Roundup: Tigers Win First-Ever NCAA First Round Game
The Wittenberg women's basketball team is like the Energizer Bunny - they keep winning and winning and winning. The streak is at 20 and counting after three North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament victories last week and the first NCAA Division III Tournament win in school history.
The Wittenberg women's basketball team is like the Energizer Bunny - they keep winning and winning and winning. The streak is at 20 and counting after three North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament victories last week and the first NCAA Division III Tournament win in school history.
It took eight frustrating tries, but perhaps that made Wednesday's 81-49 NCAA Division III Tournament victory over visiting Penn St.-Behrend that much sweeter. For the first time in school history, Wittenberg won a national women's basketball tournament first round game.
Wittenberg led from start to finish, using a stifling full-court defense and a huge rebounding advantage to easily defeat the Lions, champions of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. The Lions finished the first half with 19 turnovers and the scoreboard showed a commanding 39-15 lead for the Tigers. The second half offered more of the same.
Wittenberg put three players in double figures, led by senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia), who finished with 18 points and two assists. The dynamic senior post duo of Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) and Geri Woessner (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) combined for 29 points and 17 rebounds. The Tigers won the rebounding battle, 37-24, and forced 29 turnovers. As a result, Wittenberg took 65 shots from the field to 33 for the Lions.
In the NCAC Tournament quarterfinals last Tueseday, the Tigers got a needed lift from freshman guard Megan Miller (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster), who sparked an early comeback to help the top-seeded Tigers ease past the eighth-seeded Oberlin Yeowomen, 74-62
The Yeowomen held an 8-4 advantage before Miller, who had appeared in just 12 games all year, came off the bench to drain four first-half three-pointers to help give Wittenberg a 29-23 halftime advantage. In the second half, Wittenberg never pulled away, but thanks to the hot play of Bishop and Warden the game was never closer than six points. Bishop hit two three-pointers in the first minute of the second half, and she poured in 16 of her game-high 18 points in the final 20 minutes. Warden made just 2-of-11 shots in the game, but she finished with eight points, 14 rebounds and seven assists. Miller finished with 16 points.
In the semifinals, the Tigers put on a clinic in the second half to pull away from preseason favorite Ohio Wesleyan on Friday at the HPER Center, beating the Battling Bishops, 70-56.
The Tigers rallied from an early 11-point deficit to tie the game at 27 on back-to-back three-pointers from Bishop and junior guard Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson). Senior guard Kari Kitchen (Springfield, Ohio/Southeastern) dropped in two free throws at the 47-second mark to give the Tigers their first lead of the game. That started an 8-0 run, with four points on either side of halftime, and Ohio Wesleyan never seriously threatened again.
Wittenberg put eight of the 10 players who appeared in the scoring column, led by 18 points from Woessner. Warden finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds and sophomore guard Carrie Jones (Greenville, Ohio/Greenville) chipped in with nine points and two assists off the bench.
In Saturday's NCAC Championship game, the Tigers put the finishing touches on a second straight perfect conference campaign with a 66-53 win over Allegheny. Warden, the Tournament MVP, turned in her second straight double-double and her 15th of the season. She finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds. Bishop, an all-tournament team selection hit 7-of-8 free throws en route to a game-high 20 points. Woessner, also an all-tournament team selection, chipped in with 11 points and nine rebounds.
After Wittenberg stretched the lead to 35-20 at halftime, the Gators clawed their way back in the second half and whittled the lead to four at the 5:16 mark. Down the stretch, it was a battle of free throw shooting as Allegheny managed just 6-of-10 from the line, while Wittenberg was 14-of-18.
The good news didn't stop there, however. Warden made her first and only appearance on the All-NCAC honor roll count by claiming 2004 NCAC Player of the Year honors after leading the Tigers in scoring (14.5 points per game) and rebounding (9.8 boards per game). Warden was a first-team selection, Bishop was a second-team choice after scoring 12.5 points per game, and Woessner earned Honorable Mention recognition for her 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per outing in the 2003-04 season.
NCAC Coach of the Year went to Pam Smith (Wittenberg 1982) for the third straight year and the sixth time in her career. Smith has an 18-year record at her alma mater of 349-139. Wittenberg has won 10 NCAC regular season titles, including the last three in a row, and seven NCAC Tournament titles, and the Tigers have advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament eight times in Smith's career.
Next up for the Tigers is a second-round NCAA Tournament road trip to Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. Tip is slated for 7:30 p.m. against the ninth-ranked team in the nation.