After three straight near-misses, resulting in narrow losses to Capital, Mount Union and Allegheny, the Wittenberg Tigers put it together at both ends of the court in a 69-38 victory at Trine.
The win moved the Tigers back to 3-4 overall on the 2010-11 season, heading into a weeklong break for first-semester finals. Wittenberg returns to action with two more games against Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association opponents at the Hope Classic, starting with Kalamazoo on Friday, Dec. 17. Trine is also 3-4 after suffering its second defeat against a North Coast Athletic Conference opponent this year - preseason favorite Denison beat the Thunder 91-44 earlier in the campaign.
It took more than three minutes for either team to make a dent in the scoreboard, but after junior Lyndsey Clark (New Carlisle, Ohio/Tecumseh) hit a three-pointer, the Tigers eased out to a 28-14 lead by halftime. Trine got no closer over the final 20 minutes as the lead slowly extended out to the final margin of 31.
The Tigers shot 57 from the field in the second half to finish at a season-best 50 percent for the game, including a 5-of-11 performance from three-point range. At the other end of the court, Wittenberg's defense was smothering, limiting the Thunder to 30 percent shooting for the game, including just 2-of-12 from long distance. Wittenberg also won the rebounding battle decisively, 41-21.
Individually, the Tigers showed greater balance in this game than in their previous five this season, as three players reached double figures in scoring and 10 players in all found their way into the scoring column of the boxscore. Junior Sarah Watson (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) led with 15 points to go along with four rebounds and two blocked shots, followed closely by senior Katherine Hueter (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Darby) with 13 points, seven boards, three assists and two steals. In addition, freshman Jaclyn Willoughby (Houston, Ohio/Houston) contributed 12 points and freshman Cassie Whitley (Xenia, Ohio/Xenia) had perhaps her finest collegiate game with six points, five rebounds and two steals in 15 minutes off the bench.