DePauw men upset Ohio Wesleyan, advance to finals

Friday, February 27, 2015

DELAWARE, Ohio -- The DePauw University men's basketball team rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit Friday night to defeat Ohio Wesleyan, the No. 1 seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament, 69-65.

With the victory, the Tigers, now 18-9, advance to the NCAC championship against Wooster, 68-55 winners over Wabash College in the opening semifinal game Friday night.

Saturday's championship contest is at 7 p.m.

DePauw took the lead for good Friday night at 64-63 with 46 seconds left on a bucket in the paint by Tommy Fernitz, who had 22 points on the night.

A pair of free throws by Luke Lattner at the 26-second mark gave the Tigers a three-point lead at 66-63.

But eight seconds later, the Battling Bishops' Claude Gray hit a jumper from the paint to trim the DePauw lead to just a point with 18 seconds left.

With 13 seconds left, Lattner was fouled by Ben Simpson and sank both free throws to push the DPU advantage to 68-65.

On the succeeding possession, Ohio Wesleyan missed a three-point try with five seconds to go and Bob Dillon snared the rebound for the Tigers, who outrebounded the hosts 41-33 on the night.

Dillon, who had 15 points in the victory, added a free throw with four seconds to play to set the final margin at 69-65. The four-point final advantage was DPU's largest lead of the night.

The DPU triumph was the 500th collegiate victory for Tiger coach Bill Fenlon.

Besides 22 points by Fernitz (to go with 11 rebounds) and 15 from Dillon, the Tigers also got double-figure scoring from Frank Patton with 14 and Lattner with 11.

Ohio Wesleyan, ranked 17th in NCAA Division III, fell to 22-5 on the year. The Battling Bishops entered the contest with a 16-2 league mark and a nine-game winning streak.

Matt Jeske led Ohio Wesleyan with 16 points. Simpson added 14.

DePauw did the job defensively in the second half, holding the hosts to just 22 points in the final 20 minutes after the Bishops had raced out to a 43-35 halftime lead.

DePauw shot 42 percent to 35 percent for Wesleyan. The Tigers also had a big advantage at the foul line, sinking 18 of 25, while the Bishops hit eight of 10.

Each team had only eight turnovers.

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