For the first time in five years, the Tiger women's basketball team will participate in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament. The Tigers will play at Baldwin-Wallace at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5. The winner of that game earns a date with seventh-ranked Wilmington in the second round at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Wittenberg is back in the NCAA tourney for the first time since 1998 and the seventh time in school history. The Tigers have a 1-6 record in NCAA tournament action, dating back to their first appearance in 1989.
To reach the national tournament, the Tigers put on a clinic in capturing their sixth North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title since joining the conference prior to the 1988-89 season. The Tigers stretched their winning streak to 19 since the calendar flipped to 2003 by defeating Oberlin, Allegheny and Ohio Wesleyan at home by an average of 47 points per game.
The title run began Tuesday for the top-seeded and regular season champion Tigers in the tourney quarterfinals as Wittenberg defeated Oberlin, 86-46. Wittenberg opened up a 38-17 halftime lead and then coasted home in the second half as all 16 players in uniform saw at least two minutes of action.
Wittenberg put five players in double figures, led by junior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) with 15 points. Senior forward Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) added 12 points and three players finished with 10 tallies, senior guards Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and Kate Rolf (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Carroll) and senior center Rebecca Meers (Moline, Ill./Moline).
On Friday in the semifinals against Allegheny, the Tigers buried the fourth-seeded Gators, 95-27. Wittenberg jumped out to a 13-7 lead early in the first half and then closed it by scoring 43 of the next 49 points to go into the locker room with a commanding 56-13 advantage. The second half was no better as Wittenberg's reserves picked up where the starters left off.
Wittenberg was led by Rolf's game-high 19 points after she hit her first seven shots from the field and Campbell added 12 points, five assists, four steals and eight rebounds. Junior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) added seven points, nine rebounds and four assists, junior guard Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) had five points and three assists and junior guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/Cincinnati St. Ursula) had six points and three assists. Neither Kitchen or Fischer, the team's point guards, committed a turnover.
In the championship game, Wittenberg toppled two-time defending NCAC tournament champion Ohio Wesleyan, 72-58, on the same court where the Battling Bishops had won the 2002 title.
Wittenberg expanded an eight-point halftime advantage to 61-38 with 8:17 remaining in the game, and then hung on to close out the win. The Tigers took 26 more shots from the field because they won the rebounding battle 40-31, including 16-5 on the offensive end, and forced 25 OWU turnovers, compared to 14 by the Tigers.
Wittenberg was paced offensively by senior forward Meghan Bruggeman (Middletown, Ohio/Fenwick), who had 15 points and six rebounds. Warden added 10 points and five rebounds, Keller chipped in with eight points and seven boards, Campbell finished with nine points and five assists and Rolf hit for eight points, four rebounds and four steals.
Campbell, Bruggeman and Rolf were named to the All-Tournament Team. Rolf earned the added recognition of Most Outstanding Player.