scorers with 21 points, one of four Scots in double figures. Dan Fanelly had 16 rebounds to go with 15 points, making him the only player to have a double double in the contest.
 
Much of this game was decided in the last ten minutes of the contest. Wabash led inside of twelve minutes, but was outscored by 14 in the last ten. With several of the Little Giants ill with various types of the flu, health played a factor down the stretch.
 
"We came out, played really hard, but it just came down to us losing our legs," Kammrath said. "We're all tired, and we've got a few guys sick, so that really hurt us late."
 
Wabash went 3-16 from behind the arc in the game for 18.8%. Wooster faired markedly better from downtown, going 9-28 for 32.1%.
 
The Little Giants opened the first half by getting out to an early 10-4 lead. Kammrath had seven of these first ten. Wabash would stretch the lead to seven with 7:10 to go in the half, but the lead would dwindle to two at the break.
 
After getting out to a six-point lead with just under 16 minutes to go in the game, Wabash would slowly see the advantage evaporate. Wooster took the lead with 9:16 to go in the contest and would never look back, widening the margin all the way until the final buzzer with a 68-55 win.
 
Friday's game was also the final contest for seniors Hodges, Oetting, Travis Wilson, and Jordan Wagner.
 
The loss dropped the Little Giants to a final record of 18-9 and 12-6 in NCAC play. The 18 victories marked a 10-game improvement from last year's 8-17 finish.