MEADVILLE, Pa. — An opportunity to retake control of a game they led by six at halftime slipped away from the Wittenberg women's basketball team late in a 78-81 loss to Allegheny College. The Tigers, on the road in their North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) opener, fell to 0-1 to start the league schedule and 2-4 overall.
The Tigers led nearly wire-to-wire in the first half, started by a made free throw from junior Sarah Watson (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) to open the game. Allegheny briefly held the lead early at 6-5, but a seven-point run for Wittenberg put the Tigers back in charge, and their lead bounced between a high of nine points and a low of one thereafter.
Wittenberg took a 41-35 lead into the intermission, but in the Gators' locker room a comeback was brewing. Out of the gate in the second half, Allegheny dropped in six straight points from Laura Magnelli to tie the game at 41-all.
The Tigers put down the Gators' first comeback attempt with the next five points to retake the lead, and held an advantage for the next 10 minutes.
With seven minutes remaining, Allegheny's Heidi Goller layed in a basket to tie the game back up at 64, and followed with another to move ahead by two. The Gators would push their lead out to as many as eight points with 2:35 to go.
Senior Katherine Hueter (Hilliard, Ohio/Darby) answered with two free throw makes and then drained a three-pointer to pull the Tigers back within three with 50 seconds remaining. At the other end, Jill Gregory went 1-of-2 from the line before sophomore Kim Replogle (Houston, Ohio/Houston) dropped in a layup to make it a two-point game at 76-78 with only 30 seconds left.
With Wittenberg forced to foul, the Gators sank 3-of-4 free throw shots to ice the game and seal the 78-81 defeat for the Tigers.
Despite the loss, Kim Replogle had a breakout game as she led the team in scoring for the first time in her career. She did it with 19 points on an impressive 13-of-18 performance from the floor, adding 3-of-5 from the line and six rebounds to round out a career game.
Katherine Hueter turned in her third double-double of the season and her fifth straight game in double figures with 14 points and team-bests of 10 rebounds and six assists. Leading scorer Sarah Watson broke into triple-digits for the season, now with 107 points after a 13-point, seven-rebound game against the Gators.
Junior Lauren Cassel (Columbus, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) chipped in 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
As a team, the Tigers shot a solid 48.5-percent throughout the game, much of the scoring success coming on 18-of-33 (.545) in the first half.
The Tigers return to non-conference action with a Friday, Dec. 10, matchup at Trine in Angola, Ind., with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.