RICHMOND, Ind. - It didn't look good for about the first two minutes of the game. After that, it looked very good as the Wittenberg women's basketball team ran past struggling North Coast Athletic Conference rival Earlham, 80-52, on Saturday.

The win, Wittenberg's eighth straight in the 2003-04 season, 28th straight in NCAC regular season action and 27th straight in NCAC action overall, improved the Tigers to 12-5 overall and 8-0 in the NCAC. Earlham fell to 6-10 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

Earlham jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Tigers put things together, starting with five straight points by senior guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/St. Ursula). The game offered two ties, at 7-7 and at 9-9, before Wittenberg scored 24 of the next 28 points to break the game open. The lead reached 24 points late in the first half and 29 points late in the second half before settling in at 80-52.

Wittenberg dominated every statistical category, and all 15 players who made the trip saw at least four minutes of action. The Tigers won the battle of the boards 36-29, caused 26 Earlham turnovers while committing just 17 and shot a season-best 47.5 percent from the field. In addition, the seven three-pointers Wittenberg drained were a season-high. Another telling statistic was bench scoring as the Tigers picked up 41 points, while Earlham managed just 17.

The Tigers were led once again by the inside-outside duo of seniors Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) and Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia). Bishop had game-highs of 15 points and four assists in 22 minutes of action while Warden notched her ninth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Also reaching double figures with a new career high in points was freshman Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern), who chipped in with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from the free throw line in just 12 minutes of action.

Earlham picked up 13 points from Lindsay Chappell and six from Michelle Behler, who moved past the 1,000-point plateau in the game.