Lady Quakers cruise
past the 'Berg

Smith scores 19 in first half

|Box Score|

February 11, 2006

Junior wing Erica Smith scored all 19 of her points in the first half to lead Wilmington College past Heidelberg, 82-62, in Ohio Athletic Conference action Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena.

The Lady Quakers are now 11-5 in the OAC, 16-7 overall. The 'Berg drops to 3-13 in the conference, 9-14 for the season.

Smith (Union/Northmont) played a near flawless first half, hitting all four three-pointers and all seven free throws she launched. She also pulled down three rebounds and handed out two assists — all coming in 17 minutes of play.

Smith, however, wasn't the only Lady Quaker hot early. Wilmington shot 62 percent from the field in the opening half and turned a 20-18 lead into a 39-21 advantage at the break. Amy Starks (Greenville) came off the bench to score nine first-half points. Starks finished with career highs in points (13) and rebounds (seven).

"When this team is hitting on all cylinders, we can be pretty good," WC head coach Jerry Scheve said. "It seems like this year there's always been someone missing in every big game we've had, either through an injury or someone that just didn't have a good game. Erica's kind of a streaky shooter. When that first one goes in, she's probably going to have a good day, and that's what she did today. Amy was cleared to play about 45 minutes before the game started. She was really sick and dehydrated, was sent home yesterday and told to rehyrdrate and pass the doctor's test. As we always tell the kids, you play better when you're sick, and I think she proved that today."

Wilmington extended the lead to 20 when Kelly Peters (Spencerville) scored to open the second half. After Heidelberg's Kyle Davison cut the lead back to 18 with a jumper, Katie Streck (Dayton/Carroll) scored to start a 12-0 run that ended any thoughts the 'Berg may have entertained of getting back into the game.

Scheve went to his bench early. Sixteen players saw action for Wilmington, 11 hit the scoring column. Streck scored 11 points, freshman point guard Kelly Tisci (Findlay) scored nine and Jackie Hauke (Sardinia/Whiteoak) and Peters added eight each. Morgan Harrigan led Heidelberg with 15.

Wilmington won the rebounding battle, 48-39. Peters led WC with eight boards and Smith pulled down six.

Heidelberg, which loves to shoot the three, made just seven of 31 treys (23 percent). Wilmington was eight-for-16 from downtown.

The win moves the Lady Quakers into a third-place tie with Otterbein, which lost, 81-61, at John Carroll Saturday. Wilmington will face the Cardinals 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Westerville as the all-important OAC Tournament seeding battle heats up.

"Winning the game is the major concern," Scheve said. "Otterbein is a very good team. We didn't have very many answers for them the first time (an 85-81 Otterbein win at Wilmington Dec. 7). We weren't very good defensively early this season. I think we're getting better and better defensively."