SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers put together one of their most complete performances of the 2005-06 season at a most appropriate time, sending off a trio of seniors with an 87-58 victory over visiting Allegheny.
The win put the wraps on yet another outstanding regular season for the winningest team in all of NCAA Division III men's basketball. The Tigers, ranked fourth in the nation in the latest d3hoops.com national poll, finished up with a 22-3 overall record, including a mark of 13-3 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Tigers enter next week's NCAC Tournament at the No. 2 seed after finishing two games between current No. 1 ranked Wooster. Allegheny fell to 11-13 overall and 7-9 in the NCAC, capping the season with a sixth place finish in the NCAC.
The Tigers, who will play No. 7 seed Denison in the NCAC Tournament quarterfinals at home on Tuesday, were strong from the outset, scoring the game's first nine points. After Allegheny cut the lead to 13-10, the Tigers put together another 9-0 run that kickstarted the rout. The score was 43-31 at halftime, but that was followed by a 32-8 spurt over the first 12:36 of the second half, punctuated by a pair of thunderous dunks by senior posts Daniel Russ and Dane Borchers and two three-pointers by senior wing Kenny Brady.
Coming off by far their worst shooting performance of the 2005-06 season in a surprising loss at Wabash on Wednesday, the Tigers heated up against Allegheny, hitting 56.5 percent of their shots from the field. Key to that performance was a scorching 71.4 percent performance in the second half alone. Allegheny was limited to 40.4 percent from the floor, was outrebounded 41-21 and committed five more turnovers in the game. Wittenberg has held opponents to 60 points or less in 23 of the 25 games this season - the only team to surpass that mark is Wooster, which scored 86 in each of its two wins against the Tigers.
The Tigers showed great balance, but their strength in the post showed again Saturday. Brady led all scorers with 16 points, including an encouraging 3-of-5 from three-point range, Borchers added 15 points, Russ finished with 11 points and junior post Jack Hemenway enjoyed his finest game in the Red & White, going for a career-high 10 points in 16 productive minutes off the bench. Borchers added eight rebounds and two blocked shots, Russ capped his night with six boards, three assists and two blocks, Brady chipped in six boards and two assists and freshman wing Tyler Howard had a solid game with seven points, six rebounds and three assists.
Ben Torsney led the Gators, who nearly knocked off Wittenberg at home last month, with 10 points off the bench. Allegheny will travel to third-seeded Ohio Wesleyan, which knocked off top-ranked Wooster today, on Tuesday for a quarterfinal game.