CHICAGO, Ill. — A day after shooting better than 55 percent from the field in a season-opening victory, the Wittenberg Tigers were unable to locate their shooting stroke against the host University of Chicago Maroons, who recorded an 80-58 victory in the championship game of the Midway Classic.
The Tigers dropped to 1-1 heading into the holiday week. Wittenberg is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 25, at home against perennial powerhouse Capital. Chicago, which defeated Kalamazoo in its opener, improved to 2-0 on the young season.
Things started out well enough for the Tigers, who took the measure of Buena Vista in Saturday's semifinal game. But after junior post Katie Gregorevich (Northfield, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) scored on a lay-up to tie the game with 7:09 remaining in the first half, everything went disastrously wrong. Chicago went on a 32-2 run, spanning the final 7:09 of the first half and nearly five more minutes of the second half before Gregorevich finally got a shot to drop to pull the Tigers back within a stunning 28 points.
A key to the game was Chicago's ability to get Wittenberg senior post Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville), the Tigers' leading scorer and rebounder in each of the last two seasons, in foul trouble. She managed just two points, one rebound, three blocked shots and two steals in 17 minutes.
But even without Hittle in the post for much of the game, Gregorevich picked up the slack on the interior, scoring 19 points and hitting all 10 of her free throws. The problem was on the perimeter as the Tigers were unable to find a consistent scoring threat after the first 13 minutes of the game, during which junior post Ali Rohlfs (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) had two three-pointers. Rohlfs finished with six points, while senior wings Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and Gina Carney (Lexington, Ky./Catholic) combined for 17 points while hitting 3-of-4 shots from the field apiece.
In a rarity, Wittenberg actually shot better from three-point range than overall in the game - 38 percent to 32 percent. Chicago shot 47 percent from the field, and the Maroons held a whopping 46-28 rebounding advantage. Both teams committed 26 turnovers in the game.