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Lady Tigers bow out of NCAA postseason
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - DePauw trimmed a 14-point Calvin lead to six with just over two minutes left, but the Tigers were unable to convert on four straight possessions and the Knights hit five free throws in the final 41 seconds to take a 71-62 win in the NCAA Division III Sectional Semifinal.
The ninth-ranked Tigers finished their season at 26-2, while ninth-ranked Calvin advanced to the national quarterfinals and improved to 30-0. Calvin will face George Fox tomorrow night after they topped Texas-Dallas 77-73 in the evening's first game.
Calvin scored the first two buckets of the game and got out to an 11-4 lead in the opening 4:18. The Knights' lead was still six at 18-12 before DePauw's Taylor Howard scored on a layup and Hannah Douglas followed with a three-point play. Claire Ryan's bucket with 12:30 left in the half gave the Tigers their first lead at 19-18.
The margin stayed within one-point for the next four minutes and Savannah Trees hit two free throws to give DePAuw a 28-27 lead at the 8:46 mark.
Kally Verhaik's layup put Calvin ahead and she added a jumper before Kayla Engelhard added a bucket to give Calvin a 33-28 advantage with 7:24 left. The Knights' lead reached as many as nine before Douglas' basket at the buzzer made it 41-34.
DePauw shot just 37 percent from the floor over the opening 20 mintues to Calvin's 58.1 percent.
Calvin gradually stretched the lead to double-digits and pushed it to 14 at 66-52 on a pair of free throws from Anna Timmer.
The Tigers embarked on an 8-0 run that started with Douglas' jumper with 4:55 left. Following a Calvin miss, Savannah Trees grabbed the rebound and scored on a jumper in the paint with a feed from Douglas to close the gap to 66-56 with 4:19 remaining.
Trees then had a steal that forced a tie-up and the Tigers regained possession. Douglas knocked in a jumper from the left wing to close the margin to eight. Calvin missed on the other end and Trees capitalized with basket that bounced once off the rim and through to make it 66-60 with 2:33 left.
DePauw had a chance to close it to four when Claire Ryan recorded a steal on the next possession, but she couldn't convert the layup on the break.
That was the start of a series of four possessions where the Tigers held the hosts scoreless but weren't able to capitalize.
Engelhard made the first of two free throws with 41 seconds remaining, but the Tigers couldn't counter. Kally Verkaik hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds left to push the lead to nine.
"We saw everything we expected to see from Calvin," DePauw head coach Kris Huffman said.
"I'm really proud of my team's effort. I thought we had the right game plan going in, we played hard for 40 minutes."
Trees, DePauw's all-time leading scorer, led the Tigers with 21 points, while Douglas added 17 and Abendroth finished with 10.
Engelhard led Calvin with 23 points and shared rebounding honors with Hannah Acre as each had 11. Acre also had a double-double with 18 points. Kally Verkaik added 14 and Breanna Verkaik scored 11. Both Verkaiks dished out four assists with Kally totaling three steals.
Abby Keller grabbed 10 rebounds for the Tigers, while Emma Ondik had four assists.
The Tigers, who lead Division III in fewest turnovers per game, turned the ball over seven times in the first half against Calvin's pressure but just once over the final 20 minutes.
DePauw shot a season-low 34.4 percent from the floor to Calvin's 43.6 percent after the Knights hit just 25 percent in the second half.
Calvin outrebounded DePauw 43-33 and held a 12-5 advantage in second-chance points.
DePauw's five seniors Abendroth, Douglas, Hannah Lukemeyer, Ondik and Trees finished their careers with a 117-7 record which is the most wins by a DePauw class and the most by any current Division III senior class.