Poor shooting dooms Tigers

Wabash outrebounded DePauw by 26, while posting the best field goal shooting performance (52.2%) by a Tiger opponent this season and the hosts handed DePauw a 72-62 North Coast Athletic Conference defeat.

DePauw dropped to 16-8 overall and 9-8 in the NCAC, while Wabash improved to 16-8 overall and 11-6 in conference play. Wabash wrapped up the third seed in next week's NCAC Tournament, while DePauw now needs a win over conference champion Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday or a Wittenberg loss to sew up the fourth seed and an opening round home game.

The Tigers got off to a good start and held a 17-11 lead after Bradley Fey's three-pointer with 10:45 left in the first half. DePauw still held a 22-17 advantage before Wabash rattled off five straight to even the contest at 22-22.

Wabash scored seven straight near the end of the half and DePauw's Clint Cunningham scored with 25 seconds left to trim the Little Giants' halftime lead to 31-28.

Aftter DePauw's Frank Patton III opened the second half with a layup to trim the margin to one, Wabash struck quickly with four straight and 12 of the next 14 to take a 43-32 lead with 16:21 remaining.

That lead reached as many as 13 with the last coming at 55-42 with 10:01 left. Connor Rich's jumper followed by back-to-back threes from Bob Dillon and Fey capped an 8-3 DePauw run and closed the Wabash lead to 56-50.

Five straight DePauw misses followed, while Wabash scored six straight to push the lead back to 12 at 62-50 with 3:52 remaining.

The Tigers got no closer than seven the rest of the way as Wabash knocked in 9-of-10 free throws in the final 1:09.

Fey and Fernitz each scored 12 for DePauw, while Daniel Purvlicis had a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds as did Marcus Kammrath with 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Kasey Oetting and Austin Burton each added 12 points.

Wabash held a 43-17 advantage on the boards with Ferntiz leading DePauw with five. Fernitz also dished out four assists with the Little Giants' Houston Hodges handing out five.

The Tigers shot just 41.4 percent from the field with Wabash shooting 52.2 percent.

DePauw entertains Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday at 3 p.m.