RICHMOND, Ind. - The Wittenberg women's basketball team extended a season-long winning streak to seven with a 66-61 win over the Earlham Quakers Wednesday night, continuing their dominance of the North Coast Athletic Conference with a perfect 9-0 mark heading into the home stretch of the 2009-10 season. The Tigers now own an 11-6 overall record following the win and remain in first place in the NCAC.
After getting out to a small deficit in the early going, Wittenberg built a 31-22 lead with three minutes to go in the first half. Earlham scored the last five points of the period to close the gap to 31-27 before the internmission. Coming out of the break, the Tigers fought back out to an eight-point lead at 40-32 just three minutes in, but the Quakers again closed the gap, this time with six straight points.
A brief battle ensued before Wittenberg opened up a double-digit lead approaching seven minutes to go, but once again the scrappy Quakers fought back within four at 57-53 with just 1:53 left in the contest. Earlham hung close the rest of the way, but Wittenberg hit 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:28, including 4-of-4 from senior guard Elise Jenkins (Elida, Ohio/Elida) to seal the deal.
Throughout the game, the Tigers used their conference-best rebounding to build a +10 margin (42-32), leading to 24 second chance points. Those points helped balance out 36.1 percent shooting in the first half, though Wittenberg shot 50 percent from the field in the second to finish at 41 percent for the game. As a team, the Tigers were 10-of-14 from the free throw line in the second half, good for 71.4 percent, led by the strong performances of Jenkins and junior wing Katherine Hueter (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Darby), who went 6-of-8 from the stripe for the game.
Altogether, four Tigers amassed double-digit point totals, including Hueter with a team-high 15, senior post Stephanie Boardman (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley) with 12 on 6-of-11 shooting, Jenkins with 11, and senior wing Carrie Dyer (Copley, Ohio/Copley) with 10. Boardman led all players with eight rebounds, while Dyer and Hueter both picked up six. Dyer also added three steals and four assists.
Jenkins returned to the floor after missing a game due to injury. She reclaimed some minutes from sophomore guard Allie Leopard (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana), who in just 14 minutes on the floor hit 3-of-6, including 1-of-2 from long range for seven points, and added four rebounds and a steal to the mix.
The Tigers return to home court for a rematch with NCAC No. 2 Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. in Pam Evans Smith Arena in Springfield.
Written by: John Strawn '07