Lady Quakers close the deal
on Otterbein

Tisci scores career-high 14

|Box Score|

February 15, 2006

WESTERVILLE — Basketball is like sales. Success may be primed at the beginning, but it is definitely delivered at the close. On Wednesday, Wilmington College emphatically closed the deal to defeat Otterbein, 72-66, and snap a third-place tie in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

Wilmington is 12-5 in the OAC, 17-7 overall. Otterbein is 11-6 in the OAC, 17-7 overall. A Wilmington win in its regular-season finale Saturday with Marietta would give the Lady Quakers the No. 3 seed in the OAC Tournament which tips off Tuesday night at Fred Raizk Arena.

With the game tied at 60-all with 5:32 to play, Kellyn Tisci (Findlay) hit a pair of free throws, followed by a Jackie Hauke (Sardinia/Whiteoak) three-pointer and two Kelly Peters (Spencerville) lay-ins and Wilmington was on its way to avenging a Dec. 7 home loss to the Cardinals. The spurt was preceded by WC head coach Jerry Scheve picking up his first technical foul in the last six years. Scheve declined comment when asked if the technical lit a fire under the team, but he was more than happy to talk about his fired-up team.

"We had a lot of players make big contributions tonight," Scheve said. "We had 10 kids play and they all played double-figure minutes, and no one played over 30 minutes. That's what I've been shooting for with this team. The first time we played Otterbein, we had two kids play 37 and another kid played 34 minutes. That's a big reason why we haven't done well at the end of games. Tonight, we closed the game as well or better than we have all year, and a big part of that is that we had fresh people on the court."

Tisci scored career-high 14 points in 20 minutes of playing time to share team honors with Katie Streck (Dayton/Carroll), who had a career night of her own on the boards with 17 rebounds. Peters scored 12 and Erica Smith (Union/Northmont) scored 10 as the Lady Quakers posted their third straight win.

"Kellyn came in and was aggressive with the basketball," Scheve said. "She made some things happen, especially in the second half. To have her along with Sam Hood (Lockbourne/Teays Valley) at the point guard position gives us two kids we know we can go to who are going to be fresh at the end of the game. Katie played a great game. She just got every rebound that was available. She dominated the defensive boards and was solid on the offensive end as well."

With the OAC Tournament looming on the horizon, Scheve is optimistic about the ongoing growth process that has defined the Lady Quakers' season — a season that may have found rock bottom when WC dropped consecutive games to Capital and John Carroll two weeks ago.

"We're not a lot better than we were then, but this team is starting to do some nice things," Scheve said. "I've said all along that I felt we were going to get better as the year went on and our bench developed. Hopefully, we're going to be able to carry this on."

Wilmington, one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, won the battle on the boards, 52-41. Hauke and Smith hit a pair of treys as Wilmington connected on six of 16 three-pointers while Otterbein made just two of 16 from long distance.

Wilmington and Marietta will tip-off 3 p.m. Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena. Senior Shawna Thomas, who will be playing her final regular-season home game at WC, will be honored as part of Senior Day festivities.