MEADVILLE, Pa. — The Wittenberg Tigers made an early statement in the race of the 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference championship with a 59-50 road win over previously unbeaten Allegheny.
The Tigers, who dropped a road decision earlier in the week to another top contender, Denison, got back on track to even their overall record at 6-6 and, more importantly, move to 3-1 in the NCAC. Allegheny slipped to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference. Wittenberg can pull into a second-place tie with the Gators Sunday by finishing off a suspended game at Hiram. Wittenberg was leading Friday's game with the Terriers before a power outage led to a postponement.
Wittenberg led from start to finish against Allegheny, with only a late surge by the Gators pushing the final margin inside of double figures. The Tigers led by as many as 22 points in the second half after taking a commanding 30-19 advantage into the halftime locker room.
The Tigers had one of their finest shooting nights of the season, hitting 55 percent from the field in the second half to finish at 44 percent for the game. Ten offensive rebounds were key to the Tigers' success as they won the battle of the boards 36-30 and gave themselves the opportunity to make five more shots from the field than their hosts.
Offensively, the Tigers were paced by 13 points from senior wing Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern). She added four rebounds and three assists.
Tremendous all-around performances were also turned in by senior post Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) with 11 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocked shots and junior post Ali Rohlfs (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) with 11 points and six rebounds.
Allegheny was led by a game-high 14 points from Jennifer Latronica, one of three Gators to reach double figures in the game.