“We had a 17-point lead with a minute to go in the first half, and didn’t close the half the right way,” said Tigers coach Darren Hertz. “We just couldn’t quite find the rhythm offensively in the second half, and didn’t guard the 3-point line real well in the second half, which was a huge key in the game. We did a pretty good job in the first half, but eight threes in the second half will hurt you.”
Credit: Michael Cooper
Eddie Brown had 13 points and Cal Bavineau added 10 for the Tigers, who had won nine straight since a season-opening loss at Otterbein.
The Tigers, who hadn’t lost at home this season, led by 16 points with about 16 minutes remaining, but Asbury went on an 11-3 run to tie the game at 56 with less than two minutes go to. Wittenberg’s Scott Dawson hit one of two free throws with 18 seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 57-56 lead before Combs’ last-second shot.
Wittenberg shot 33.3 percent in the second half and had 17 turnovers for the game.
“I thought we played OK on offense in the first half and we had opportunities to do even more damage, but the turnovers were a problem,” Hertz said. “We turned the ball over too much in both halves, and again, we still had a 12-point lead at the half because of our defense. Our defense was not there in the second half, especially down the stretch, just didn’t do a good enough job guarding their actions, guarding some of their ball screens, and gave up too many open shots. And to their credit, Asbury’s credit, they knocked them down.”
They’ll begin a stretch of 14 consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference games beginning this weekend. The Tigers host rival Wooster at 7 p.m. Saturday night in Springfield.
“We try to talk about maxing out our potential as individuals and as a team, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Hertz said. “We hadn’t reached that during the winning streak we had, we certainly didn’t reach that today. So we’ve tried to just address our approach to each game. Each game is a game in itself. We’re just trying to get better each game. Clearly took a step back today, but we’ll get right back to work and hopefully be a much better basketball team over the next few days.
“At the same time, what’s good about sports and good about basketball is it’s a microcosm of life,” Hertz said. “And so this is today. There’s some adversity. We had adversity during the game. At times, handled it well. At other times, didn’t. And now we’ll see what we’re made of.”
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