SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers have played most of the 2006-07 on a knife's edge to this point, but they kicked it into gear with a 78-47 rout of visiting Indiana University-Southeast in the championship game of the 2006 Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic.
As a result, the Tigers hoisted the winners' trophy for the 21st time in 24 seasons while improving to 9-2 overall on the season. IU-Southeast departed Springfield with a 13-4 overall record.
This one was surprisingly lopsided from the outset as the Tigers took an 11-2 lead just two minutes into the game and never looked back. IU-Southeast would get no closer than six from that point on, with the lead swelling to 40-21 by halftime and 69-29 midway through the second half. Reserves seeing their first extended minutes of the season played out the final seven minutes of the game for the Tigers.
Team statistics tell part of the story as Wittenberg held a commanding 42-26 rebounding advantage and shot 53 percent from the field, compared to 34 percent for the Grenadiers. But the difference was a balanced Wittenberg offense, which got scoring from a variety of players by a range of means.
Senior post Dane Borchers (Russia, Ohio/Russia) posted his seventh double-double in the last eight games as he earned his third straight Zimmerman Classic MVP honors with 16 points and 13 rebounds in a modest 22 minutes of work. He was joined on the all-tournament team by sophomore wing Mark Caraway (Jamestown, Ohio/Greeneview), who drilled four three-pointers en route to 14 points on the night, and freshman guard David Nowicki (Carmel, Ind./Westfield), who was credited with four points and two assists against one turnover after hitting three key shots in an 11-point effort in a semifinal win over York on Friday.
In addition, senior post Jack Hemenway (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) finished with 10 points after going down hard on his ankle early in the game.
Three players finished with eight points in the game for IU-Southeast, including all-tournament team honoree Tyler Butcher.
That concludes nonconference action for Wittenberg, which will travel to Kenyon for a North Coast Athletic Conference game Wednesday, Jan. 3, before returning home to face Oberlin on Saturday, Jan. 6.