As the season winds down, the Wilmington College women's basketball team looks to right itself in time for an Ohio Athletic Conference tournament run. With four games remaining, Wednesday's meeting with Otterbein at Fred Raizk Arena at Hermann Court could go a long way to re-establishing a proper frame of mind.
"We have to get back on the winning track," said Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve. "I thought last week against Capital we didn't play particularly well, but we were much better Saturday. Our practices this week have been very good as well. We are headed in the right direction. Otterbein is a huge game for seeding purposes, but more importantly, to get us back in the winning frame of mind.
"We are coming off of a couple tough losses and we need to get back on track," Scheve continued. "Otterbein is a quality team. It's team up there in which we had a great shooting night. But we have shown that we're not a consistent shooting team, so we have to continue to work on all parts of our game.
For as bad as Wilmington wants to get back to its winning ways of a couple weeks ago, the Cardinals are merely working to earn a spot in the OAC tournament. Otterbein (7-14 overall, 3-11 OAC) is currently tied for ninth place with only room for eight in the postseason tournament, and on a four-game losing streak. A loss Wednesday would put a severe damper on any hopes of extending its year past the regular season.
Otterbein features the inside duo of junior Tabatha Piper and sophomore Amariah Huck, who are leading the Cardinals with 27 points and 16.1 rebounds per game. They are one of two sets of teammates ranked in the top 10 in scoring in the league. Huck is sixth and Piper, the league's leading rebounder (9.8), is ninth in scoring.
"(Their post players) are all players that can hurt you inside, but can also go outside," said Scheve. "They all shoot well from the outside. They have a great point guard that gets them the ball. Their perimeter shooting has improved dramatically over the last 10-12 games to were you really have to respect their outside shooters."
One of those shooters, Mary Corbett, scored what was at that time a career-high 16 points in the first meeting. Including the first Wilmington game, Corbett is shooting 47 percent from beyond the arc in the last eight games. She tallied a career-high 27, including 5-of-7 from three-point land, to score a career-high 27 points on January 25.
Point guard Chelsea Reed is another key member of the Otterbein lineup, leading the team with 106 assists – more than twice as many as the nearest teammate. In addition, she is scoring 9.8 points per game.