Thursday, January 25, 2007
The Titans improved to 5-1 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Shaking off a cold start, the Westminster Titans finally got things rolling during the final 25 minutes to pull away for a 73-41 win over the Thiel Tomcats at the Rissell-Beeghly Gymnasia Wednesday night.
"You have to give Thiel a lot of credit for our slow start," said Westminster coach Rosanne Scott. "They came out, got in our face, played aggressive defense and that kind of took us out of our rhythm. We didn't score for I don't know how long, but from where I was sitting, it seemed like forever."
The Tomcats (6-11, 1-5 Presidents' Athletic Conference) hustled their way to a 7-0 lead during the first four minutes, a lead they extended to 13-4 on a pair of 3s by Jena Cook.
Trailing by nine points, the Titans (13-4, 5-1) came alive to rip off 10 unanswered points to take a 14-13 lead before Jasmin Jones tied the game at 14-all with a free throw.
Following the 14-all tie, the Titans kept their scoring efforts moving as they scored five unanswered points on the front end of a 9-1 run to lead by their biggest margin of the first half at 23-15.
Still trailing by eight inside of two minutes, Thiel cut the Westminster lead to just four points at halftime on buckets by Catie Seiber and Nicole Valentino (Sharon).
Rebounding edge
One big edge the Titans held in the first half was off the boards (27-16), and things didn't get any better for the Tomcats in the first few minutes of the second period as the Titans controlled the glass on both ends of the floor to build their lead back to nine at 35-26.
For the game, Westminster showed their domination off the glass, outrebounding the Tomcats by a 59-34 margin.
"Our goal going into the game was to get 18 offensive rebounds," said Scott. "We finished with 20 and that is one area we thought we could take advantage of after watching the films. We did a good job crashing the boards and that allowed us to get a lot of second-chance points."
Following a 3-pointer by Diana Schell, things got even worse for Thiel as the Titans ripped off 15 points in a row to lead by 48-26 and they never looked back.
"I thought we did a good job of settling down in the second half," Scott said. "Last year we had a lot of problems getting started in the second half, but this year, we have done a much better job of doing that."
Leaders
Leading the Titans to their decisive win was junior forward Emilee Ackerman. All Ackerman did during the game was score 22 points, yank down 13 rebounds, dish out two assists, block two shots and come up with four steals.
"She has been big for us all year and every night she comes ready to play the game," praised Scott. "They [Thiel] were keying on her and tried to get physical with her but she hung in there and was more than ready for that challenge. When she is as consistent as she has been, it makes my job of coaching a whole lot easier."
Joining Ackerman in doubles for the Titans were Nicole Fee with 11 points and Desiree Sterling (Newton Falls) with 10. Sterling also added seven rebounds, five assists and a steal to her 10 points off the bench.
For Thiel, Schell led all scorers with 11 points.