As anticipated, the Wittenberg Tigers women’s basketball team is off to a fast start in their 2013-2014 campaign. Though they are only seven games into the season (5-2), the Lady Tigers have had to embrace, and battle adversities early this season.
In the Wilmington Damon’s Hampton Inn Tip-Off classic, the Tigers went one and one in their match-ups. In their first bout of the tournament, the Tigers got the opportunity to knock off the eighth ranked Thomas More Saints. There were a slew of Lady Tigers who were not able to play due to prior injuries and illnesses. Nevertheless, the Tigers battled and had a late surge at the end of the game, however, the Lady Saints were too much for the Tigers. Junior Enri Small led the Tigers in scoring with 23 points. In their second game of the tournament, the Tigers weren’t messing around when they took on Trine University. The Tigers went to work, out scoring their opponent 47-16 in the first half. The Tigers put it in cruise in the second half, as they proceeded to win 78 – 46. The Lady Tigers out rebounded the Thunder 47- 38. Junior Katelyn Haralamos led all scorers with 24 points.
Following the Wilmington tournament, the Tigers traveled to Columbus to play the lady Crusaders of Capital. The Tigers had not defeated the Crusaders since their 2003 season. In the 2013 meeting, the Tigers dominated them by out rebounding the Crusaders 43 -35, and outscoring their opponent in the paint 32 -26. Senior Amber Rice led the Tigers in scoring with 16 points. In their game against Franklin, the Tigers were able to pull out the nail biter victory to improve to 3-1 on the season. It was a good game through out, and with four seconds left, Rice hit a jumper to go up two points. The Lady Grizzlies buzzer beating shot failed, and the Tigers prevailed 52- 50. In that game, junior Heather Schroeder led the Tigers in scoring with 18 points, and was perfect from the charity stripe on the day going 8 for 8.
The fifth game of the season, the Tigers were unable to continue their hot streak and gave one up to the Cardinals of Otterbein. The Cardinals were able to take advantage of the Tigers’ 22 turnovers and scored 24 points off of their mistakes. Furthermore, the Tigers were unable to prevent the Cardinals from getting second chance points, even though they out rebounded the Cardinals 37 – 36. On the bright side, Rice performed well, scoring 23 points, and pulling in nine rebounds. Sophomore Carli Swartz was also a big contributor in the game, scoring 14 points off the bench.
In the Tigers’ home opener, the Lady Tigers were there to put on a show. Over Thanksgiving break, the women’s basketball team was stuffing their faces with wins. November, 30th the Tigers took on Ohio Christian at Pam Evans Smith Arena. The Tigers pounced on the Trailblazers and won big 83-56. Again Rice led the Tigers in scoring, but she was not the only shining light of the game. Sophomore Ali Miller was a presence in the paint gobbling up 18 rebounds, which are the most boards by a Wittenberg player in a decade. In the Tigers latest showing, they were able to take care of business against conference rival Ohio Wesleyan. In their NCAC opener, the Tigers had their worst shooting performance of the season thus far, shooting 35.8 percent from the field. However, the Tigers were able to take advantage of the Lady Bishops’ turnovers and scored 21 points to there 10, and won 49- 34.
