SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — After one half of basketball, it looked as if the Wittenberg Tigers and Earlham Quakers were on their way to a low-scoring finish. But both offenses kicked into high gear after a sluggish first period and pushed the final score to 78-62, the Tigers pulling out their third straight win. Wittenberg pushed its way back to .500 and maintained an unblemished North Coast Athletic Conference record at 4-0.
Stephanie Boardman (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley) was on top of a flip-flopped leaderboard for the Tigers. The normal high-scorers took a backseat to a trio of key supporting cast members, who together scored 47 of the team's points. Boardman dropped in a monstrous 24 points, tieing Katie Gregorevich (Northfield, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) for the season lead in points in a game and setting her own personal career-high. The points came on a blistering 11-of-17 performance from the field.
Behind Boardman were Carrie Dyer (Copley, Ohio/Copley) and Katherine Hueter (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Darby), who finished with 12 and 11 respectively. Dyer was also second on the team in rebounding with eight boards, behind Gregorevich who went up for 10.
The first half was not a defensive stalemate but rather a lack of coordination on offense from both teams. Earlham went a disastrous 4-of-29 from the field in the first period, and Wittenberg was better but not particularly efficient at 14-of-36 in the same time frame. But both squads ramped up their efforts in the second, Earlham improving by over 30 percentage points to 46% from the floor, and Wittenberg making up some ground at 43%.
In every other category, the Tigers dominated the Quakers, who are handicapped by a short bench of only three reserves. The Red & White put up 46 points in the paint to Earlham's 18, and 28 second chance points to Earlham's 11. The Tigers also out-rebounded the Quakers 60-37.
Of particular note was Wittenberg's stellar free-throw shooting, finishing at 15-of-17 from the charity stripe, including 4-of-5 and 5-of-6 performances from Dyer and Gregorevich, respectively. The Tigers visit Oberlin on Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off in continuing North Coast Athletic Conference action.
Written by: John Strawn