Wittenberg Remains Perfect in NCAC Play

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - What looked like a tight, back-and-forth, defensive struggle in the opening 15 minutes or so turned into a rout as the Wittenberg women's basketball team ran away from the visiting Kenyon Ladies by a final score of 69-36.

The win, Wittenberg's 10th straight in the 2003-04 season and 29th straight in North Coast Athletic Conference regular season action, improved the league-leading Tigers to 13-5 overall and 9-0 in the NCAC. Kenyon fell to 7-11 overall and 4-6 in the NCAC

Kenyon led for most of the first seven minutes until a three-point by senior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) gave the Tigers a 12-11 lead. After that, it was all Tigers as they scored 19 of the next 26 points to take a commanding 31-18 edge into the locker room at halftime. In the second half, Wittenberg came out and buried its guests, outscoring the Ladies 13-2 in the first six minutes to open up a 24-point spread. The lead reached 34 points on two occasions.

Wittenberg forced 28 Kenyon turnovers and committed just 10, leading to the statistic of the game - the Tigers scored 36 points off Ladies' turnovers, compared to two for Kenyon. Second-chance points, made possible by 17 Tiger offensive rebounds out of 39 overall (compared to 33 for Kenyon), were 15-2 in favor of Wittenberg. And bench points again favored the deeper Tigers as they picked up 40 points from the reserves, compared to eight for Kenyon, which dressed just eight players for the game.

Three players reached double figures for the balanced Tigers, who played all 15 players at least six minutes in the game. Junior guard Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) finished with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and four steals in 17 extremely productive minutes off the bench. Senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) and Warden added 10 points apiece. Kenyon got 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots from leading scorer Katy Zeanah.