The Wittenberg University Tigers usually find ways to win games
like this, especially in the Kiwanis-Wittenberg Tip-Off (previously
Holiday) Classic. But against a determined Ohio Dominican
University team that shot the ball extremely well, the Tigers
couldn't pull out a victory Saturday night, falling 80-75 in the
2002 championship game.
Ohio Dominican jumped out to an early lead and held onto it almost
the entire game. In fact, ODU never trailed, although Wittenberg
pulled even on a couple of occasions in the second half. Ohio
Dominican put all five starters in double figures, led by Mike Lee
with 18 points. He got 12 of those 18 at the free throw line.
Jeremy Renner added 17 points, Mike Fiebig had 16, Micah Stith
finished with 13 and Eric Jenkins rounded things out with 10. Stith
also added a game-high 11 rebounds.
Wittenberg, which lost in its home tournament for just the third
time in 20 years, got 21 points from senior forward B.J. Harris and
18 more from sophomore wing Andy Bucheit. But the Tigers couldn't
overcome 54.5 percent shooting from the field and 81.8 percent
shooting from the free throw line by the Panthers, who improved to
4-1 overall on the brand new season. Wittenberg also got strong
performances from junior forward Peter Walker, who had nine points
and four rebounds, and freshman forward Daniel Russ, who had nine
points and six boards in 20 productive minutes off the bench.
8 p.m. -- Ohio Dominican def. Wittenberg
Posted: Nov 23, 2002