Denison Upends Allegheny In NCAC Semifinals

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Denison Big Red combined an outstanding defensive effort with just enough offense to defeat Allegheny 59-42 and move into the North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament championship game.

The Big Red established a school record with their 21st win and will attempt to defend their NCAC Tournament championship of a year ago on Saturday at 3 p.m., also in Wittenberg's HPER Center. The third-seeded Big Red are now 21-6 overall after posting an 11-5 record in the NCAC regular season, good for a third-place tie with Kenyon.

The win avenged a pair of regular season losses to the Gators, who placed second in the NCAC regular season with a record of 13-3. Overall, Allegheny bowed out of the 2005-06 season with an 18-9 record.

After Denison spotted the Gators the first two points of the game, the Big Red went on an 8-0 run and never trailed again. The lead stretched to 20-9 at the 9:02 mark of the first half and 27-11 at the 5:00 mark before the Gators closed with a flourish to get the deficit back to 31-21 by halftime. In the second half, Allegheny got it down to three points on a lay-up by Katie Kestler with 14:53 left in the game, but Denison answered with an 8-0 run. The Gators scored just one points in an eight-minute span as the lead climbed back to 49-33 in the Big Red's favor.

This one was a defensive slugfest for the most part - Denison shot a respectable 38 percent from the floor but couldn't put the game away thanks to a 12-of-25 shooting night from the free throw line. Allegheny had another miserable shooting night in Springfield - they've had several in recent years in losses to Wittenberg - as the Gators hit just 15-of-64 shots from the floor, 4-of-24 from three-point range and 8-of-16 from the free throw line.

Denison was paced by Tammy Hoch with 11 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals, and Kristen Sheffield with 10 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots, which was one short of the NCAC Tournament record. Carolyn Simpson also played well in the post, adding eight points and six rebounds in 18 productive minutes off the bench. Allegheny was led by Kestler with 13 points and six rebounds, while Courtney Steding added 10 points and eight boards.