Women's Basketball Finishes Off Perfect NCAC Regular Season With Win Over OWU

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - They never make it look pretty, but that's not really the idea behind competitive athletics. Winning is the idea, and no team in the North Coast Athletic Conference has done it better than the Wittenberg Tigers over the last 15 years. For the fourth time in school history, the Tigers put the finishing touches on a perfect 16-0 NCAC regular season, the time by defeating preseason conference favorite Ohio Wesleyan at home Saturday by a 66-60 score.

The win was Wittenberg's 16th straight in the 2003-04 season, dating back to a Dec. 20 home defeat against the Great Lakes Region's top-ranked team, the Thomas More Saints. In improving to 20-5 overall and 16-0 in the NCAC, the Tigers captured their 36th consecutive NCAC regular season victory. Ohio Wesleyan fell to 14-11 overall and 10-6 in the NCAC, good for fourth place.

Wittenberg now heads into the NCAC Tournament as the defending champion and the No. 1 seed for the third straight year. The Tigers will host eighth-seeded Oberlin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the HPER Center. Ohio Wesleyan plays host to fifth-seeded Kenyon in a Tuesday night quarterfinal.

The Tigers defeated their most intense conference rival for the fifth straight time by following their tried-and-true 2003-04 season script - by hitting the big shots at the big moments, grabbing a host of offensive rebounds and forcing their opponent into too many ballhandling mistakes. In the first half, the two teams battled back and forth for the entire 20 minutes, with Wittenberg finally gaining a 29-26 advantage due in part to a 21-15 rebounding advantage and a 10-6 advantage in turnovers, which translated into a 13-shot differential in the Tigers' favor. Wittenberg broke the eighth and final tie of the game with just 21 second left in the first half on a jumper by freshman forward Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and capped the opening 20 minutes with a buzzer-beating lay-up by sophomore forward Joyce Dindo (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) off a great feed from senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia).

In the second half, Ohio Wesleyan worked the lead down to one on two occasions in the opening minutes, only to have Wittenberg stretch it back out to as much as 14 points at the 7:22 mark. From that point, OWU battled furiously, fouling constantly in an effort to either create steals or pressure the Tigers into missing free throws, but Wittenberg held on.

On senior day, none other than senior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) against stole the show. She finished with her 13th double-double of the season, 15 points and 10 rebounds, and she added five assists and two steals before fouling out in the late-going. The other four seniors also had outstanding games as forward Geri Woessner (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood) finished with 14 points and four rebounds, Bishop chipped in with 12 points, seven boards and three assists, guard Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) drained three free throws in the final minute to ice the game and guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/St. Ursula) finished with two points in 20 minutes at the point position.

Ohio Wesleyan picked up 27 points and 11 rebounds, both game highs, from 2003 NCAC Player of the Year Kelly Heil. She was joined in double figures by Tifini Ray with 14 points and Erica Brizendine with 13 points and 12 boards. The Bishops picked up just six points from the rest of its players, although Krystal Sensabaugh did contribute a game-high six assists in 34 minutes off the bench.