If defense wins championships, it was a championship effort on the Fred Raizk Arena court Monday as the Wilmington College women's basketball team kicked off its Ohio Athletic Conference tournament run with a 57-51 victory over Heidelberg in the first round of the OAC tournament.
"I thought we played really hard in both halves, and not once during the entire game did we start making shots," said Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve. "The real difference is Heidelberg just didn't make any shots in the second half. I don't think it was us playing better because I thought we played pretty good in the first half in the terms of what we were doing, and they made some tough shots. They didn't make those tough shots in the second half. Our defense was strong the whole game."
Wilmington held the Student Princes without a basket for more than 12 minutes in the second half in taking control of the game. After not leading at any point of the first half, the defensive lockdown enabled WC to go from down four to up 10 on the strength of an 18-4 run. It was the first time Wilmington led, and they didn't relinquish.
"Once we got the lead; that was a big boost for us," said Scheve. "We kept our composure down the stretch. We didn't make free throws the way I would like, but we didn't turn the ball over down the stretch. So I was happy with the way we finished the game."
Long-range shooting helped the 'Berg take the first half lead, and then helped them crawl back into the game late. Heidelberg made six three-pointers (6-of-10) in the first half, and then hit two in an 8-0 spurt that pulled them to within two. Over the final 20 minutes, the Student Princes was just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc.
However, the defense tighten and Wilmington iced the game from the charity stripe. The Fightin' Quakers were 23-of-31 (74.2 percent) from the line.
Junior Courtney Tucker (Cincinnati, OH/Sycamore) was the lynchpin in Wilmington's defensive game plan. The guard was the primary defender on the OAC's second-leading scorer Kathleen Phillips, and held the scoring threat to just nine points. It was just the second time this season Phillips, who averaged 22.9 points per game, was held under double figures.
"(Phillips) has to be in fabulous condition because she never stops out there, which means Courtney never stopped," said Scheve. "She moves without the ball probably better than anybody I've coached against and needless to say, she is extremely good when she has the ball. She was a senior playing her last game, and she gave everything she had. I think Courtney deserves a huge amount of credit for how she guarded her.
"Brittaney (Jefferson) and Spencer (Robles) did a good job on (senior forward Molly) Schriber tonight," Scheve continued. "She hit a couple tough shots to start the game, but didn't do anything after that. Those are the two people we didn't want to go off, and we held them both to single digits. I thought that was the key."
Senior Haley Howard (Uhrichville, OH/New Philadelphia) led Wilmington with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 10 rebounds and three steals, while senior Makenzie Wippel (Orient, OH/Westfall) shook of a slow shooting night to post 11 points.
Freshman Hannah Haeseker (Germantown, OH/Valley View) added six points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
Wilmington (13-13) returns to the court 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the second round of the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament at Capital. The Crusaders swept the season series.
