Tigers Fall To Fifth-Ranked Wheaton In Overtime

WHEATON, Ill. - The Wittenberg Tigers rounded out a productive opening weekend of the 2013-14 season with a hard-fought 73-62 overtime loss to fifth-ranked host team Wheaton College.

The weekend was productive because a veteran Tiger team expected to compete for the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) title and more put together back-to-back solid performances against quality competition. Wittenberg reached the title game of the Lee Pfund Classic at Wheaton with a 69-62 victory over Wisconsin-River Falls before taking one of the top teams in the d3hoops.com preseason poll to the wire.

The game was tight throughout regulation, which featured 12 tie scores. Neither team held a lead of more than four points.

Over the final 2:34, the two teams traded the lead back and forth before Wheaton's Peter Smith sank two free throws with 48 seconds left. After a Wittenberg turnover, Wheaton missed a three-pointer and a tip-in just before the buzzer, leading to a five-minute extra session.

That's when the Thunder took control with nine straight points over the first two minutes. Wheaton put the game away with six straight free throws in the final 57 seconds to outscore the Tigers by a 20-9 margin in overtime.

Senior Steven Newell (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) led the Tigers with 14 points to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Senior Scott Masin (New Carlisle, Ohio/Bethel) added a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, in addition to three assists.

Sophomore Alex Fultz (Cincinnati, Ohio/Glen Este) and freshman Brock Kiesler (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) contributed nine points apiece off the bench, while senior Zack Leahy (Rossford, Ohio/Rossford) had a fine all-around statistics line of eight points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

The Tigers outrebounded Wheaton 41-36, but Wittenberg committed 20 turnovers in the game, compared to 11 for the Thunder.

Leahy and Masin earned all-tournament team honors.