GRANVILLE, Ohio — The weather outside may be a few degrees north of frightful as the holiday season comes to an end, but the Wittenberg Tigers' shooting was scary enough in a 54-41 loss at preseason North Coast Athletic Conference favorite Denison.
Still, the Tigers had their chances against the 2006 NCAC Tournament champions, leading by two points with 7:47 left in the game. But the Big Red improved to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in the NCAC thanks to an 18-3 run to end the game.
That dropped Wittenberg back to the .500 mark overall at 6-6 and, more importantly, fell to 2-1 in the NCAC. The Tigers have another key conference game this weekend as Wittenberg hit the road to take on current NCAC co-leader Allegheny on Saturday, less than 24 hours after playing at Hiram.
Denison and Wittenberg traded the lead four times through the first 34 minutes of the game before the Big Red grabbed the lead for good with a 6-0, thanks in part to two baskets by 2006 NCAC Tournament MVP Kristen Sheffield. Wittenberg missed nine of its last 10 shots and turned the ball over three times in the final two minutes to seal the deal.
Wittenberg's best shooting performance was turned in by senior wing Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern), who finished with a team-high 11 points, along with five rebounds. Clark-Haggy went 4-of-8 from the field, but the rest of the team managed just 13-of-52 in the game as the Tigers were credited with 28 percent shooting as a team. Denison was a respectable 42 percent in the shooting department.
The Tigers' defense and offensive rebounding kept them in the game as they forced 25 turnovers, six more than they committed, and Wittenberg yanked down 11 offensive caroms, including three by senior post Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville), who finished with a game-high 11 total rebounds.
Denison still held a 40-36 advantage in the rebounding department. Other telling team statistics in this one were three-point shooting shooting (2-of-13 for Wittenberg vs. 5-of-10 for Denison) and free throw shooting (5-of-12 for Wittenberg vs. 11-of-17 for Denison).