WC ends regular season with
77-68 win over Marietta

WC to host Mount Union in OAC tourney

|Box Score|

February 18, 2006

Despite leaving their "A" game at home, the Wilmington College Lady Quakers had enough to hold off a determined Marietta squad, 77-68, in Ohio Athletic Conference action Saturday at Fred Raizk Arena. The win ends Wilmington's regular season at 13-5 in the OAC, 18-7 overall. Marietta's season ends at 3-15 in the conference, 6-19 overall.

Wilmington is the No. 3 seed in the OAC Tournament and will host No. 6 Mount Union 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Marietta needed to beat WC to keep alive its chances of garnering the eighth and final seed in the conference tournament. The advantage of incentive was certainly on the Pioneers' side.

"I tried to convince our kids that this was a huge game for Marietta, that they have been playing better and better and have beaten some very good teams," WC head coach Jerry Scheve said. "They were playing for their playoff lives and wanted to keep playing."

The Lady Quakers appeared to have heeded Scheve's warning as they bolted to a 12-2 lead three minutes into the game. Marietta, aided by seven Wilmington turnovers over the next seven minutes, outscored the Lady Quakers 20-4 to take a 22-16 lead at 9:40.

"Getting that 12-2 lead was probably the worst thing we could have done in this game," Scheve said. "For whatever reason, I think it just affected our energy level and our concentration on what we were doing. We just played a very, very sloppy game against a team that was playing very, very hard. You put those two things together and it's not a pretty sight."

Down six at 6:00, WC got three baskets from Kelly Peters (Spencerville) and a trey from Anne Haky (North Olmsted/Bay Village) to finish the half on a 14-4 roll and take a 36-32 lead at the break. Jackie Hauke (Sardinia/Whiteoak) extended WC's lead to nine with a trey opening the second half. Gina Hyle (Lawrenceburg, Ind./McAuley) scored to give WC a 48-35 advantage at 15:52, but Marietta refused to go away. Sara Burns and Justine Pagenhardt both scored 12 second-half points to keep the Pioneers in the game.

Katie Streck (Dayton/Carroll), who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, scored 12 points in the second stanza. Her assist on Sam Hood's three-pointer gave WC a 75-60 lead at 2:22 and the issue was decided.

"This win represents our first four-game winning streak of the year," Scheve said. "We really wanted that, to go into the tournament with some momentum. It doesn't feel that good right now, but the longer you coach, the more you appreciate that a win is a win. I think we're going into the tournament with some confidence. We're going to need that. With Capital winning at Baldwin-Wallace Friday, it shows that anybody in this league can be beaten. We hope to be the team that gets it done next week."

Peters led Wilmington with 15 points and nine rebounds. Streck finished with 14 points, Hood (Lockbourne/Teays Valley) scored 12 and Hyle added eight. Senior Shawna Thomas (Middletown), in her final regular-season game at Fred Raizk Arena, scored two points.

Wilmington defeated Mount Union twice in the regular season, but both games were tough. The Lady Quakers pulled away from the Raiders in a 55-43 win at Fred Raizk Arena Jan. 14 and needed some heroics from Peters to nip the Raiders in double overtime, 79-73, Jan. 28.

In addition to the Wilmington-Mount Union game Tuesday, No. 1 seed Baldwin-Wallace will host No. 8 Heidelberg, No. 2 Capital will be home with No. 7 Ohio Northern and No. 5 John Carroll is a No. 4 Otterbein. The semifinals will be Thursday and the championship game Saturday. The highest seed in the bracket will host.