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Y! MyWebMen's basketball Kenyon 64, Wittenberg 51
Witt enters postseason on a down note
Tigers shoot 29 percent in first loss to Kenyon College since 1994.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
GAMBIER — Wittenberg men's basketball coach Bill Brown summed it up by saying, "It was just one of those days."
Brown's Tigers shot just 29 percent, their worst performance of the season, in a 64-51 loss at Kenyon College on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Extras
"This is the prototypical (loss) where you burn the video tape and move on," Brown said.
It's Wittenberg's first loss to Kenyon since Feb. 26, 1994. That defeat came in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament championship game. It was Brown's first season, and his top player was senior Matt Croci, who is now the head coach at Kenyon.
Since that game, Wittenberg had defeated Kenyon 21 straight times, including 74-61 on Jan. 26 in Springfield.
Wittenberg trailed by 12 in the first half in Gambier and by 21 four minutes in the second half. The Tigers never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Gregg Hill led the Tigers with 15 points but shot
6-of-20 from the field. Wittenberg's three main post players — Mark Snyder, Sam Gregory and Jeromy Romero — combined to shoot 0-for-12 from the field.
"Kenyon played so much more aggressive than we did," Brown said. "Their physical motivation was so much higher than ours. That's generally not an issue with our team."
Wittenberg (16-9, 12-4 NCAC) will enter the NCAC tournament having lost three of its last four games. It will be the No. 3 seed and will play Allegheny in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in Springfield. Ohio Wesleyan (12-4) beat Allegheny on Saturday to jump over Wittenberg and claim the No. 2 seed.
The men's game will be the first game at Pam Evans Smith Arena on Tuesday. The Wittenberg women's team will host Oberlin in a quarterfinal game at 8 p.m.
Kenyon (13-12, 11-5 NCAC) had more motivation to win Saturday's game. By winning, the Lords clinched the No. 4 seed in the tournament, and that means they will host a first-round game Tuesday against Wabash. Wittenberg already had clinched a first-round home game.
Brown said he addressed the issue of motivation with his players.
"The bottom line is when I go out and compete, I want to be prepared mentally, physically and emotionally every time," Brown said. "I don't care what the situation is."
Bryan Yelvington led
Kenyon with 18 points, and Dave Knapke scored 16.
Kevin Murray had nine points and eight rebounds for Wittenberg. Brandan Barabino added 10 points.
Brown said he told the players after the game, "I am not going to let this shake my confidence in what our resume for the year says we are capable of doing. I encourage all of you to the largest degree to let it go."
