DePauw women 22-1 after win over Wittenberg

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Katie Aldrich

Senior night at DePauw's Neal Fieldhouse was a chance for the No. 4 ranked women's team to play one more game in front of the home faithful.

Kathryn Denbow and Katie Aldrich were the senior honorees for the Wednesday evening game against Wittenberg.

The clash wasn't as pretty offensively as the Tigers' (22-1, 15-0 NCAC) recent outings but was still good enough for a 62-45 win over the visiting Tigers (12-11, 8-7 NCAC).

After nine straight 20+ point wins, the DePauw offense found things tougher against an aggressive Wittenberg defense.

But Wittenberg had an even worse offensive evening, converting less than 25 percent of its shots from the field.

DePauw started off the contest by jumping out to a 16-6 lead in the opening six minutes and kept the lead mainly in the double-digit range for most of the half.

The lead increased to as high as 17 before the visiting Tigers scored the last five points of the half to go in to the break trailing 35-23.

Briefly, Wittenberg managed to bring the game into single digits but DePauw responded with a 12-2 run to bring the lead back to 21 before grinding to the finish for a 62-45 win.

Aldrich scored 12 points set a career high by snaring 13 rebounds. Denbow chipped in two points and three assists. The Tigers were paced by Ali Ross and Alex Gasaway, who both scored 13.

DePauw head coach Kris Huffman said that keeping the squad's confidence going would be important.

"We're happy with the win. I don't think we performed extremely well tonight, but credit Wittenberg. They stretched us defensively. I thought, though, that we had too many shots that didn't fall," Huffman said.

"I think we need to get a little bit tougher in the paint. We take a few hits, and that's enough to throw us off right now.

"It's a time where it's not quite March Madness yet but teams are losing. As long as we don't lose confidence, this win is okay. You can learn from wins, and that's what we try to do after every game," Huffman added.

"You want your shooters to be confident. It was tough because we got tight and no one wanted to shoot. We've got to go to practice, find a little bit of swagger again," Huffman said.

"We always talk about having a short memory for the things you don't like, and a long memory for those that you do."

At Neal Fieldhouse, DePauw University

Wittenberg 23 22 -- 45

DePauw 35 27 -- 62

Statistics

Rebounds -- Wittenberg 32 (10 offense); DePauw 54 (20 offense)

Assists -- Wittenberg 7; DePauw 13

Turnovers -- Wittenberg 17; DePauw 15

Blocks -- Wittenberg 3; DePauw 7

Steals -- Wittenberg 10; DePauw 10

Shooting -- Wittenberg -- 14-58 FG, 6-17 3-FG, 11-15 FT; DePauw -- 22-65 FG, 2-12 3-FG, 16-21 FT

Scoring (DePauw only): Ross 13, Gasaway 13, Aldrich 12, Walker 5, Molloy 5, Trees 5, Abendroth 3, Denbow 2, Pearson 2, McGinnis 2

Next Game: DePauw concludes the regular season at Wooster Saturday at 1 p.m.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: