Lady Quakers rout Muskies

Five players hit double figures

|Box Score|

January 11, 2006

NEW CONCORD — Wilmington College erupted for 53 second-half points as the Lady Quakers routed Muskingum, 92-62, in Ohio Athletic Conference action Wednesday. Wilmington moves to 5-2 in the OAC, 10-4 overall. Muskingum falls to 0-7 in conference play, 2-12 for the season.

Coming off an overtime loss to OAC-leading Baldwin-Wallace, the Lady Quakers built a 37-23 first-half lead when Kelly Peters (Spencerville) scored off a Gina Hyle (Lawrenceburg, Ind./McAuley) assist at 3:12. Muskingum mustered a 7-2 rally, capped by a Tapre Young three-pointer at the buzzer, to cut WC's lead to 39-30 at the half.

"I was disappointed with how we played in the first half," WC head coach Jerry Scheve said. "I don't think we had a lot of energy, similar to how we played B-W on Saturday. But I was very happy with how we played in the second half."

Erica Smith (Union/Northmont), in her strongest performance since returning from an injury, hit a trey to open the second half, and the flood was coming. Sam Hood (Lockbourne/Teays Valley) stuck a jumper, and the lead was 14. Shawna Thomas (Middletown) hit a layup at 12:55 to put the Lady Quakers up, 63-43.

When Wilmington did miss a shot, the Lady Quakers swarmed the offensive board. For the game WC out-rebounded the Muskies, 55-26. Seventeen of Wilmington's rebounds came off the offensive board. Scheve singled out the play of Smith, Thomas and Jackie Hauke (Sardinia/Whiteoak). On the team level, he pointed to the squad's work on the boards.

"I was really happy with our offensive rebounding," Scheve said. "Our perimeter players got a lot of them. I've always told them that's the key. I know our post players are going to try to get offensive rebounds. Saturday, against Baldwin-Wallace, our perimeter players just stared at our shots all game, didn't have any offensive rebounds the entire game. Tonight, they really changed that, and that's what is important to me. When we're a good rebounding team, it's because we've got perimeter players doing their job on both ends of the court."

Peters, who hit seven of 11 shots from the field, led five Lady Quakers in double figures with 16 points. Katie Streck (Dayton/Carroll) scored 14, Smith finished with 13, Thomas contributed 12, Hood scored 11 and Hauke added eight. For the game, Wilmington made 51 percent of its field-goal attempts while holding Muskingum to 38-percent shooting. Streck and Hauke pulled down seven rebounds each. Hood, who ranks second in the nation in assists, handed out seven, one below her per-game average. Wilmington turned the ball over 20 times to Muskingum's 17, but the Lady Quakers scored 24 points off turnovers to the Muskies' 10.

The Lady Quakers are home Saturday with Mount Union providing the OAC competition. Tip-off at Fred Raizk Arena is 3 p.m.