Wittenberg Absorbs Ugly Loss to Regional Rival Otterbein
A winning team must put two halves of basketball together to defeat a quality opponent, even when playing on their home court, as the Wittenberg Tigers were on Wednesday evening against regional rival Otterbein. After a solid but unspectacular first half by both teams, the Tigers came out stone cold in the second 20 minutes and were overtaken by the visiting Cardinals, 67-57.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - A winning team must put two halves of basketball together to defeat a quality opponent, even when playing on their home court, as the Wittenberg Tigers were on Wednesday evening against regional rival Otterbein. After a solid but unspectacular first half by both teams, the Tigers came out stone cold in the second 20 minutes and were overtaken by the visiting Cardinals, 67-57.
The loss dropped Wittenberg, which was coming off a hard-fought, well-played, North Coast Athletic Conference victory on Saturday at Allegheny, to 4-3 overall heading into a game this Saturday at neighboring NAIA Urbana. Otterbein improved to 6-1 on the season.
Wittenberg led for almost the entire first half and for a few minutes of the second, with the exception of several ties along the way. The Tigers' biggest lead came at the 5:08 mark of the first half at 27-19 on a three-pointer by freshman guard Billy Bowen (Arcadia, Ind./Hamilton Heights). That lead was whittled to one by the 1:17 mark before the Tigers scored the last four points of the half on jumpers by sophomore Kenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) and junior Kenny Molz (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont). Otterbein scored the first five points of the second half and eased their way into the lead at the 11:02 mark as Tony Borghese hit a fast break lay-up to put the Cardinals in front at 47-45. From that point, it was all Cardinals as they took advantage of cold shooting by the Tigers to slowly pull away.
Otterbein got a game-high 17 points from Aaron Minister and 12 apiece from Borghese and Scott Hadley. In addition, Neil Hohman finished with six points and 10 rebounds. The Cardinals were outrebounded 46-37, but they committed just nine turnovers to 17 by Wittenberg, and they canned 21-of-28 free throws, including of 15-of-20 in the second half.
Wittenberg got double-double efforts from the usual sources, senior forward Peter Walker (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) and sophomore center Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity). Walker had 15 points and 12 rebounds, including five offensive, and Russ finished with 12 points and 12 boards despite a 3-of-10 shooting performance. In addition, Molz had a season-high 12 points.