NCAC TOURNAMENT SITE
GAMBIER, Ohio – For the tenth straight season, the Kenyon College women's basketball team will play a first-round postseason game at home. Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Tomsich Arena, the Ladies will entertain the Wittenberg University Tigers in the eight-team 2014 North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
Kenyon (15-9 overall, 10-6 NCAC) enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed, while Wittenberg (14-10 overall, 9-7 NCAC) will play as the fifth seed. The two teams met twice during the regular season and each won on its home court. On January 22, the Tigers dealt the Ladies a 61-47 defeat in Springfield, Ohio. On February 19, the Ladies returned the favor, claiming a 74-59 win in Gambier. Since these two teams first met in the 1987-88 season, Wittenberg holds a 40-16 advantage in the all-time series. In NCAC Tournament action, the teams met five previous times and Wittenberg came out victorious three of those times.
The Ladies will attack with the senior duo of
Maggie Boelter and
Maureen Hirt. Boelter, a senior point guard, has 59 three-pointers this season and ranks second in the NCAC with 95 assists. She averages 12.8 points per game and also grabs 3.4 rebounds per contest. Hirt, a shooting guard who sometimes plays like a small forward due to the Ladies' lack of height, is a scoring machine. She leads the conference with a scoring average of 19.1 points per game. She also ranks 14th in NCAA Division III with a .439 three-point shooting percentage and second in Division III with a .913 free throw shooting percentage. Since facing Wittenberg the first time this season, Hirt has made 22 consecutive free throws.
Hirt, who stands just 16 points shy of tying the Kenyon career scoring mark, has a combined 45 points in this season's two previous games against Wittenberg. During the game in Gambier, she buried 7-of-10 three-point attempts and scored 30.
As a team, the Ladies are solid shooters. They rank second in the conference in field goal percentage (.439) and three-point field goal percentage (.380). They rank first in three-point field goals made (184) and assists (395). In four of their last six games, the Ladies have shot 50 percent or better from beyond the three-point arc.
Wittenberg, a team that possess good size, ranks third in the NCAC in scoring defense (56.0 ppg) and rebounding margin (+3.9). The Tigers also rank first in three-point field goal percentage defense (.247) and second in overall field goal percentage defense (.352).
On an individual basis, Amber Rice can shoot the long ball with the best of them. The Tigers' senior wing is 66-of-149 from three-point territory and ranks 13th in the nation with a .443 three-point shooting percentage. She hit four treys in the Tigers' last game against Kenyon and ended up scoring 20 points. Rice has a season average of 17.2 points per game and is complemented by 10.3 points per game from Katelyn Haralamos and 9.7 points per game from Heather Schroeder.
As mandated by the NCAC, tickets for Tuesday's game will be $7 for adults, $5 for children (18 and under), students without a valid ID, and anyone with an NCAC guest pass. Any NCAC student with a valid school ID will be admitted free of charge.
