Women's Basketball Unable To Keep Up With Nationally Ranked Baldwin-Wallace

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg University women's basketball team went cold for a long stretch of the second half and it cost the Tigers as they dropped a second straight home game to a nationally ranked opponent, this time falling 77-62 to the Baldwin-Wallace College Yellow Jackets. The loss dropped Wittenberg, which lost to Hope College in the championship game of the Kiwanis-Wittenberg Tip-Off Classic on Saturday, to 1-2 on the young season, while BWC, which beat the Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament a year ago, moved to 3-0.

Wittenberg fell behind early but rallied to take a 33-32 lead into the locker room for halftime. In that first half, the lead changed hands five times and the two teams appeared to be as even as they were at the end of 2002-03, when the Yellow Jackets pulled out a hard-fought seven-point home victory in the national tourney. But in the second half, the Tigers went cold, shooting just 33 percent and committing 12 of their season-high 24 turnovers. Baldwin-Wallace took the lead for good on a pair of Stephanne Musser free throws at the 10:22 mark of the second half, which was followed by a three-pointer by Musser. The Yellow Jackets eventually stretched the lead to 58-47 after the game's seventh and final tie at 47 apiece.

Wittenberg was beaten primarily in the interior as the Tigers were outrebounded 42-32 and outscored in the paint 30-18. Baldwin-Wallace collected 15 offensive rebounds and picked up 13 second-chance points. Another key team statistic was turnovers as Wittenberg made 24 miscues to BWC's 17.

The Tigers were led offensively by senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia), who poured in 19 points after scoring a career-high 30 against Hope. Senior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) picked up 17 points and 14 rebounds, accounting for her second double-double in three games this season. But no other Tiger player managed more than seven points or three rebounds in the contest as the Tigers shot 38 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free throw line.

Baldwin-Wallace was paced by 19 points from Erika Schultz and 15 more from Lindsay Mamula. Not coincidentally, those two post players accounted for many of the aforementioned points in the paint. Guard Stephanne Musser added 14 points, eight of which came from the free throw line in the late going. Schultz and Mamula also collected seven rebounds each as well.