Second-half rally falls short for DePauw men in NCAC tourney play

GRANVILLE, Ohio – The DePauw University Tigers had an uphill battle in the opening round of the North Coast Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Tuesday night and saw their second-half rally fall short against No. 14 Denison in an 85-79 loss.

The sixth-seeded Tigers trailed 46-37 at halftime but started the second half on a 20-11 run to tie the third-seeded Big Red 57-57 with 11:22 remaining. Yet, DePauw could never capture the lead.

It was still a one-possession game with under two minutes remaining. After a couple missed 3-pointers, the Tigers failed to get any closer than three.

Senior Luke Lattner and junior Jack VandeMerkt led the Tigers with 19 points each. VandeMerkt added nine rebounds and a career-high five blocks.

David Vogel scored 10 points, Andrew Kus scored seven and Nate Jahn added three points and dished out eight assists.

Off the bench, Cris Burrough scored 10 and Ethan Jarrett scored nine.

David Meurer had a game-high 28 points for Denison, while Jett Speelman added 20 points.

DePauw shot 50 percent (28-of-56) from the floor, 47 percent (10-of-21) from 3-point range and 72 percent (13-of-18) at the free throw line. Denison countered at 45 percent (27-of-60) from the floor, 40 percent (12-of-30) from range and 87 percent (19-of-22) from the charity stripe.

Denison barely outrebounded the Tigers 34-31, but the Tigers outscored them in the paint 34-28 and off the bench 21-18.

DePauw’s season comes to an end with an overall record of 12-14.