DPU beats rival Wabash

DePauw guard Luke Lattner didn't start Thursday night's North Coast Athletic Conference game against rival Wabash, marking the first time he hasn't started this season, but once he entered he didn't see much of the bench again as he erupted for a career-high 36 points in the Tigers' 75-58 win over their rivals from Crawfordsville.

Wabash got out to a 7-2 lead, but Lattner immediately made an impact with a three just 14 seconds after entering the contest. The Little Giants still held an 11-7 advantage before the Tigers countered with 11 straight over a 2:28 stretch.

Bradley Fey started the run with a trey before Lattner drove for two and Fey hit another three. Lattner capped the run with a triple to give DePauw an 18-11 lead. The Tigers stretched the margin to as many as 11 and Wabash went on a 7-0 run to trim it to 33-29 with just under four minutes left in the half.

Connor Rich nailed a three and Lattner added two more layups to give the Tigers a 40-29 halftime lead. Lattner and Fey combined for 31 of the Tigers' 40 and the Tigers hit 8-of-17 three-pointers in the opening 20 minutes.

Wabash briefly trimmed the lead to single digits early in the second half, but the Tigers pushed it to 15 on Lattner's layup with 12:20 left.

The Little Giants' Kasey Oetting hit a three with 8:59 left to close DePauw's lead to 58-46, but Tommy Fernitz hit a free throw before Rich buried a three and Fey drove the lane to give DePauw its biggest lead at 64-46.

Oetting hit 3-of-4 free throws before Lattner nailed his sixth three-pointer of the contest to push the lead back to 18 at 67-49 with 5:07 remaining.

Wabash scored seven straight, but the Tigers hit six straight free throws to close the contest.

Lattner's night was special. His 36 points were the most by a DePauw player since Todd Seifferlein tallied 38 against Franklin on January 25, 1992, and they were the most ever by a Tiger men's player in their 397 games in the Neal Fieldhouse. The last time a DePauw player scored more on the home court was when Mike Luegers totaled 40 against St. Joseph's (Ind.) on January 29, 1977.

Lattner's performance overshadowed a second-straight career-high performance for Fey who finished with 15. Fernitz led the Tigers with eight boards, while Bob Dillon had three steals.

Oetting led Wabash with 15 points and nine boards, while Daniel Purvlicis added 14 points and Kyle Aiton had four assists.

The Tigers shot 49.1 percent for the game and hit 12-of-28 from beyond the three-point arc, while Wabash shot 40.4 percent from the floor. Wabash entered with the second-best rebound margin in Division III at +12.2, but held just a 29-26 margin on the glass. DePauw committed just eight turnovers and held a 19-9 advantage in points off of turnovers.

DePauw returns to the court when it travels to Wooster on Saturday, January 24, for a 3 p.m. contest.