Tigers come from behind to defeat Austin

DePauw trailed by as many as nine in the second half, but outscored visiting Austin, 16-6, over the game's final seven minutes and rallied for a 56-52 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference win.

The Tigers improved to 12-3 overall and 4-1 in the conference with their ninth straight win, while the Kangaroos dropped to 6-8 overall and 2-4 in the SCAC. The victory also extended DePauw's home win streak to 34 and its conference home string to 42.

Austin took a 29-25 lead to the intermission after shooting just under 43 percent to DePauw's 28. The Kangaroos scored the first five points of the second half to take a 34-25 advantage. The Tigers closed the gap to 40-39 on Lauren Goff's three with 12:38 left, but Austin pushed the lead back to six at 46-40 on Amber Stafford's bucket with 6:56 remaining.

Katie Mathews' basket followed by two Tammy Taylor free throws and a Danielle Boraz bucket knotted the score at 46-46 with 5:17 left. The game was tied two more times before Boraz made one of two free throws with 2:10 left.

A pair of Kangaroo turnovers sandwiched a DePauw miss before Boraz pushed the lead to 54-50 with a three-pointer with 47 seconds left. Stafford missed a three-pointer on the other end and DePauw's Cassie Pruzin made it 55-50 on a free throw with 20 seconds left before Taylor nailed one with 12 seconds left following a steal.

Mathews paced DePauw with her first career double-double of 12 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. She added a game-high five assists. Pruzin followed with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Katy Williams led the Kangaroos with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Maegan Fitzgerald and Stafford each scored 11 and Kayla Redden added 10.

The Tigers shot a season-low 31.6 percent from the floor to Austin's 42.3 percent, but the Tigers held an 18-5 advantage in second-chance points after holding a 42-28 edge on the boards including 18 offensive rebounds.

DePauw hosts Colorado College on Sunday at 3 p.m., while Austin is at Centre tomorrow night.