The Wittenberg Tigers entered the 2003 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament as one of the nation's hottest teams, winners of 19 straight games and the NCAC regular season and tournament championships. It all came to a halt, however, in the first round of the national tourney last Wednesday in a 64-57 loss at Baldwin-Wallace.
Early in the 2002-03 season, the Tigers lost at Baldwin-Wallace 79-53. While the end result was the same three months later, Wittenberg had its fate in its own hands deep into the game.
The stakes were considerably higher this time, and the Tigers were up to the test. After staking the Yellow Jackets to a 33-26 halftime lead, Wittenberg fought back with a 16-7 run to open the second half and take a 42-40 lead at the 13:29 mark on a lay-up by senior guard Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern). In the previous meeting, B-W crushed Wittenberg in the second half after taking a 38-27 advantage into the locker room.
Wittenberg stretched its lead to as much as 49-44 after junior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) canned a long three-pointer with 9:22 remaining in the game. But the Yellow Jackets fought back to tie the game at 51 with 6:43 remaining and then pulled away at the free throw line, hitting eight straight from the charity stripe in the final 6:03 while Wittenberg went cold from the field, missing six of its final nine shots from the field.
Wittenberg was led offensively by senior forward Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) with 12 points. Warden and Campbell added 10 each for the Tigers, who won the rebounding battle 32-27 and forced 26 B-W turnovers in the game. However, Wittenberg shot just 37 percent from the field, including a 3-for-14 performance from three-point range.