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Tigers complete season sweep, oust Little Giants
The DePauw men's basketball game with Wabash on Tuesday may have lacked the excitement of their previous matchup, but it made up for it in meaning.
With the loser bound for a long offseason and the winner bound for a conference semifinal and a shot at the NCAA Division III tournament, this one didn't need a tense ending.
The No. 2 seed Tigers took care of business against the rival Little Giants in the NCAC quarterfinal, winning 73-59. DePauw won all three games with Wabash this season.
DePauw (19-7) opened the game on a 13-0 run and endured a Wabash (8-17) run in the first half, but largely kept the game at arm's length.
After seeing his team get outshot and outrebounded in the previous meeting, DePauw coach Bill Fenlon remarked that his team was probably fortunate to win the 75-74 affair last Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Tigers improved in both areas, outrebounding the Little Giants 40-27 and holding them to 44-percent shooting.
The improvement was not lost on Fenlon.
"The rebounding was a really big deal. They only got five offensive rebounds, so that's a great job on the boards by us," Fenlon said. "We were minus-12 in the last game and they shot 52 percent from the floor. To win a game with those numbers ... you got to feel pretty fortunate. We felt like we really had to clean that up, the shooting percentage. It was down a little bit tonight. I thought we were a little better defensively.
"Those were the two things we wanted to do a better job of and I thought we did that tonight."
Another key for DePauw has been the ability of a number of people to step up offensively in any given game.
Senior Michael Wilkison led the Tigers with 20 points, having been held scoreless in the two teams' last meeting. Tommy Fernitz was right behind with 19 points.
"We're playing so many guys that every game looks a little different, although not tremendously different, from a minutes played standpoint. Some of it has to do with matchups and that kind of stuff," Fenlon said. "Our contributions come in a lot of different ways. I'm not sure if Michael Wilkison scored against these guys last week and he had 20 tonight. And Adam (Botts) had 29 the last time and didn't score tonight. And the team is still able to get some things done."
The Little Giants found themselves unable to mount the kind of charge that made the closing seconds of the previous matchup so tense.
After the 13-0 DePauw run to open the game, Wabash was able to close to within four points on two occasions, but Depauw stretched it back to 12 and led 38-28 at the half.
DePauw opened the second half on a 6-0 run and Wabash was never able to close the deficit to fewer than 11 points.
Stretching the lead to as many as 20, the Tigers hit their free throws down the stretch, going 9-of-13 in the second half, and finished off the Little Giants 73-59.
With the higher seeds winning in all four NCAC quarterfinals, top-seed Wooster will host the semifinals and finals.
DePauw will open against third-seeded Wittenberg at 6 p.m. Friday, with Wooster hosting No. 4 Ohio Wesleyan at 8 p.m.
DePauw took a pair of one-sided games against Wittenberg in the regular season, winning 72-46 at home on Jan. 15 and then 71-49 at Wittenberg on Feb. 12.
Fenlon said it may be tough to win a third time against a team, but added that his philosophy about such matchups runs counter to many others.
"We've matched up pretty well against them the first two times," Fenlon said. "People talk about that whole thing about trying to beat somebody three times in a year. I've always thought I'd rather be the guy who already won twice than be the guy who hadn't won at all."
That philosophy worked pretty well against the Little Giants on Tuesday.
Wilkison led DePauw with 23 points in the first Wittenberg game. Fernitz was the leader with 17 in the second contest.
With the way the Tigers play, a number of players could rise to the top on Friday.
"Every night is kind of a new adventure for us," Fenlon said. "I'm trying to get the players to embrace that because obviously players want to play, and that changes for this group a little every night."
Whatever happens, the coach expects a tough contest and some good basketball from both teams.
"Wittenberg's a nationally-ranked team, a really good basketball team. Great tradition," Fenlon said. "They're going to be ready to go. We'll get ourselves ready to go. It should be a great game."
The winners of the two semifinal games will play on Saturday at Wooster.
At DePauw
NCAC Quarterfinal
Wabash 28 31 -- 59
DePauw 38 35 -- 73
Wabash: Hodges 7-9 1-3 18, Nicksic 5-6 2-5 12, Oetting 4-11 2-3 10, Sponsler 3-6 2-3 9, Walsh 2-7 1-2 6, Aiton 1-7 2-2 4, Ulrich 0-1 0-0 0, Burton 0-1 0-0 0, Purvlicis 0-0 0-1 0, Kammrath 0-2 0-0 0, Scofield 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-50 FG, 10-19 FT, 59 points.
DePauw: Wilkison 5-13 8-8 20, Fernitz 8-10 3-5 19, Dillon 5-9 3-5 14, Lattner 3-3 1-2 7, Patton 2-5 2-4 6, Haggin 2-9 0-0 5, Burns 0-2 2-2 2, Botts 0-2 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Onuorah 0-1 0-0 0, Fey 0-0 0-0 0, Rich 0-0 0-0 0, Sustarsic 0-0 0-0 0, Jahn 0-0 0-0 0, Cunningham 0-0 0-0 0, Morton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-55 FG, 19-26 FT, 73 points.
3-pt FG: WC 5-18 (Hodges 3-4, Sponsler 1-3, Walsh 1-6, Ulrich 0-1, Aiton 0-2, Burton 0-1, Oetting 0-1), DPU 4-16 (Wilkison 2-6, Dillon 1-4, Haggin 1-3, Patton 0-1, Botts 0-2). Rebounds-off: WC 27-5 (Sponsler 5-0, Walsh 5-1), DP 40-12 (Haggin 8-3, Fernitzh 6-1, Wilkison 5-2). Assists: WC 5 (Hodges 3), DPU 8 (Wilkison 2, Dillon 2). Steals: WC 3 (3 with 1), DPU 4 (Patton 2). Blocks: WC 7 (Purvlicis 3), DPU 2 (Fernitz 2). Turnovers: WC 11, DPU 7. Fouls: WC 21, DPU 20. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.
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