Heidelberg Falls in NCAA First Round
All great things must come to an end, and unfortunately for the 2007-08 Heidelberg College men’s basketball team, and head coach Duane Sheldon, its season concluded in the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championships First Round. The Berg suffered an 83-62 setback to Ohio Wesleyan University in the program’s third trip to t
he NCAA Tournament. Heidelberg faced OWU in Alumni Gymnasium on the campus of Centre College in Danville, Ky.
The setback concludes Heidelberg’s record-setting season at 23-6 overall, while OWU improves to 21-7. The 23 wins stands second all-time for wins in a single season at the Berg. En route to the NCAA Tournament Heidelberg compiled a regular season mark of 20-5 to tie for the best regular season in the history of the program. Within the Ohio Athletic Conference the Berg stood at 14-4 and finished second in the final league standings, which ties for the best league mark and finish. In its second-straight post season appearance in the conference tournament, Heidelberg went on to claim the program’s first OAC Tournament Title and earned the leagues automatic bid to go dancing.
After an early back and forth battle, Ohio Wesleyan held a slim 9-8 lead with 15:15 on the clock in the opening half. OWU went on to extend its lead to double digits at 22-12 with just over 10 minutes to play. The Berg answered with a 7-0 run capped off by a Andrew Lemmon (Port Clinton, Ohio / Port Clinton) jumper to cut its deficit to three points, 22-19, with eights minutes to go before the break. OWU answered with a lay up on its ensuing possession and went on to hit four three-pointers over the final minutes of the first half to hold a 44-30 advantage at the intermission.
The 30 first half points was a result of shooting just .382 percent (13-of-34) from the field, while the Bishops hit nearly 60 percent of its attempts at .581 (18-of-31).
Heidelberg came out in the second half and continued its cold shooting spell, which was evident with its first field goal not coming until a Lemmon lay up 2:30 into the second half. OWU extended its lead to 57-38, but the Berg did not quit, battling back to pull within 13 points, 70-57, with a Brian Schmidt (Hinckley, Ohio / Brunswick) lay up with 2:48 left in the game. Over the final minutes, Heidelberg was forced to foul and the Bishops hit 13 of its 14 attempts at the charity stripe to extend the final score to 83-62.
Lemmon led the Berg with his 14th double-double on the year, finishing with 13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Schmidt also registered double figures with 16 points, to go along with nine rebounds. Greg Tyson Jr. (Lima, Ohio / Lima Senior) and Chad Szalay (Lorain, Ohio / Clearview) each finished with eight points, while Shawn Shriver (Bellevue, Ohio / Western Reserve) added seven.
Shriver concludes his career with 1,260 points, which ranks 10th all-time at Heidelberg, while Schmidt recorded 1,183 points over his four years and stands 13th. Lemmon rounds out three graduating seniors with at least 1,000 points with 1,149 to his credit and ranks 15th.