SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers finished strong, but the clock ran out on their miracle comeback attempt as the Albion Britons posted a 55-50 victory over the host team in the championship game of the 2005 Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic.

With the win, Albion, which defeated Mount St. Joseph 80-53 in Thursday's semifinal, improved to 8-3 overall. Wittenberg lost for the fourth time this season to a team that reached the 2005 NCAA Division III Tournament in falling to 5-5 overall.

Putting it kindly, the first half of this game was a defensive struggle as the two teams combined for 24 turnovers and posted shooting percentages of 41 (Albion) and 22 (Wittenberg) percent from the field. With Wittenberg missing 17 of its first 18 shots, the Britons moved out to a 15-3 lead just over 10 minutes into the game. By halftime, the advantage was 29-15, in part thanks to a commanding 24-12 rebounding advantage for Albion.

In the second half, Wittenberg finally woke up offensively in the final 10 minutes, but by then the deficit had reached 16 points. After Tournament MVP Jaime Fornetti hit a free throw for Albion with 5:17 remaining, the Tigers put on a surge, using a 9-0 run to close the gap to six points with 3:33 remaining and eventually whittling it down to five points. But the clock simply didn't have enough time left on it for the Tigers to complete their comeback.

Albion was paced by Fornetti's 19 points, six rebounds and four steals. No other player reached double figures offensively for the Britons, although Katie Elder did finish with four points and nine rebounds and, coupled with her performance against Mount St. Joseph, earned a spot on the all-tournament team.

Wittenberg finished the game shooting just 29 percent from the field and facing a 12-rebound deficit. Junior wing Megan Miller made the all-tournament team after hitting four three-pointers to finish with 12 points. Junior post Kathy Hittle added eight points, nine rebounds and three steals to also make the all-tournament team.