The Denison team poses with their 2008 North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament trophy. This is Denison's fourth straight and fifth overall tournament title.

It was a lights out performance in more ways than one.

Led by Ellen O'Brien's (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) 18 points and a 21-for-27 showing as a team at the free throw line, the Denison Big Red managed to pull away from #3 seed Wittenberg University, capturing their fourth consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship by a final score of 66-55 at Tomsich Arena on the campus of Kenyon College.

In a back-and-forth game that saw nine lead changes and 11 tie game situations, the Big Red began to put things together down the stretch, building their largest lead of the game at six points with 2:05 to play on the heels of a Sarah Perrine (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) 3-point basket.

Denison would add another field goal thus building their lead to eight points with 59 seconds remaining.  Suddenly, the overhead lighting malfunctioned at Tomsich Arena, leaving the court in darkness and the coaching staff concerned that their momentum may have left the building along with the electricity.

After a near 20 minute delay that would test the mettle of even the most veteran teams, Denison and Wittenberg returned to the court to play out the final 59 seconds with a bid to the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament on the line.

After a pair of DU free throws by O'Brien out of the delay gave the Big Red 10-point lead, Wittenberg's Ali Rohlfs responded with a 3-pointer cutting the DU lead to seven with 46 seconds to play.  The Tigers would send freshman Shaina Kaiser (Ostrander, Ohio/Buckeye Valley) to the free throw line with 42 seconds left and the rookie connected on both to lock up the victory.  Denison shot 11 more free throws than the Tigers and hit on 78 percent of those.  In addition, DU was 10-for-12 from the charity stripe over the final 2:45 of play.

Denison's Perrine was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, following in the footsteps of former teammate and three-time MOP award winner Kristen Sheffield.  Perrine finished with nine points and the key 3-pointer with just over two minutes to go.

O'Brien led all scorers with 18 points and also dished out five assists.  In the second half O'Brien surpassed Bridget Colleran '94 to become Denison's single-season assist leader with 147.  Following O'Brien in the points category was junior Katie St. Clair (Granger, Ind./St. Joseph's) who scored 15 points and had eight rebounds.  Carolyn Simpson (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto) followed with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks and Kaiser added 10 points in 25 minutes off the bench.  Both Kaiser and O'Brien would join Perrine on the all-tournament team. 

Carrie Dyer led Wittenberg with 17 points and 12 rebounds.  Rohlfs added 12 for the Tigers who end their season with a 15-11 record.  With the win Denison improves to 18-10 overall. 

The victory runs Denison's NCAC Tournament championship total to five (1994, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) and also extends that NCAC Tournament winning streak to 12 games which dates back to a Feb. 27, 2004 loss to Allegheny College in that season's semifinal round.  

With the win DU will advance to their fourth consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament.  Last year the Big Red ousted defending national champion, Hope College in the opening round before bowing out to eventual national champ, DePauw, in the second-round.  In 2005 the Big Red made the trip up I-71 to Berea, Ohio and upset nationally ranked Baldwin-Wallace on their home floor.  Since 2005 Denison is 2-3 in national tournament play, with two of those losses coming to the eventual national champ.

The pairings for this year's Division III Tournament will be announced on Monday (March 3) at 9 a.m.