Women's Basketball Upended By Wittenberg
Dec 28, 2018
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The University of Dubuque women's basketball team had the lead midway through the first quarter on Friday afternoon against Wittenberg, but ended up falling to the Tigers at the Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Tournament, 89-58.
Both offenses got off to a slow start on Friday afternoon as two points scored in first two and a half minutes and a combined seven over the first three and a half. Both teams then seemed to find their rhythm as Wittenberg jumped out to a seven point lead at the halfway point of the first quarter. The Spartans were quick to race back and took their first lead of the contest after a Lexi Daniels three pointer with 3:03 remaining in the quarter. However, Wittenberg regained their lead two possessions later after a three pointer of their own and held on to that lead for the remainder of the first half, slowly extending it all the way to 16 points by halftime
Lexi Daniels led the Spartans at halftime with 12 points, coming off of four three pointers, three of which came in the first quarter.
The turnover bug that bit the Spartans in the first half carried over to the second and prevented the Spartans from making any run in the second half. After 16 first half turnovers, the Spartans committed 17 more in the second leading to 45 points off turnover for the game for Wittenberg. The Spartans did shoot the ball well for the game, making 40.4% (19-47) of their shots from the field, including 60.0% (9-15) from beyond the arc.
Abigail Zurcher led the Spartans in scoring against Wittenburg, finishing with 14 points on 3-4 shooting from the field, all her makes being from three and 5-6 from the free throw line. Despite not scoring in the second half, Daniels still finished second on the team with 12 points and Kia Dwight also reached double figures with 10 points of her own.
Freshman Miah Smith came away with a staggering 15 rebounds, a game-high from either team.
The UD women close out the Charles B. Zimmer Memorial Tournament on Saturday at 11 a.m. against the loser of the Heidelberg vs. Kalamazoo matchup later on Friday afternoon.
