The College of Wooster men's basketball team's block party at Timken Gymnasium was not enough, as despite 11 blocked shots, the Fighting Scots fell 67-55 to DePauw University on Saturday afternoon.

Wooster needed a win or an Oberlin College loss on Saturday to qualify for next week's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament. Unfortunately, neither happened, as Oberlin beat Wabash College 65-60 to secure the sixth seed for the six-team tournament field. This is the first time Wooster will miss the NCAC Tournament, and the Scots were the last original founding member of the NCAC to miss a tournament.

The block party started right away, as senior Isaiah Johnson denied DePauw's Sam Jacobs at the rim in the first minute of the game. Senior EJ Kapihe joined the party, stuffing Reph Stevenson at the rim with 15:36 left in the first half. Kapihe capitalized on the mismatch against guard Joe Smith, logging his second block before the second media timeout.

Later, Kapihe upped the block count to three against Caleb Washington on a turnaround jumper, which kept Wooster's deficit at 30-27 in the final three minutes of the first half. Wooster could not get its tying triple to fall, but Jacobs did on his, to up the Tigers' lead to six. He hit again from downtown on a step-back 3-pointer to make it a 36-29 DePauw lead at halftime.

Sophomore Breckman Oakley reclaimed first-place on the team in blocked shots in the second half, swatting away three DePauw field goals. His first denied Jacobs at the rim in the first minute of the second half. Johnson logged his third block of the day, again on Jacobs, and Stevenson was the victim on Kapihe's fourth block of the game.

Senior Jaiden Cox-Holloway denied Patrick Joyce with 11:27 remaining and the Scots' ninth block of the game came when Oakley won the matchup against Washington at the rim.

Wooster's biggest lead was three at the first stanza's midpoint. Junior Quincy Jones hit a floater in the paint to make it 15-13 and sophomore Si Kielian upped the lead to 18-15 when he cleaned up his own miss at the rim with 10:01 in the half.

Senior Isaac Roeder scored 13 points and Kapihe finished his Wooster career with a 10-point, 8-rebound performance. Kapihe had four blocks, while Johnson and Oakley each logged three.

Wooster shot just 30.8 percent (20-of-65) for the game and was outrebounded 46-37.

DePauw was led by Jacobs' 21 points. Stevenson had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

DePauw shot 42.6 percent (26-of-61) for the game and outscored Wooster 32-20 in the paint.

DePauw carries an 18-7, 11-5 NCAC record into next week's conference tournament. Wooster's season concludes with an 8-17, 5-11 NCAC record. Wooster's remarkable run of 36 straight full seasons with at least 18 wins is no more.