HIRAM, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers may have struggled through much of the first half of the 2004-05 season, but that doesn't mean they plan to give up their three-year stranglehold on the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season crown without a fight. They served notice on Friday with a 77-45 road win at Hiram that the Tigers are going to be players in this year's competition for the regular season title.

The win, the Tigers' sixth in the last eight games, improved Wittenberg to 6-6 overall and 2-1 in the NCAC. It was the 13th straight time that Wittenberg had beaten Hiram since their first meeting in 1990. The Terriers dropped to 5-6 overall and 0-3 in the NCAC.

Wittenberg actually trailed 5-1 in the opening minutes of the game before getting on track with an 8-0 that was capped by a jumper in the lane by freshman post Katie Gregorevich with 15:24 remaining in the first half. The lead slowly moved out to 39-25 by halftime, largely thanks to poor ballhandling by the Terriers, and then the Tigers put the game out of reach with a 6-0 run to start the final 20 minutes.

The Tigers put all 16 players who suited up into the game and 15 of them scored. Seven different players scored between six and nine points, led by junior guard Carrie Jones with nine off the bench. Sophomore post players Kathy Hittle, Rachel Clark-Haggy and Denita Braziel all finished with eight points, while junior post Joyce Dindo was high for either team with eight rebounds.

Wittenberg won the battle of the boards 52-32, although an item of concern has to be a season-high 28 turnovers, compared to 25 for the Terriers. Hiram picked up 12 points from Amanda Hummel and 11 from Cassie Bedard.