By Dominick DiRienzo
February 7, 2010 — A four-point Allegheny halftime lead crumbled under the pressure of a strong Wittenberg inside game and a perfectly timed full-court press Saturday at the Wise Center.
The Tigers rolled to a 69-57 win, their 13th straight North Coast Athletic Conference win, over the Gators, who were playing for the second time in two days. Allegheny beat Earlham, 71-46, in another NCAC contest Friday night.
The Gators (9-12, 6-6 NCAC) are chasing the fourth spot in the NCAC standings to get a home game in the first round of the conference tournament. The Gators play three of their next four on the road, but play two against teams ahead of them in the standings.
“That’s our goal right now, to get a home playoff game,” Allegheny coach Kate Costanzo said. “I feel like we are starting to play our best basketball right now.”
It looked like that would continue through the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s game.
Wittenberg opened the game by scoring the first six points, but the Gators withstood that charge and came barreling back. Allegheny took the lead on a Lauren Donahoe jumper, 13-12, with 11:58 left in the first half. The Gators stretched that lead to 27-23 at halftime. Allegheny generated eight points off turnovers and the Gators’ bench came up big with 12 points, led by Shannon Culbreath’s eight points.
The two teams went back-and-forth early in the second half. The scored was tied five times, the last time on a 3-pointer by Allegheny’s Brittany Bell, which made it 40-all with 10:35 left.
Bell finished with a team-high 17 points.
“Brittany Bell played awesome,” Costanzo said. “(She was) doing a lot of unmentionables, getting good touches moving without the ball.”
From there the Tigers (15-6, 13-0 NCAC) built their lead to 59-49 and Allegheny helped them do that by going 4 of 13 from the floor with four turnovers and a 2-for-4 slate at the free throw line.
“We were having trouble keeping them away from the hoop. I felt like all the balls were bouncing their way. We missed a lot of easy buckets in the second half and that’s another thing you can’t do against a team like Witt,” Costanzo said. “I thought we missed too many easy buckets and we missed too many free throws you can’t afford to miss in a game like this.”
With about eight minutes left in the game, Wittenberg started to pound Allegheny on the inside.
“In the second half we had more of an attacking mentality. I didn’t think we played our game in the first half,” Wittenberg coach Sarah Jurewicz said. “I think we came out a little lackadaisical. I think in the second half we were more aggressive offensively and defensively.”
Much of the Tiger aggression was directed down low. Wittenberg outscored Allegheny in the paint, 22-10, in the second half.
With Gators hanging on by a thread, the Tigers went to a full-court press and Carrie Dyer sliced the Gator defense with a couple nice drives that ended in layups.
“The full-court pressure was perfect timing on their part. It rattled us just when we needed to be rattled,” Costanzo said. “That was a great move.”
Dyer, who came in averaging 12.1 points, finished with a game-high 18 points. Stephanie Boardman entered the game averaging 17.8 points and scored 16.
“When we started to recognize we could get to the paint successfully, we said, ‘All right let’s just keep attacking,’” Jurewicz said. “Carrie found a couple of those openings which was really nice for us. Stephanie Boardman was posting up really nice for us.”
While the Tigers were getting expected contributions from their first- and second-leading scorer, Jurewicz said two role players had good afternoons.
“Lauren Cassel and Lyndsey Clark Those two as role players played some key minutes for us,” Jurewicz said.
Clark had four rebounds, one of Wittenberg’s three assists and two points in seven minutes. Cassel had six points, a steal and a rebound in 13 minutes.
“They did a tremendous job,” Jurewicz said.
