SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers are still not at full strength physically, but they continued to play well in easing their way past neighboring NAIA rival Urbana, 89-65. It was the seventh time in as many meetings with the Blue Knights that the Tigers had come away victorious, including last year's 80-59 Wittenberg win at Urbana.

The Tigers put five players in double figures and got outstanding contributions from both the starting lineup and the bench. After Urbana took a 2-0 lead to open the game, the Tigers scored the next 10 points and never looked back. The lead stretched to 17 with 8:11 left in the first half on a lay-up by junior guard Phil Steffes and eventually to 20 points as the Tigers scored the last five points of the half on a three-pointer by junior post Dane Borchers and a breakaway dunk by junior post Daniel Russ with 25 seconds left.

In the second half, Urbana could draw no closer than 16 points as the Tigers continued to outrebound the Blue Knights and shoot fairly well. For the game, Wittenberg, which improved to 3-1 on the young season, shot 53 percent, including a blistering 64 percent in the field half, compared to Urbana's 37 percent for the game and 25 percent for the opening 20 minutes. The biggest things that stand out on the statistics sheet are three-pointers (9-2 in favor of Wittenberg), rebounds (50-27 in favor of Wittenberg) and personal fouls (34-18 in favor of Urbana). The last stat led to 13 more points in 22 more attempts from the free throw line for the Tigers.

Urbana, which fell to 0-8 on the season, picked up 15 points from starting forward Antonio Davis and 14 points off the bench from Darren Gettis. One Blue Knight player fouled out and four others finished the game with four fouls.

Wittenberg, which now has a week off until opening the 2004-05 North Coast Athletic Conference schedule with a home date with Allegheny next Saturday, were extraordinarily balanced. Borchers led with 17 points, Steffes added a career-high 16 on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and four three-pointers, Russ and senior wing Andy Bucheit finished with 15 tallies apiece and sophomore post Jack Hemenway was outstanding off the bench with career-highs of 10 points and eight rebounds.