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On this date in area sports history …
Sixteen years ago on this date, Jan. 9, 1993, the Wittenberg men’s basketball 59-game regular-season winning streak at home ended against Allegheny. Complete story on the jump.
Published Jan. 10, 1993
GATORS GOBBLE UP TIGERS’ STREAK
WITT’S SUCCESSFUL RUN AT HOME SCREECHES TO HALT
By Rob Oller, Sports Writer
One more little shove, one hack, one foul and Wittenberg’s regular season home winning streak might still be alive.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, Derrick Owens finished with four fouls, not five.
One more foul and Owens would have had a towel draped over his head on the Allegheny bench. Instead, the senior was hitting big shots near the end of the Gators’ huge 66-57 victory over Wittenberg that snapped the Tigers’ HPER Center consecutive victory run at 59.
The last WU home regular-season defeat came on Jan. 20, 1988, a 69-62 loss against Heidelberg.
Saturday’s setback before 1,692 fans also was the first time Wittenberg lost at home to a North Coast Athletic Conference opponent, ending a 23-game roll.
It also dropped the Tigers, 9-3 and 5-1, into second place in the NCAC behind Allegheny, which improved to 10-2 and 6-0.
A bad day? You could say that.
“There were a lot of what-ifs,” said a quiet Matt Croci, who led the Tigers with 21 points. “The problem is you can’t rely on those to win.”
That the streaks died at the hands of the Gators is appropriate. It was three seasons ago that Allegheny ended the Tigers’ consecutive winning streak at 18. That game was at Meadville, Pa., and the Gators rallied from 19 points down in the second half to win, 60-57, dropping Wittenberg to 18-1.
This time there were two comebacks, neither as dramatic as the Miracle in Meadville, but both just as effective.
First, the Gators bounced back from a nine-point deficit early in the second half after benefiting from a controversial intentional foul call on Tiger freshman Anthony Robinson.
Allegheny trailed 38-31 with 16:43 remaining when referee Jim Reichert whistled that Robinson purposely fouled T.J. Florkiewicz as the Gator raced toward a breakaway layup.
Florkiewicz, who tossed in 11 points, buried both free throws to make it 38-33. Allegheny got the ball back because of the foul and Jason Lee was hacked and sank two more freebies to make it 38-35.
“I thought Anthony got all ball,” Tigers’ Coach Dan Hipsher fumed.
The second Allegheny comeback was the return of Owens from the bench. The 6-foot-0 guard from Akron left the game with his fourth foul at 14:20 with his team trailing, 42-39. He returned with seven minutes remaining and Allegheny only down two, at 51-49.
At that point, Owens knew he’d have to cool it on defense.
“You don’t do what you’d been doing before,” he chuckled, describing how he played the final seven minutes knowing one foul would bring his exit.
“You have to back off, contain instead of harass,” he added.
The Gators tied it at 51-all and went ahead 53-51 on a bucket and two free throws by Josh Miller, who finished with 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting, before Wittenberg’s Josh Leslie tied it at 53-all on a double pump, 15-foot jumper with 4:10 showing.
Owens then went to work, scoring six points in just 33 seconds to give the Gators a 59-53 advantage with 3:03 to play. He drove the lane for a layup, was fouled by Chris Wolfe and canned the bonus foul shot. Moments later, he buried a three-pointer from the top of the key.
“I heard coach yell, `No, no,’ but it felt good coming off my hands. It was a real feeling shot,” said Owens, who had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and handed off six assists.
“One more foul on Derrick and it would have been disaster,” Ness laughed. “But that’s what makes basketball so exciting.”
Wittenberg kept it exciting pretty much to the end.
John Burns, slowed by mononucleosis, nailed a 12-foot, pull-up jumper with 2:12 showing to cut it to 59-55, but Florkiewicz sank a free throw to push it back to 60-55 and suddenly the Tigers’ win streak was in jeopardy.
Not that any of the Tigers noticed - or admitted noticing.
“I didn’t know what the streak was,” Croci said. “They got hot at the right time and we got cold at the wrong time. That was it.”
Luke Ragan, who had 12 points, drew Wittenberg to within 60-57 at 1:04, but during the final 60 seconds the Tigers failed to score, fumbling and bumbling away their chances.
Allegheny’s Joe Wall went to the foul line for two attempts with 55 seconds left and missed both, but Wittenberg couldn’t pull down the rebound.
Florkiewicz, who plays defensive end on the Gator football team, recovered the loose ball like it was on the goal line and was fouled by Ragan with 42 seconds remaining. The 6-4, 210-pound senior buried both free throws to make it 62-57.
Croci traveled on the Tigers’ next possession and Lee canned two free throws after Robinson fouled him with 26 ticks left.
The score was 64-57 and WU was in melt down. The Tigers turned it over with 15 seconds left and Lee finished the scoring with two more free throws.
“We fumbled the ball and were not getting rebounds when we needed them,” Hipsher muttered. “We try to pull a miracle off and we don’t even pull a rebound down.
“I feel maybe I’m not doing a good job helping them get the offense going.”
Leslie said it was the players, not the coach, who missed the shots.
“We didn't come out aggressive enough,” said Leslie, a Greeneview graduate who finished with a career-high 10 points. “We had a couple of light practices because we thought we needed fresh legs, but that's part of being a young team.
“Allegheny played tough and wanted to win more. I hate saying that.”
But the Gators love hearing it.
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