2003-04 News
The Wittenberg University men's basketball program put together another outstanding season in 2003-04.
The Wittenberg men's basketball team saw its season come to an end on March 6 with an NCAA Division III Tournament loss at home to eventual regional champion John Carroll. Following a first-round bye, the Tigers, regular season champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference, were defeated 84-65.
The John Carroll Blue Streaks, champions of the Ohio Athletic Conference, ran past the Wittenberg Tigers, champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference, 84-65, in an NCAA Division III Second Round game at Wittenberg's HPER Center.
The Wittenberg men's basketball team didn't reach one of its regular season goals last week, but the Tigers got another chance, and now they hope to make the most of it in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Wittenberg University Men's and Women's Basketball teams have been mirror images of one another all season, the models of winning consistency, so it should come as no surprise that the Tigers cleaned up in the North Coast Athletic Conference postseason awards, which were announced today.
The Wittenberg University Men's and Women's Basketball teams both earned invitations to the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament, which opens action this week on campuses across the nation.
Most of the more than 2,300 fans in attendance at Saturday's North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament championship game left simply shaking their heads. They had just witnessed one of the amazing performances by an NCAA Division III team, turned in by the second-seeded and sixth-ranked College of Wooster Fighting Scots as they walloped first-seeded and fifth-ranked Wittenberg University, 100-71, on the Tigers' home court.
The top-seeded and fifth-ranked Wittenberg University Tigers used a balanced offensive attack and a significant rebounding advantage to ease their way past the visiting Wabash College Little Giants, 71-54, in the second North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament game at the HPER Center. The win moved the Tigers into their 11th NCAC Tournament championship game in 15 years in the league.
The Wittenberg University men's basketball team keeps on winning. Chalk up two more wins in the last week - Saturday over Allegheny in the regular season finale and Tuesday over Denison in the NCAC Tournament quarterfinals - heading into the biggest weekend of the season.
In two meetings in the 2003-04 regular season, the Wittenberg men's basketball team had two very different experiences while the Denison Big Red provided the opposition. On Tuesday in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals, the Tigers saw a little of both sides of the Big Red - the one that lost 74-29 in Springfield in early January and the one that battled Wittenberg tooth and nail before falling 67-56 in Granville in early February - before putting Denison away, 71-46.
For the first time since the 1993-94 school year, the Wittenberg University men's and women's basketball teams have won the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season championships with perfect 16-0 records. Wittenberg is the only school ever to accomplish the feat.
The tone was set early as sophomore forwardKenny Brady (Reading, Ohio/Reading) scored Wittenberg's first four points on putback baskets. Even though the visiting Allegheny College Gators matched those two baskets, the Tigers displayed plenty of muscle and enough offensive touch to pull away for an 85-66 victory at the HPER Center.
The men's basketball team is on a roll, and last week provided the best highlights to date. The Tigers, now ranked No. 7 in the nation, won for the 16th and 17th straight times by capturing hard-fought victories over nationally ranked Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan in the last week.
The Wittenberg Tiger men's basketball team has been pushed into "gut check" time on a couple of occasions recently. Once again on Wednesday at Ohio Wesleyan, the Tigers did what they had to do at the times it counted most, using a 10-1 run in the closing minutes to open up a tight game and earn a hard-fought 60-50 victory.
In the highly-charged atmosphere of the College of Wooster's Timken Gymnasium Saturday night, the Wittenberg University Tigers accomplished one of the tallest of tasks when it comes to North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball, win on the Fighting Scots' home floor. The Tigers won for the 16th straight time, slipping past the Scots 73-62 for the second straight time in the 2003-04 season.
Men's basketball stretched its winning streak to 15 straight games with two more victories in the last week. The Tigers now head into a huge match-up at Wooster on Saturday with a 19-3 overall record and a mark of 13-0 in the NCAC.