MEADVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny College women's basketball team saw 12 players figure into the scorebook and had four with double-digit points as the Gators defeated Wittenberg University, 78-68, in North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) action this afternoon.
Senior forward
Ifeyinwa Uwazie posted a double-double for Allegheny (8-5, 3-1 NCAC), tallying a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard
Candaisy Crawford completed a strong weekend individually with 14 points, six rebounds, and two steals.
Senior guard
Rachel Vigliotti dished out six assists in the victory as the Gators registered a helper on 19 of their 29 made field goals. Allegheny shot 39.7 percent (29-73) from the field and made 15 of 17 attempts from the free-throw stripe.
Another fourth-year,
Kaitlyn Fromknecht, registered five blocks on the afternoon to push her season total to 57. That number surpasses Fromknecht's previous season-high of 53 from 2014-15 as she is now nine rejections away from breaking the single-season record of 65, established in 2006-07 by Jennifer Latronica.
The Gators trailed after one quarter, 23-19, but rebounded with a 19-11 advantage in the second frame to take a 38-34 lead into halftime. Clinging to a two-point edge with 6:15 remaining in the half, Allegheny used a 9-1 run to push its lead to 10 with contributions from Vigliotti and classmate
Jessica Mrdjenovich along with freshmen
Jazmen Moore and
Emily Smith. Smith's trifecta made it 38-28 with 1:35 left in the quarter, but Wittenberg (3-7, 2-2 NCAC) answered with six straight points to close the stanza.
A quick seven-point stretch to open the second half pushed the Gators' advantage to 45-34 as Vigliotti, Crawford, and freshman guard
Delaney Arbore factored into the scoring. The Tigers cut their deficit to six points four different times during the frame but the hosts were able to carry a 57-48 lead into the fourth quarter.
Wittenberg made another effort to get back into the game as a Becca Ziska buried a three-pointer with 7:24 remaining in regulation to make it 59-55. The teams traded a pair of baskets over the next 39 seconds before Allegheny went on a 9-2 run to push its advantage to 11.
After two Tiger free-throws, senior forward
Emma Pellicano used a variety of moves in the post to score on two layups, while Uwazie added a field goal of her own to give the Gators their biggest lead of the afternoon at 76-61 with 2:30 left. Another Ziska trifecta found another Pellicano basket from Uwazie as a response, effectively putting away the game.
Arbore and Vigliotti joined Uwazie and Crawford in double figures, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Ziska led Wittenberg with a game-high 17 points.
Allegheny scored over half of its points in the paint (42), while the Tigers tallied just 26 from that area.
Next up for Allegheny is its second meeting of the season with Hiram College. The Gators will look for a season sweep of the Terriers at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
