Lady Quakers dropped
by Crusaders' comeback

Smith scores 18; Peters has double-double

|Box Score|

February 1 , 2006

Wilmington College was unable to hold a 28-point lead as the 23rd-ranked Lady Quakers fell to No. 20 Capital, 73-71, in OAC action Wednesday at Fred Raizk Arena. Wilmington drops to 9-4 in the OAC, 14-6 overall. Capital is now 10-3 in the conference, 17-3 overall.

The Lady Quakers threatened to put the game away early. In the opening six minutes, Erica Smith (Union/Northmont) hit four three-pointers and Jackie Hauke drilled a pair of treys as WC bolted to a 20-2 lead over a shellshocked Capital squad.

The Crusaders tried to stop the bleeding with timeouts, but Wilmington continued to expand the lead. Sam Hood (Lockbourne/Teays Valley) hit a pair of free throws at 3:57 to give the Lady Quakers a 39-11 lead. Sara Heitkamp single-handedly kept the Crusaders in the game, scoring her team's final nine points of the half. At the break, Wilmington led, 43-20.

"We started the game real well. I was really proud how we came out and played a great first half," WC head coach Jerry Scheve said. "But at halftime, we told them that this team had beaten us on our home court with this big a lead before and that this game wasn't anywhere near over."

Hood buried a trey as Wilmington pushed the margin to 51-24 with 17:36 to play, but Capital turned up its defensive pressure and began climbing a 27-point hill. As the Crusaders heated up from the perimeter, the Lady Quakers went cold. After connecting on 11 of its first 17 three-pointers, Wilmington missed nine straight from beyond the arc in the game's final 11:18.

"We don't want to shoot 23 threes in a game," Scheve said. "Our strength is to get the ball inside and make things happen from there. We were shooting so well from the beginning that I think we became too dependent on it. We were really tentative the whole second half. Instead of trying to build on our lead, it seemed we were just holding on. Then we made some poor decisions and at the end didn't take care of the basketball well enough."

Led by Heitkamp's endless effort, Capital forced Wilmington into 16 second-half turnovers and allowed the Lady Quakers just two points over the final 3:39. After a Daniele Manalac jumper and Kati Todd free throw pulled Capital to within 69-61 at 2:58, Heitkamp ended the game as she did the first half, scoring her team's final 12 points, including a trey to tie the game with 38 seconds to play and the game-winning shot with three seconds remaining.

For the Lady Quakers, the loss is softened by precedence. In the 2003-04 season, Capital overcame a 23-point second-half deficit to defeat WC, 74-71, at Fred Raizk Arena. Wilmington's answer to that disappointing loss was to win the national championship.

"I think this game is going to define this team," Scheve said. "It can make us better or it can send us in the other direction. It's up to each and every one of them and each and every one of the coaches to turn this game into a positive. It's something we did a couple years ago, and hopefully we can do it again."

Smith led Wilmington with 18 points, Hauke scored 16, Hood added 11 and Kelly Peters (Spencerville) turned in another double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Katie Streck added eight points and seven rebounds for WC. For the game, Wilmington out-rebounded Capital, 57-29. Heitkamp led all scorers with 28.

The Lady Quakers are at John Carroll Saturday.