DePauw women win pair in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Five DePauw players scored in doubles figures as the Tigers wrapped up play at the Puerto Rico Clasico with a 70-59 win over Vassar on Tuesday.

The Tigers improved to 10-1, while the Brewers dropped to 3-6.

DePauw closed the first period with an 11-3 run to take a 21-12 lead at the quarter break. The Tigers opened the second quarter with a 9-3 stretch for their biggest lead of the game at 30-15. The teams went to the intermission with DePauw holding a 37-24 advantage.

The Brewers trimmed the deficit back to single digits in the third and trailed 51-43 headed into the fourth. Vassar was as close as six at 60-54 with 4:27 remaining, but Sydney Kopp started an 8-0 run with a bucket before Taylor Howard hit a pair of field goals and Emily Budde made two free throws to push the lead to 68-54 with 42 seconds left.

Taylor Howard led the Tigers with 16 points, while Budde came off the bench for 13. Claire Ryan followed with 11 with Maya Howard and Kopp each scoring 10. Ryan grabbed nine rebounds with Kopp and Kylie Morris each dishing out four assists.

DePauw shot 43.5 percent from the field, but failed to connect on 10 three-point attempts. That marked the first time since December 7, 2008, that the Tigers did not make a three-pointer in a game and snapped a streak of 243 straight games with at least one trey.

The Brewers shot 38.8 percent for the game. The Tigers held a 42-27 edge on the boards for a 13-4 advantage in second-chance points.

On Monday, DePauw led nearly the entire game and knocked off ninth-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh by a 60-56 score in the Puerto Rico Clasico.

DePauw grabbed a 17-6 lead after the first quarter after holding UW-Oshkosh to 10 percent shooting and just one field goal, but the Titans came back to trim the halftime deficit to 24-22. The Tigers extended the lead to four after three and the teams each scored 22 in the final stanza with DePauw hitting all eight of its free throw attempts.

Maya Howard paced DePauw with 19 points, while Sydney Kopp followed with 10. Taylor Howard led the Tigers with seven rebounds.

DePauw shot 42.6 percent from the floor to the Titans’ 34.1 percent, but UW-Oshkosh knocked in seven three-pointers to the Tigers’ two.

In a battle of two of Division III’s top-15 teams in rebound margin, DePauw held a 39-26 edge on the boards.

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday when they host Millikin in the Amy Hasbrook Memorial Classic. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.

DePauw then faces Coast Guard Academy at 5 p.m. on Thursday before the tournament wraps up on Dec. 31 with a 5 p.m. matchup between Millikin and Coast Guard.

• Ex-Tiger assistant gets head coaching job — Kyle Nystrom, a former assistant football coach at DePauw University, is the new head coach at Northern Michigan University. He comes to the post from Ferris State, where he was an assistant. Nystrom began his coaching career at NMU where his father, Buck, was an assistant coach.

“We are humbled and appreciate this opportunity to return to Northern Michigan,” Nystrom said. “We look forward to rejoining the Marquette community and the Upper Peninsula. We are eager to start coaching and working with the Northern Michigan football team. We are very much looking forward to being with our players and teaching them our philosophy and installing our plans for development.”

“Nystrom grew up at the football team’s former outdoor home, Memorial Field, and in the Marquette area from the fifth grade on,” reports the Daily Press of Escanaba, Michigan. “He also began his coaching career as an NMU student assistant in 1983 and graduate assistant in 1988. His time spent with Northern helped him become an assistant coach and special teams coordinator at Western Michigan University from 1989-2001.

Nystrom began his defensive coaching specialization as the linebackers coach for Texas Christian University from 2002-04, then received an assistant coach and defensive coordinator position at DePauw from 2005-06.