MARIETTA – The Wilmington College women's basketball team went small midway through the second half, and it turned into a game-changing 16-0 run as the Fightin' Quakers defeated Marietta Saturday, 71-60, in Ohio Athletic Conference action.
It was the first road game for Wilmington this season.
"Defensively I thought we played well the entire game and offensively, we were making a ton of mistakes; turning the ball over," said Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve. "I thought we kept playing hard. Midway through second half we made a couple of shots, got a couple of steals, and took it at them for a six-minute period. We really picked up our defensive pressure, got some easy baskets and made a couple three's."
While it was the aforementioned run that provided the exclamation point to the victory, it was the work done in the early portion of the second half that was the structure of the win.
Wilmington trimmed its 10-point first-half deficit to four points as the first half ended, but Marietta pushed its advantage back to double figures on several occasions in the second half. Each time the WC deficit grew, the Fightin' Quakers turned to their defense to prevent the lead from swelling much past 10.
Eventually, Wilmington dished out a couple body blows to pull to within four, and delivered the knockout blow with the 16-0 run.
"We had a really quick team in there that played hard, and I think we wore Marietta down a little bit," said Scheve.
Senior Courtney Tucker (Cincinnati, OH/Sycamore) shook off her worst offensive performance of the season to record her second double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
"Courtney probably played as well as she ever played for an extended period," said Scheve.
Sophomore Mary Moyer (Martinsville, OH/Clinton-Massie) finished with 12 points and six rebounds, while senior Kirsten Glick (Arcadia, OH/Arcadia) finished with 10 boards and seven points.
Wilmington (6-0 overall, 2-0 OAC) will take a week off for exams before returning to the home hardwood 3 p.m. Saturday, December 13 to host John Carroll.
"I just want them looking at exams for the next few days, and worry about our next game later," said Scheve.