Tigers come back to top Ladies

GAMBIER, Ohio -- Seventh-ranked DePauw trailed Kenyon by as many as 13 points in the third quarter, but the Tigers outscored the Ladies 37-12 over the final 15:41 to take a 61-49 North Coast Athletic Conference victory on Saturday.

With their 19th straight win, the Tigers improved to 23-1 overall and 15-0 in the NCAC and wrapped up their sixth NCAC title in seven seasons. Kenyon dropped to 18-5 overall and 11-3 in conference play.

The Tigers misfired on all 12 field goal attempts in the first period and Kenyon grabbed a 14-6 lead. Claire Keefe ended the drought with a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second and DePauw eventually closed the gap to two at 18-16. Kenyon scored the next nine to push the lead to 11 and the Ladies led at the intermission, 27-18.

Kenyon quickly extended the margin to 13 early in the third with the last coming on Sharon Hull’s jumper that made it 37-24 with 5:49 remaining in the third. The gap was still nine at 40-31 before Maya Howard’s layup started a 9-0 run. With that bucket, Howard became the 17th player in DePauw women’s history to reach 1,000 points. Emily Budde’s jumper tied the game at 40-40, but Paige Matijasich’s trey gave Kenyon a 43-40 advantage as the teams headed to the fourth.

Budde evened the score with a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the fourth and gave the Tigers the lead for good with another 3-pointer at the 6:14 mark. Howard’s layup moved the DePauw lead to five before Kenyon knocked in a free throw to make it 48-44. Howard made a pair of charity tosses to give DePauw a 6-point lead before Hull nailed a three to close the DePauw lead to 50-47.

Sydney Kopp made two free throws before Howard and Budde added buckets to make it 56-47. Jessica Gerber’s layup brought Kenyon to within seven, but Kopp nailed a 3-pointer to make it 59-49 with 41 seconds left and start a game-ending 5-0 stretch for the Tigers.

Budde paced DePauw with 22 points including 20 in the second half, while Howard added 19. Howard also dished out six assists in the win. Hull led Kenyon with 16 and Matijasich added 10.

DePauw outrebounded the Ladies, 41-26, as Hayley Cange grabbed seven for DePauw. Griffin Tullis and Ifeoma Archimalo each had six for Kenyon.

The Tigers shot 35.1 percent from the field to Kenyon’s 40.8 percent and DePauw had 12 turnovers to the Ladies’ 18.

DePauw returns home for a 3 p.m. game with Oberlin on Saturday in the final game before the NCAC Tournament.

• Kenyon 90, DePauw 68 (men) -- DePauw could not cool down a hot-shooting Kenyon squad in a North Coast Athletic Conference play on Saturday at Gambier, Ohio.

Kenyon shot 63 percent (37-of-59) from the floor and 61 percent (14-of-23) from long range as they improved to 7-16 overall and 4-12 in the NCAC. DePauw finished shooting 40 percent (23-of-58) from the floor and 35 percent (8-of-23) from behind the 3-point line as they fall to 10-13 overall and 6-10 in the conference.

Josh Hall and Jack VandeMerkt led the Tigers with 15 and 14 points respectively. Kenyon’s Matt Shifrin scored a game-high 18 points and was one of four Lords to score in double figures.

Kenyon broke the game open with six minutes remaining in first half with a 19-3 run to go up 47-29 at halftime. DePauw was never able to inch closer as Kenyon won the second half as well 43-39. Their largest lead fell at 26 with 7:43 left on the clock.

Both teams scored 28 points in the paint, but it was Kenyon’s bench that made the difference outscoring DePauw’s 44-19. The Tigers did hold the advantage in points off turnovers 10-7 and second chance points 11-0. Kenyon outrebounded DePauw 32-27.

The Tigers will look to get back on track Wednesday when they travel to Wabash for another important NCAC game.

Wrestling

• Tiger Cubs eliminated -- At Evansville, Greencastle’s Logan Carrington and Trace Thomas were eliminated in the first round of the Reitz Semistate on Saturday.

Carrington lost by pin to Jeremy Clark of Columbus East in 1:13. The freshman finished his season with a 33-7 record.

Junior Trace Thomas lost by a 4-1 decision to Nolan Weidner of Evansville Mater Dei. He finished with a 24-6 record.