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Haggin, Fernitz help DePauw past Denison in clunky win 66-51
No. 24 DePauw's starting front court of senior Pat Haggin and junior Tommy Fernitz combined for 38 of the host Tigers' points in their 66-51 win over Denison on Wednesday.
Haggin had 22, knocking down 4-of-4 3-point attempts and, in game marred by systemic foul calls, committed just three fouls himself. He also pulled in seven boards.
"I think we had a 20 point lead at one point and I thought, this is going to be the closest 20-point win in history," DPU head coach Bill Fenlon said. "It just never felt like we had it under control but we did make plays down the stretch ... That's the one thing we really did well tonight. We needed to make some plays and we made some plays."
The host Tigers' largest lead was 19, but the game played out extremely close until the final few minutes when Haggin took over.
Fernitz, making his second start of the season after returning from an ankle injury last week, had 16 points and nine boards.
The duo combined to score DePauw's first 10 points of the game before the rotation and minor early foul trouble forced them to the bench.
DPU (5-1, 2-0 NCAC) held a three-point lead when the pair left but quickly fell behind as the change in personnel affected its mentality and disruptive officiating severed the flow of the game.
In total, the teams combined for 41 fouls, 40 turnovers and 42 made field goals.
"I didn't recognize anything that we were trying to do, so that's a little disconcerting," Fenlon said. "Our offensive execution was, I would say, somewhere between terrible and horrible. It was about terrible-point-five."
With the two top scorers on the bench, the Tigers lost themselves offensively. The teams took turns drawing fouls, getting called for moving screens and charges and missing assignments.
DePauw's offense suffered, Fenlon said, in part because they're battling minor injuries and hadn't gone through physical practices and in part because Denison was a more physical team that the hosts weren't ready for mentally.
"This is maybe a team that's not going to respond well to not banging around a little bit," he said. "Out there you're trying to do something that you work on and practice and it's important to you, and there's another guy trying to keep you from doing it.
"Some days, when you see something different ... You fricking go haywire."
After an aggressive dialogue at halftime, DPU came out and played much better in the second half, adjusting to the game's opponent and officials and finding as much rhythm as was available between whistles.
DPU slowly pulled away and Haggin took over down the stretch, scoring 18 of his 22 points after the break.
"Down the stretch we went set, set, set; we went plays," Fenlon said. "We probably ran 12 plays in a row for him down the stretch, and he cashed in. He probably could have cashed in more."
The Tigers defense also got more efficient, limiting Denison to just 7-of-19 field goals. Denison was 17-for-46 in the game and DPU had 10 more rebounds (37-27) than Denison.
DePauw, ranked for the second-straight week and the first time since the 2008-09 season, will face a top-ten ranked team for the third time this season in its next game at No. 4 Wooster.
While Fenlon said his team isn't talking about the rankings, the coaches are using it to their advantage.
"It's great. I don't mind thinking we're good," he said. "I don't even mind them thinking that we're better than we actually are. That doesn't bother me at all. I think it's a great challenge for the kids to try to live up to that.
"You can get on them even more when they're not meeting the standards that you're trying to set."
DPU plays at Wooster on Satuday at 3 p.m.