Lady Quakers sting Hornets, 90-46

WC to face No. 14 Hope today

|Box Score|

December 29, 2005

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kelly Peters scored 26 points and pulled down six rebounds as Wilmington College routed host Kalamazoo College, 90-46, in first-round play of the Kalamazoo Klassic Thursday. The Lady Quakers' win sets up a 2 p.m. championship game showdown with Hope College today. The No. 14 Flying Dutch squeaked past Franklin College, 72-70, in Thursday's other first-round game.

Wilmington (8-2) took drama out of the equation early against the Hornets by hitting 61 percent of its first-half shots en route to a 52-29 advantage at the intermission.

The Lady Quakers continued to shoot well and continued to pull away from the outmanned Hornets (4-5) in the second half. Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve went to his bench early and often with glowing results as WC's non-starters combined for 41 points. Senior Shawna Thomas scored 14 points, hitting on seven of eight shots from the field. Abby Newhouse added eight and Amy Starks and Katie Streck scored six each. Twelve of the thirteen Wilmington players who saw action scored.

Wilmington's defense continues to show signs of improvement. The Lady Quakers recorded 19 steals and forced 30 turnovers. Gina Hyle dished out a game-high six assists for WC. For the game Wilmington totaled 29 assists while Kalamazoo made just 16 field goals and shot 29 percent from the field.

"When we came back after Christmas, the first words out of my mouth were iif we want to become a good team, we've got to improve defensively," Scheve said. "We don't talk about statistics very much, but we showed the team OAC statistics this year and past years of where we stood. We showed them that we are able to score and rebound, but compared to the last three years when we led the league in field goal percentage defense, this year we're nowhere close to that, and that has to be our focus."

Today's game with Hope will be a re-match of two NCAA Sweet 16 national tournament games. In 2002 Wilmington defeated the Flying Dutch, 89-81, to advance to the Elite Eight. The following year Hope returned the favor, beating the Lady Quakers, 77-73. Scheve said those games will be on his mind today as his squad takes the floor, but the immediate importance of the matchup will be his team's focus.

"It's a very important game," Scheve said. "Our kids know that. They know that Hope is a team that is going to be in the national tournament at the end of the year. We know that we've kind of put ourselves in the hole a little bit with a couple of our losses, but this game — particularly with an expanded field this year — could be very important to our chances at the end of the year."