Bishops Dominate Yeomen

Men's Basketball Falls to 2-5 After Resounding Loss

Banging the boards: Sophomore Jon MacDonald and first-year Cameron Levitt work their inside-outside game at practice. (photo by Hans Petersen)

Ohio Wesleyan men's basketball team, coming off an impressive win against 19th ranked Wittenberg earlier in the week, rode a whirlwind of momentum into their game against Oberlin this past Saturday. The Battling Bishops continued their winning ways as they pummeled the Yeomen 87-60, dropping Oberlin's record to 2-5 overall, 0-3 in the NCAC.

From the beginning it looked as if it would be a long night for Oberlin. Junior Bishop guard Jason Dopoulos got the game started by draining a three pointer just 12 seconds into the game. Dopoulos would eventually end up scoring OWU's first eight points and 10 of their first 14. His first three gave the Battling Bishops a lead they wouldn't lose.

"Dopoulos was a gunner. He just stood around the perimeter and shot lights out," first-year guard Cameron Leverett said.

The general murmur from the team was that no one was ready to play and after the first 10 minutes of the game, that was apparent. The Yeoman countered Dopoulos' hot hand with a total team effort. The first 10 points scored by Oberlin were made by five different players. Leverett got the scoring started with an eight footer from the right baseline. After Dopoulos's second basket, junior big man Brian Buchanan hit a jumper in the lane. Dopoulos converted a three point play the unconventional way by making one free throw, then rebounding his own miss and putting it back up. Sophomore Justin Perkins added his name to the scorers list with a jumper from the right baseline making it 8-6 in favor of Ohio Wesleyan. The Yeomen tied the game at eight the next time down the court when senior Maurice Elrod became the fourth Oberlin player to break into the scorer's box with a jumper from the right wing.

Ohio Wesleyan then started their terrorism of the boards by grabbing offensive rebounds the next two times down the court, turning them into four points. "Rebounding once again was a big problem for us. They probably had 20-plus points off of offensive rebounds," coach Mike Cavey said.

As a team, they were out-rebounded by 12, 47-35, but more importantly, they were out-rebounded on the offensive end 16-9. Oberlin's three main big men, Buchanan, sophomore Jon MacDonald and junior Ric Pierce, combined for a mere seven rebounds and only one of those came at the offensive end. "We were able to stop them and get them to force up a shot," Perkins said. "But then we wouldn't box out and they would get another, easier shot."

With the score standing 12-8, senior James Knight tried to keep Oberlin within striking distance by converting a Wesleyan turnover into an easy two at the other end. Dopoulos countered at the other end with a layup and senior guard Jimmy Francis hit the first of this two threes in the game extending the OWU lead to seven.

Again it was Knight keeping the Yeomen close with a trey from the left corner cutting the Yeoman deficit to four. The next time down the court, Buchanan scored on a layup pulling Oberlin to within two, but this is the closest they would be the rest of the game. Francis countered Oberlin's 5-0 run by hitting his second three in two minutes and increasing Ohio Wesleyan's lead to five.

OWU first-year big man Travis Schwab scored seven of his first half nine points in the last five minutes, including a three from the top of the key with four seconds left that gave Ohio Wesleyan a 40-28 advantage at the half.

The second half got no better for Oberlin as Schwab continued his hot shooting, scoring the first four points of the second half, increasing the Bishops' lead to 16.

After some back and forth scoring for the first five minutes of the second half, the Battling Bishops put Oberlin in checkmate with a two minute 14-0 run that included two threes from Dopoulos and six points from Schwab. This increased the OWU lead to 24 at 61-37.

"We played almost the entire game with no heart, aggression or enthusiasm and that's what translated into this loss," Cavey said.

The Bishops went on an 11-0 run to end the game. The run saw Schwab score another four points and OWU first-year guard, Shawn Kindred, score four of his 11.

The game ended with first-year Ben Alschuler draining a 10-foot jump shot from the left baseline.

Stepping up big for the Battling Bishops was Schwab, as he ended the game with a double-double, scoring a game-high 25 while pulling in 11 rebounds. Kindred also had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. The hot-handed Dopoulos ended with 16.

Knight and Elrod were the Yeomen's only players to hit double digits in points, scoring 13 and 11 respectively. Buchanan and Perkins both finished with eight points and six rebounds while Leverett pitched in seven points and five rebounds.

For Leverett and Perkins, this was their best game of the year in the point column. "[Leverett] definitely shot better (3-4, 1-1) and J.P. was in there until the end playing with heart, scraping and hustling," Cavey said.

The win helped Ohio Wesleyan improve to 2-6 and 2-0 in the NCAC this season.

The Yeomen have a break until Dec. 29 when they take on Manchester (Ind.) College.