Roundup: Tigers' Win Streak Now At Nine
The Wittenberg women's basketball team extended its 2003-04 winning streak to nine games in the last week with wins over Earlham on Saturday and Kenyon on Wednesday. The Tigers have won nine straight games and haven't lost since Dec. 20 at home against Thomas More.
The Wittenberg women's basketball team extended its 2003-04 winning streak to nine games in the last week with wins over Earlham on Saturday and Kenyon on Wednesday. The Tigers have won nine straight games and haven't lost since Dec. 20 at home against Thomas More.
Wittenberg leads the North Coast Athletic Conference by two full games over perennial powerhouse rivals Ohio Wesleyan and Allegheny, with both looming on the schedule in the not-so-distant future. The Tigers are riding a 29-game NCAC regular season win streak and a 28-game NCAC win streak overall (including tournament play). Their last regular season NCAC defeat came on Feb. 2, 2002 at Allegheny. Their last NCAC defeat, tournament or regular season, came in the 2002 conference tourney title game, an overtime decision at home against the Battling Bishops.
Against Earlham on Saturday, it didn't look good for about the first two minutes of the game. After that, it looked very good as Wittenberg ran past the Quakers, 80-52. Earlham jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Tigers put things together, starting with five straight points by senior guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/St. Ursula). The game offered two ties, at 7-7 and at 9-9, before Wittenberg scored 24 of the next 28 points to break the game open. The lead reached 24 points late in the first half and 29 points late in the second half before settling in at 80-52.
Wittenberg dominated every statistical category, and all 15 players who made the trip saw at least four minutes of action. The Tigers won the battle of the boards 36-29, caused 26 Earlham turnovers while committing just 17 and shot a season-best 47.5 percent from the field.
The Tigers were led once again by the inside-outside duo of seniors Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) and Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia). Bishop had game-highs of 15 points and four assists in 22 minutes of action while Warden notched her ninth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Also reaching double figures with a new career high in points was freshman Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern), who chipped in with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from the free throw line in just 12 minutes of action.
Against Kenyon, what looked like a back-and-forth defensive struggle in the opening minutes turned into a rout as Wittenberg ran away from the visiting Ladies, 69-36. Kenyon led for most of the first seven minutes until a three-point play by Warden 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 buried its guests with a 13-2 run 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, and the Tigers scored 36 points off turnovers. 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.
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. Bishop and Warden added 10 points apiece.