MEADVILLE, Pa. — The Wittenberg Tigers continued their strong midseason push with a seventh straight victory, topping Allegheny on the road by a score of 72-55.
The win pushed the Tigers to 8-5 overall and, more importantly, to 4-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). The win over Allegheny was Wittenberg's first against a team with a winning record as the Gators dropped to 7-6 overall and 2-2 in the NCAC.
After a slow start, Wittenberg picked it up with an 11-0 run that turned a 9-6 deficit into a 17-9 lead at the 7:34 mark of the first half. After taking a 27-22 lead into the locker room at halftime, the Tigers saw their lead shrink to two points early in the second half before once again getting things in gear. Wittenberg responded to a three-pointer by Allegheny's Craig Devinney to open the second half with a 14-0 run to open up a 16-point lead with 14:31 to go in the game. The lead never went below double digits the rest of the way.
The Gators were unable to close the gap in large because of the play of Wittenberg junior guard Gregg Hill (Farmington Hills, Mich./Redford Union). He poured in a career-high 29 points, hitting 9-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-6 from three-point range, and 7-of-9 from the free throw line.
In the absence of third-leading scorer Kevin Murray, who missed the game due to injury, Tigers also got point production from senior post Sam Gregory (Gainesville, Fla./Oak Hall) with 10 points and six rebounds in his first starting assignment in more than a month, and freshman guard Derrick Hannon (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee), who came off the bench to score a career-high 11 points to go along with two assists in 21 productive minutes.
Also of note was the play of senior Brandan Barabino (Toledo, Ohio/St. John's Jesuit), who scored five points - six below his average - but contributed career-highs of 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals to the winning effort.
As a team, Wittenberg was limited to 38 percent shooting from the floor, but the Tigers did an even better job on the Gators at the other end, holding Allegheny to 32 percent shooting. Leading scorer Charlie Jaicks, who was shooting 50 percent from three-point range on the season, was held to six points. The Tigers held a one-rebound advantage and forced seven more Allegheny turnovers than they committed.