SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg men's basketball team caught fire in the second half against Earlham Wednesday night, lighting up Pam Evans Smith Arena with 57 percent shooting to sail to a 90-52 victory and improve to 17-5 overall and 9-4 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
The win helps position the Tigers for a run at second place in the league with just three games remaining. Wittenberg is currently tied with Allegheny and Wabash in second place, and faces a tough Saturday game when they travel to Wooster, Ohio, for a 7:30 p.m. rematch with the Great Lakes Region No. 1 Fighting Scots.
A wide variety of Tigers hit the floor as 16 different players saw time in the game, but it was sophomore starting post Clayton Black (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) who led the Red & White in both points and rebounds. Black was 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free throw stripe to collect 14 points, and pulled down five offensive and four defensive rebounds for a total of nine.
Junior wing Seth Hill (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine) tallied 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe, and a trio of Tigers scored nine points, including senior guard David Nowicki (Carmel, Ind./Westfield) on 3-of-5 shooting including one from behind the arc, freshman wing David Hieber (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) and sophomore post Alex Brandt (Lewis Center, Ohio/Olentangy). Brandt stuffed his nine points into just five minutes on the floor, hitting all four of his field goal attempts and converting on an and-one opportunity.
Nowicki and Hill each registered three steals among a team total of 12, many of which helped contribute to a 40-26 halftime lead. The Quakers again scored 26 in the second half but Wittenberg upped the ante with 50 points in the closing period. Wittenberg dominated the paint with a 40-6 advantage from close range, and scored 25 second chance points on 14 offensive rebounds while Earlham scored just nine such points. For the game, all but two Tigers put digits in the scoring column.
Written by: John Strawn '07