Tigers get sweep over Kenyon

Monday, January 8, 2018

A late 9-0 run lifted No. 12 DePauw to a 64-58 North Coast Athletic Conference win over visiting Kenyon. The Tigers improved to 14-1 overall and 6-0 in the NCAC with their 10th straight win, while the Ladies fell to 12-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play.

Kenyon held a 51-48 lead after Paige Matijasich scored a layup with 5:09 left, but Emily Budde countered with a jumper out of a timeout before Maya Howard stole a Kenyon inbounds pass on the next possession and went the length of the court for a three-point play to give the Tigers the lead. Ifeoma Archimalo’s layup knotted the score at 53-53 with 4:16 remaining.

Sydney Kopp’s layup with 3:21 left put DePauw back in front and Howard extended it to four with a pair of free throws with 2:38 left. DePauw’s defense got a stop on the next possession before Howard buried a 3-pointer at the 2:05 mark to make it 60-53. Kopp hit a pair of free throws with 41 seconds left to extend the lead to nine and seal the victory.

The teams battled back and forth over the opening 10 minutes and were tied 15-15 at the break. Kenyon grabbed an 18-15 advantage before the Tigers rattled off eight straight points on the way to a 29-23 halftime lead.

The Tigers led by as many as 11 in the third after Kopp’s 3-pointer made it 40-29 with 5:27 left in the stanza, but the Tigers only managed one free throw the rest of the quarter as the Ladies closed the gap to 41-39 as the teams headed to the fourth. The final quarter included two ties and eight lead changes before the Tigers pulled away.

Claire Keefe led the Tigers with 19 points, while Howard followed with 14 and Kopp 11 along with a team-high seven rebounds. Howard and Budde each had three assists, while Howard also added two blocks and two steals.

Jessica Gerber paced Kenyon with 17 followed by Archimalo with 13, Matijasich 12 and Sharon Hull 10. Griffin Tullis grabbed seven boards and dished out four assists in the loss.

The Tigers shot 44.2 percent for the game including 55 percent in the second half, while the Ladies connected on 39.0 percent from the field and knocked in 7 of 27 from beyond the arc.

DePauw returns to action on Wednesday with an 8 p.m. NCAC game at Denison.

DePauw 54, Kenyon 39 (men) — The Tigers won their second consecutive game and their first North Coast Athletic Conference game of the year on Saturday.

David Vogel led all scorers with 14 points, and freshman Ken Decker provided a spark off the bench with a career-high 13. Jack VandeMerkt, another off the bench, contributed six points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Josh Hall finished with seven points and eight rebounds.

Ben Stern scored 14 as the only Kenyon player to reach double figures.

DePauw shot 39 percent (20-of-52) from the floor, 41 percent (7-of-17) from beyond the arc and 54 percent at the free throw line (7-of-13). Kenyon shot 24 percent from both the floor and 3-point range and shot 56 percent from the charity stripe.

Both benches scored 23 points, while DePauw outscored Kenyon in the paint 22-14 and outrebounded the Lords 46-36.

There were four lead changes within the first 13 minutes but after a Decker 3-pointer with 7:25 remaining the first half, DePauw led the rest of the way. The Tigers led 30-20 at halftime and led by as many as 16 with 8:16 to go in the game.

DePauw moves to 5-8 overall and 1-5 in the NCAC. Kenyon drops to 4-9.

Looking at the week ahead, DePauw will travel to Denison on Wednesday and Oberlin on Saturday before returning home on Jan. 17 to host Wabash.

DePauw’s Kopp picks up POW honor

DePauw sophomore Sydney Kopp of Burr Ridge (Ill.) was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Week following her performance in a pair of wins last week.

Sydney Kopp

Kopp averaged 16.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal in victories over Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon.

She scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Ohio Wesleyan and scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Kenyon.

Kopp shot 12-of-21 (57 percent) from the floor, 5-of-9 (56 percent) from 3-point range and 4-of-4 (100 percent) from the foul line. On the year, Kopp is third on the team at 11.9 points per game, but in six NCAC games she leads the team and the conference at 16.8 ppg.

This is Kopp’s second player of the week nomination.

Her previous came Dec. 3 when she was also named to the D3hoops.com Women’s Basketball Team of the Week.

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