MEADVILLE, Pa. - The Wittenberg Tigers jumped out to an early lead, took the homestanding Allegheny Gators' best shots, and then ran away with a 77-47 victory. The win put the finishing touches on Wittenberg's third 22-3 regular season in the last five years and assured the Tigers of second place in the final North Coast Athletic Conference standings.

By finishing second, Wittenberg earned an NCAC Tournament quarterfinal home game for the 16th straight year. Ranked fifth in the nation and second in the Great Lakes Region, the Tigers are 22-3 overall and 14-2 in the NCAC. Allegheny dropped to 8-16 overall and 5-11 in the NCAC, and the Gators have earned themselves a return trip to Springfield on Tuesday for a game against Wittenberg.

Wittenberg, which never trailed in the game and led by 12 at halftime before blowing the game wide open early in the final 20 minutes, spread the wealth all over the stats sheet, starting with four players in double figures for scoring. Perhaps the best individual marks were turned in by senior guard Danny Brywczynski, who finished with 12 points (on four three-pointers), six assists and no turnovers in 22 extremely productive minutes.

Junior post Daniel Russ led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points, just one short of Allegheny's Casey McCloskey and his game-high 16 points. He added 10 rebounds. Junior post Dane Borchers finished with 14 points and five rebounds and senior wing Andy Bucheit capped his first game off the bench with 12 points on four three-pointers. Bucheit was forced out of the lineup by illness, but he still played 15 minutes.

Among several stats that tell the story of the game is rebounds. Wittenberg, which leads the nation in rebounding margin, garnered 53 boards to just 28 for the Gators. Included in the Tigers' rebounding total was 22 offensive boards, almost as many as Allegheny gained in total.