Justin Hallowell scored 20 points and Ian Franks tallied 12 of his 14 points in the second half as the top-ranked College of Wooster held off a feisty Big Red squad for a 72-64 victory on Saturday afternoon from Livingston Gymnasium.

Denison gave the undefeated Fighting Scots all they could handle for 40 minutes but Wooster's proficiency from beyond the arc and on the glass would be the difference.  The Big Red battled back from an early 10-point deficit to take a 28-27 lead into the half.  During that first half of play, Wooster shot just 27 percent from the field and Franks spent much of the half on the bench with foul trouble.

In the second half DU came out with plenty of intensity and pushed their lead out to 40-36 with 14:42 to play following a jumper by junior guard Jim Leffew (Vero Beach, Fla./Vero Beach).  Less than a minute later, Franks would record a steal and find teammate Nathan Balch who was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer.  Balch connected on all three free throws to cut the Denison lead to 40-39.

The Scots would heat up around the 12 minute mark with the long ball when Franks and Balch went back-to-back from beyond the arc, taking the lead away from the Big Red for the first time since midway through the first half.

The Fighting Scots managed only 22 field goals in the entire game, but 12 of those 22 field goals were of the 3-point variety.  Over the final 10 minutes of play, every time DU cut the lead to a one or two possession game, the Scots would seemingly answer with a big 3-pointer.  With Denison trailing by just five with 2:32 left after a 3-point play by junior Mike Garabedian (LaGrange, Ill./Nazareth Academy), Wooster's Hallowell delivered the knock out blow with his fifth 3-pointer of the game with 1:30 left.

Denison was led in scoring by sophomore Dimonde Hale (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) who finished 8-for-19 from 18 points.  He also added five rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes.  Alex Longi (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) tallied 12 points while going 6-for-9 from the floor and Garabedian posted another solid all-around game with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.  Another DU player who continued his strong play off the bench was Marr Mansfield (Westerville, Ohio/Central) who ended the day with eight points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Fighting Scots checked into the game shooting 41 percent as a team from 3-point territory and that didn't budge following today's game.  The Scots were 12-for-30 from deep and were led by Hallowell's 5-for-11 performance.  Bryan Wickliffe led Wooster on the boards with 15 and Balch contributed 15 points.

As a team, DU shot 41 percent from the field and were 5-for-10 from the free throw line.  Wooster hit on 39 percent of their field goal attempts and were 16-for-22 from the charity stripe.  The Scots outrebounded the Big Red 47-33 and committed nine turnovers to Denison's season-low, six.

Wooster improves to 16-0 on the season and 7-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.  Denison falls to 5-11 and 2-6 in conference play.  The Big Red will return to action on Wednesday (Jan. 19) when they host Capital University at 7:30 p.m.