(ADA, Ohio) – The Wilmington College men's basketball team finished up their regular season on Saturday afternoon, with a double overtime win over Baldwin Wallace University, 94-93. They are the No. 6 seed in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament and travel to Ohio Northern University tomorrow afternoon to take on the Polar Bears at 7:00 P.M.
Season Overview
The Quakers finished their regular season with an 11-14 overall record and were 7-9 in the OAC, as Micah Mills will make his first appearance in the OAC Tournament as Head Coach of Wilmington. This is their most wins in a season since the 2018-19 season and their most conference wins since 2019-20. The Quakers are looking for their first conference tournament win since 2020-21.
Offensively, the Quakers average the most points in the conference with 84.6 per game and are the only ones to score over 2,100 points at 2,116. Domenic Farley, Elijah Cathey, and Izaiah Cathey led the team in scoring this season.
Farley finished sixth in the OAC with 16 points per game and eighth with 383 total points. He scored the 1,000th point of his career in the second to last game of the season vs. Muskingum University and became the first player to do so since 2021-22 and 29th in program history.
Elijah Cathey averaged 15 points a game and scored 375 for the Quakers while his brother Izaiah, in his first full season as a key player, averaged 12.3 points per game and has scored 307 points this season.
Both Cathey brothers have over 100 rebounds this season, with Izaiah at 108 and Elijah at 141. Elijah tied for fifth in total rebounds and his 5.6 rebounds per game tied for eighth. Elijah was also 10th in the OAC with 61 assists and tied for 10th with 2.4 a contest.
Defensively, the Quakers had three players in the Top-10 in blocks. Izaiah Cathey is second in the conference with 34, Ben Golan is third with 26, and Elijah Cathey is tied for eighth with 17. They are second as a team with 107 blocked shots.
The Quakers led the conference with 238 steals, 20 more than any other team. Leading the way is Izaiah Cathey, who is tied for seventh with 35. Another key all-around player for Wilmington is junior Carson Miles, who has 32 steals and 40 assists.
Scouting the Polar Bears
Wilmington and Ohio Northern split their season series this season, with both teams winning on the road. The Quakers earned their first OAC win of the season in Ada back on December 10th, 88-78 while the Polar Bears won the return matchup in Wilmington on February 4th, 78-70.
Ohio Northern ended their regular season with a 17-8 overall record and were 12-4 in the OAC to earn the third seed in the tournament. Their offensive leaders are senior Will Miller and sophomore Aiden Harris. Miller has scored 392 points this season (15.7 per game) while Harris has scored 332 points (13.3 per game). These two are solid shooters from beyond the arc, as Harris is sixth in the conference with 43 made threes and Miller ninth with 37 threes.
Theo Maag not only scores 11 points per game, but he also shoots 53 percent from the field, and rebounds 5.7 per game.
From Coach Mills
"Our program is built on the mindset of 'WePressOn!' Through it all the good, the bad, and everything in between we are going to stay together and figure out a way to move forward! This team has truly bought into that and I'm excited to see how we move forward into the tournament!"
OAC Preview
Looking at the rest of the conference tournament, the University of Mount Union locked in the No. 1 seed, and Otterbein University controls the No. 2.
The other first round matchup features No. 5 seed Heidelberg University traveling to take on No. 4 seed Muskingum University tomorrow at 7:00 P.M.
The semifinals will be played at the University of Mount Union and Otterbein University on Thursday, February 26th. The championship is scheduled for Saturday, February 28th.
