Box Score COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Shelby Sigman featured a hot hand in Capital University's 75-70 win over Wilmington College Wednesday night at the Capital Center. The junior set a new career high with 18 points and was perfect from behind the arc as the Crusaders improve to 9-9 overall and 5-6 in Ohio Athletic Conference play.
Sigman, a Bellbrook, Ohio native, led a first-half Crusaders charge by hitting all three of her 3-point attempts, the final of the set putting Capital up 27-18 near the midway point. She hit back-to-back threes earlier in the period to jumpstart the Crusaders' offense.
The Crusaders enjoyed as large a lead as 10 points, in part due to a defense that forced 11 Wilmington turnovers and junior guard Simonne Gage (Dayton, Ohio) dishing out six assists to open up the offense in the first half. She and fellow junior Nina Napolitano (Akron, Ohio) ripped away three steals in the opening frame and continued to pour on that pressure around the perimeter for the duration of the contest.
The Quakers were not without fight, trimming their double-digit deficit to as few as three points. They upped their shooting percentage by nearly 20 percent from the first to second half, shooting north of 50 percent from the field in the second stanza. Led by Ellie Kivell's 14 second-half points, Wilmington made things interesting not once, but twice as the half progressed.
Sigman hit her fourth 3-pointer of the night to help cause another Capital run to increase their lead to 10, 47-37, upon Shelby Sheets' successful drive to the bucket. Mary Moyer and Brittaney Jefferson cut that lead in half with less than eight minutes to go and as their long-range shooting heated up, the Crusaders watched their lead dwindle to just two points with 5:05 remaining. It marked the second time Wilmington erased such a deficit to contend.
However, a 10-1 run over the next three minutes help dishevel the Quakers and induce a free-throw shooting competition down the stretch. Capital converted 12 of their last 16 attempts from the charity stripe and each of their last 10 to pull away.
Sigman doubled her previous career high of nine points, totaling 18 on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. She also added two rebounds and two assists.
Sophomore forward Colleen Fondessy (Fostoria, Ohio) had her best game of the season, pitching in 10 points in 18 minutes of play. She shot 4-for-8 from field goal range and added a block plus a pair of rebounds.
Sigman and Fondessy were two of four Crusaders to score in double digits, also joined by Napolitano (15) and Sheets (14). Napolitano had a solid overall game by adding a total of five steals, eight rebounds and two assists.
Capital's win also was significant for head coach Dixie Jeffers, who now has a total of 653 career wins, tying legendary coaching great Dick Reynolds who tallied the same number of wins in 40 years at Otterbein University. Jeffers is midway through her 29th year with the Crusaders and 32nd year as a head coach, overall.
With the win plus a Mount Union loss on Wednesday night, Capital hops the Raiders and ties Wilmington for the fifth spot in the OAC standings. Capital, 5-6 in conference play, and Mount Union, 4-7 against OAC opponents, will face off in a key matchup this Saturday in Alliance. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.
