Wittenberg Advances in NCAC Tournament With Win Over Oberlin

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg women's basketball team did what it had to do on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament. The Tigers won in convincing fashion over visiting Oberlin College 86-46 to advance to the semifinals of the conference tourney.

Wittenberg fell behind 2-0 at the 19:45 mark of the first half, but the Tigers responded with a five-point run and quickly set the tone. The lead stretched out to 20-10 by the 10:45 mark of the first half, 31-13 by the 4:47 mark and 38-17 by the halftime intermission. Wittenberg continued to stretch things out in the second half as all 16 players in uniform saw at least two minutes of action and 12 of them scored at least three points.

As a team, Wittenberg once again harassed an opponent into a ridiculous number of turnovers, this time running the total to 32 Oberlin ballhandling miscues. The Tigers, on the other hand, turned the ball over a season-low nine times. In addition, Wittenberg outrebounded the visitors 38-26. Those two statistics accounted for the final margin since Oberlin shot 50 percent from the field, while Wittenberg finished at 49 percent.

Individually, Wittenberg put five players in double figures offensively, led by junior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia), who had 15 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Senior forward Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) added 12 points and three players finished with 10 tallies, senior guards Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and Kate Rolf (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Carroll) and senior center Rebecca Meers (Moline, Ill./Moline).

The win improved Wittenberg to 22-4 overall and ran the Tigers' 2003 win streak to 17 consecutive. The Tigers now face No. 4 seeded Allegheny on Friday at 7:45 p.m., after No. 2 seed Ohio Wesleyan and No. 3 seed Denison square off in the first tourney semifinal. The championship game is set for 3 p.m. All games are at Wittenberg's HPER Center.