Tigers crush Maryville, advance to Sweet 16
DePauw continues to prove why it held the No. 1 ranking throughout the regular season, dismantling the Mary-ville College women's basketball team in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday, 78-51.
Senior Ellie Pearson continued her inspired tournament play, hauling in 18 rebounds, scoring nine points, dominating her match-up on defense and dishing three assists.
Though the team has won at least 25 games in each of Pearson and the other seniors' four years, this is the first time the group has advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament.
"It's very, very exciting," senior Kate Walker said. "Once we got the W I just said to Ellie, 'Finally.' Finally, we got to that point that we've been striving for. We're just going to keep going from here and not be happy with that."
Maryville mixed up defenses throughout the game, alternating between several different zones and man-to-man strategies, but the Tigers were deliberate in their attack and punched through the defense consistently.
"We knew they were going to change up defenses ... and that was very aggressive," DPU head coach Kris Huffman said.
Sophomore Savannah Trees scored 24 points to lead DPU, setting a new career-high. Walker, DPU's point guard had 14 points and four assists while orchestrating the attack on both ends of the court.
"Coach prepared us well for it and made it simple for me," Walker said. "We have certain plays that we can call if we're not sure what we're in and hopefully we can figure it out from there ... I'm pretty happy with the fact that we were able to go out there and recognize the defense to be able to do something well on offense."
The Tigers started slow, continuing a recent trend, but appeared to energize when junior Alex Gasaway checked into the game with 11:53 left in the first half. Gasaway, normally the team's starting center, has missed the past three games with a knee injury.
"Here's a kid who has apologized to her teammates for getting hurt and who has worked her butt off to get back, and she wants to contribute," Huffman said. "She's amazing (with) what she's done this season, before her injury and after."
Pearson found Gasaway with an entry pass two minutes later, leading to a layup. Gasaway finished with seven points in nine minutes.
"It was such a great feeling and she deserves to be out there more than anybody," Pearson said. "She's so fun to play with and so composed I just feel like I always know where she's going to be on the court. I missed playing with her this past couple weeks, so it was great having her out there."
The Tigers led by 11 points at the half, despite allowing Maryville to shoot better than 58 percent from the floor (14-for-24).
The relatively narrow gap exploded to more than 30 minutes into the second half and DPU was never challenged.
The Tigers will now have the next week to prepare for Washington University (St. Louis), a rematch of the 2007 national championship game won by DPU and a game earlier this year that the undefeated Tigers won by just one point, 60-59.
"I think that was game No. 4 of the season, so I think that both teams have changed tremendously," Huffman said. "I know that we're a different team offensively than we were at that point in time and I'm sure Washington U is as well, because they're a very young team. It'll be a lot of scouting that takes place this week. Both teams will get their game-plan on."
Pearson's 18 rebounds on Saturday followed a 19-board effort against La Roche on Friday, a DPU-record for a two-game span. Pearson had just two fewer rebounds than all of Maryville's players combined.
She is now just 41 away from tying the school-record for a career.
"I'm not eyeing it," Pearson said. "I kind of black out during games ... In a good way. I don't realize what I'm doing. I'll take a ball out of my own teammate's hands if I have to."
The Tigers will host Washington on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. In the other Sweet 16 game at DPU, Christopher Newport plays Montclair State at 5 p.m.
At DePauw
NCAA Tournament
Round Two
Maryville 30 21 -- 51
DePauw 41 37 -- 78
Scoring
Maryville (24-5): Payne 7-15 3-6 17, Smith 5-7 3-4 13, Menard 5-9 0-0 12, Bond 2-5 1-2 5, Puckett 2-5 0-0 4, Burnett 0-4 0-0 0, Farmer 0-1 0-0 0, Trent 0-0 0-0 0, Robbins 0-0 0-0 0, Elliot 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-46 7-12 51.
DePauw (30-0): Trees 9-12 3-3 24, Walker 6-13 1-1 14, Ross 5-8 0-0 10, Pearson 3-6 3-4 9, Gasaway 3-5 0-0 7, Molloy 2-8 0-0 6, Stephens 2-7 0-0 4, Ondik 0-3 2-2 2, Abendroth 0-2 2-2 2, Stoner 0-0 0-1 0, McGinnis 0-1 0-0 0, Lukemeyer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-65 11-13 78.
3-pt: MC 2-11 (Menard 2), DPU 7-14 (Trees 3, Molloy 2, Walker, Gasaway); Rebounds-offensive: MC 20-3 (Payne 6-2), DPU 42-17 (Pearson 18-5, Stephens 10-6); Total fouls: MC 12, DPU 15; Fouled out: MC (Payne), DPU (none). Turnovers: MC 11, DPU 5.