While the week didn't end the way Head Coach Pam Smith and her team envisioned, it was still an exciting and wild ride for the Tigers. Smith got her 300th career win on Tuesday in a quarterfinal victory over Wooster and the Tigers, the regular season NCAC champions with a 14-2 record, advanced all the way to the tournament title game on Saturday before falling in heart-breaking overtime fashion to defending champion Ohio Wesleyan.
The week began with a narrow escape in the quarterfinals as top-seeded Wittenberg rallied from seven points down in the second half against eighth-seeded College of Wooster to win 76-69 and advance to the semifinals.
The entire game was a surprising struggle for the Tigers, who walloped Wooster 111-58 less than two weeks earlier. Junior guard Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) poured in a game-high 21 points, including 15 important tallies in the first half. Joining Campbell in double figures were junior forward Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) with 14 points, junior guard Kate Rolf (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Carroll)with 12 points and junior forward Meghan Bruggeman (Middletown, Ohio/Fenwick) with 10 tallies.The win was the 300th of Smith's illustrious Wittenberg career. Just 21 active women's basketball coaches at the NCAA Division III level had won 300 games in their career heading into this season and Smith stood tied for 26th among active Division III coaches in total victories at that time.
Since taking over a struggling Wittenberg program prior to the 1986-87 season, Smith has guided the Tigers to ten 20-win seasons, six appearances in the NCAA tournament and eight NCAC regular season championships. The team enjoyed a breakout 1989-90 season by going 26-3 and winning the NCAC in its first season as a league member, and since that time the Tigers have posted 13 straight winning seasons. Wittenberg has never finished lower than third in an NCAC regular season.
A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith was recognized after the game with a proclamation from the Mayor of Cincinnati, her hometown, and on Friday was presented with a similar proclamation by Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland. The 1978 Greenhills High School graduate was a record-setting forward at Wittenberg during her playing days, a three-time team Most Valuable Player and an Academic All-America selection. She still holds the record for scoring average in a season at Wittenberg.
In Thursday's semifinal game against Allegheny, the smaller Tigers cobbled things together nicely for a 75-58 victory. Wittenberg shot just 31 percent from the field and 68 percent from the free throw line for the game, but the Tigers limited Allegheny to 28 percent shooting from the field in the first half, forced 23 turnovers in the game and outrebounded the Gators 49-41. In the process, Wittenberg slowly wore down Allegheny, winning for the second time in three meetings this year.
2002 Women's Basketball Team
A 16-3 Wittenberg run midway through the first half expanded a 14-13 lead into a 30-16 cushion and started the Tigers on their way. Allegheny closed to within three points in the second half, but Wittenberg had an answer every time.
More often than not, Rolf provided the answers for the Tigers as she dropped in 16 points, including three three-pointers, despite foul trouble. Joining Rolf in double figures were freshman guard Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) with 14 and Keller with 10.
Then came Saturday's championship game and perhaps the cruelest of all destinies. In a tale of two halves and then overtime, defending champion and No. 2 seed Ohio Wesleyan rallied from an 18-point deficit to defeat Wittenberg 81-75 in overtime to capture the NCAC's automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth.
In the first half, Wittenberg raced out to a double-digit lead and by halftime the Tigers had stretched their advantage to 45-29. The Tigers were dominating on the glass, outrebounding the taller, more experienced Bishops 25-18, including 11 offensive boards. But then came a furious second half rally by OWU, which took the lead for the first time at the 4:02 mark of the second half.
With the momentum on the other side, the Tigers finally fought back but still trailed by three points with six seconds left in the game. That's when Campbell drove the length of the court and buried a game-tying three-pointer just before the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
In the extra session, Ohio Wesleyan continued to pound the ball inside as it had done throughout the second half and took control. Wittenberg took an early three-point lead on a long jumper by Schmid, but OWU's post play was ultimately too much. Wittenberg was paced by Kate Rolf with 21 points, Campbell with 13 and Keller with 11.