Wittenberg Falls At Home To Denison

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers once again dug themselves a hole, tried to climb out of it and fell short on their home court. Only this time, it was for keeps, as the Denison Big Red stole a 63-59 North Coast Athletic Conference decision from the Tigers and ended a 36-game conference regular season win streak in the process.

The loss, which dropped Wittenberg to 1-4 on the young season and 0-1 in the NCAC, was the Tigers' first in conference regular season action since Feb. 2, 2002, at Allegheny, a 78-69 setback. It was the Tigers' first home defeat in NCAC play since Feb. 2, 2001, when the Gators captured a 68-60 victory over Wittenberg. Denison improved to 3-1 with the win, its first against Wittenberg in the last 10 meetings between the two schools, dating back to Jan. 16, 2001, and a 73-62 victory on the Big Red's home court in Granville.

Coming back from a 1-1 trip to Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, that opened the season, the Tigers prepped for NCAC action with a pair of home losses to Ohio Athletic Conference powerhouses Baldwin-Wallace and Capital last week. If the young Tigers took anything out of those two losses, it should have been to come out stronger in the first half and give the team a chance to win down the stretch. Instead, for the third straight game, the Tigers found themselves behind by double digits early in the second half and even a strong rally over the final 10 minutes of the game couldn't save them.

Wittenberg never led in the game. The first tie was at 4-4 after a Megan Miller three-pointer at the 16:20 mark of the first half, but that was followed by eight straight Denison points over a nearly six-minute span before sophomore guard Andrea Hackett got Wittenberg back on the board with a three-pointer at the 10:52 mark. The game's second and final tie was at 21-21 with 3:40 remaining before halftime on a jumper by freshman post Ali Rohlfs, but the veteran Big Red answered with a Kristen Sheffield three-pointer that sparked a 9-4 run going into halftime for a 30-25 lead.

The game may have been decided in the first in the first four minutes of the second half as Denison outscored Wittenberg 9-2 to run the lead to 12 points. The lead stretched to as much as 16 on a jumper by Lindsay Dunnigan with 8:28 before the Tigers finally made a run of their own. Starting with a three-pointer by Miller nine seconds later, the Tigers whittled the lead down to 62-59 with 1:43 remaining on a lay-up by freshman post Katie Gregorevich. However, the Tigers missed their final four shots and also committed two turnovers in the final minute to allow the Big Red to escape with the narrow victory.

Wittenberg got a strong game from Gregorevich, who finished with 17 points and five rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench. Miller added nine points, sophomore post Kathy Hittle chipped in with seven points and seven rebounds and senior guard Emilie Schmid, playing her first game of the season after helping the Tiger volleyball team to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals, added nine rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench.

Denison was led by Kristen Sheffield with 17 points and Emma Woodward with nine points and 11 rebounds. Dunnigan added 10 points and four boards off the bench for the Big Red, who were beaten in the rebounding battle 52-39. However, Wittenberg committed 22 turnovers to Denison's 14, the key stat considering that both teams shot about the same percentage for the game.