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DPU's Ondik special, lights up Blues in 86-58 win
For the first time this year, the DePauw women's basketball team had stretches where it played like the No. 1 ranked team in the country that it is on Saturday.
The Tigers beat visiting Illinois College 86-58 in the first round of the Midwest Challenge and booked a match with No. 2 Washington University-St. Louis on Sunday.
Sophomore Emma Ondik had another superb shooting game for DPU, finishing 5-for-5 from the field, 4-for-4 on 3s, for 14 points to lead her team.
"I always have the mentality when I'm shooting that I'm going to make it, so I think that helps," Ondik said. "It's fun coming off the bench and giving a little spark."
Ondik's more aggressive approach this season has helped to bolster the Tigers' second unit and lift the team that is working in two new starters and has struggled to sustain runs as it did during its national championship run last year.
Giving the team more offensive punch off the bench to help with the offense is one of the reasons Ondik, the backup point guard last season, has stayed with the second unit this year.
"Obviously she is a tremendous player," DPU head coach Kris Huffman said, "but the two point guards we have (Ondik and junior Savannah Trees), we don't want to get them fatigued at the same time. ... She's definitely a spark and I think she's taken that role seriously."
Ondik entered for Trees with DPU leading 11-4 and 13:28 left in the first half and immediately sparked a 14-7 run for the Tigers, knocking down a deep two, a 3-pointer and dishing two assists for 3-point shots from junior Lauren Abendroth.
Illinois College battled back and DePauw entered the half with a 33-23 lead, but DPU limited Lady Blues senior Brittney Burgess and junior Hannah McGinnis to a combined 12 points and seven rebounds.
They came into the game combining for 36.8 points and 26.6 rebounds.
To help slow them the Tigers mixed in a new zone defense that is geared toward taking away driving lanes and dissuading passes into the post, where the undersized DPU players are susceptible.
"It's a little junk defense," Huffman said. "We still need some work, but we wanted to try it out today and see if we can keep making some progress."
While the defense didn't stop the Lady Blues from getting the ball into the post, it did confuse them. Unsure where the defense was coming from, Illinois College was just 16-for-30 on shots close to the basket.
The outside shooting of Ondik and Abendroth stretched the defense for the Lady Blues and allowed DPU to get inside in the second half. DePauw scored 26 of its 50 points on layups after the break and was 13-for-14 on those attempts.
McGinnis finished with 15 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Blues. Burgess had 15 points and five boards.
Senior Alison Stephens had 12 points, nine boards and two steals for DPU. Abendroth had 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
The win pushed the Tigers into the finals on Sunday when they will take on Washington University, the No. 2 ranked team in the country.
While the Tigers were able to reduce some of their sets on Saturday, keeping preseason all-American on the court for just 19 minutes and having Trees, their leading scorer, attempt just seven shots, Huffman said the Bears will be ready for everything DPU has.
"Wash U does a tremendous job of scouting so they know everything we do and I'm sure they run it better than we run it," Huffman said. "We're excited to get better and there's no team in the nation that forces you to get better that's better than Wash U.
"It will challenge us. We have some weaknesses right now and I think this will help highlight it."
An early season 1-versus-2 matchup and the level of competition it brings is part of what makes playing for DePauw so special, Ondik said.
"We're all really excited," she said. "I think it's going to be a really good matchup.
"The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the polls, it doesn't get much better than that."