HIRAM, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers cleared another hurdle in their race to the 2009-10 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season championship, pulling away from Hiram for an 83-62 victory.
The win was Wittenberg's 10th in a row, moving the league-leading Tigers to a perfect 12-0 in the NCAC - two games clear of second-place Ohio Wesleyan. Overall, the Tigers are now 14-6. Hiram, now 0-25 all-time against Wittenberg, dropped to 2-9 in the league and 3-17 overall in 2009-10.
The Tigers moved out to an early lead, and by halftime the margin had slowly grown to 36-29. Over the final 20 minutes, the Tigers kept up the pressure, spreading the stats around in one of their finest all-around team performances of the campaign.
While two starters finished with 19 points, the game's lead story from an individual standpoint is unquestionably senior post Amber Lough (Springfield, Ohio/Northwestern). In nine games so far this year, Lough had scored 15 points total on 7-of-13 shooting. Against Hiram, Lough poured in career-high totals in almost every category, most notably finishing with 18 points and seven rebounds. She finished 6-of-8 from the field, including a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point range, and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.
Lough's fine play eased the pressure on the Tigers' primary scorers, two of whom did most of their damage in the second half. Senior wing Carrie Dyer (Copley, Ohio/Copley) was simply tremendous, contributing 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists - all high totals for either team in the game - while senior post Stephanie Boardman (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley) finished with 19 points and six boards.
Wittenberg shot 50 percent from the field as a team, compared to 36 percent for Hiram, and the Tigers won the rebounding battle 43-34. Key to the Tigers' success was the fact that 21 of those 43 rebounds came at the offensive end.
The Tigers will wrap up their brief road trip through one of the worst snowstorms Ohio has experienced in recent years with a game at Allegheny, currently scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday.