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Tigers stung by another 1-point defeat
The other half of Senior Night at DePauw's Neal Fieldhouse also saw two seniors honored for the Tigers.
Ian Rumpp and Sean Haseley were the men of the hour as DePauw hosted No. 21 Wittenberg Wednesday night.
But for the second straight game, DePauw (13-11, 7-8 NCAC) couldn't find the basket to get the win, as they fell to the visiting Tigers 56-55.
It was DePauw's second one-point loss in a row.
Rumpp had an ideal start, knocking down the first two baskets of the game, both from three-point range.
The lead would stay in that range throughout most of the first half until the final two and a half minutes.
Michael Cooper shot Wittenberg (19-5, 13-2 NCAC) into the lead with 11 straight points for his side, allowing Wittenberg to take a 28-26 lead into halftime.
The lead stayed in the low single digits until midway through the second half, when two Cooper threes gave the visiting Tigers a nine-point lead on two separate occasions.
DePauw began to rally back in the final five minutes and closed the gap to as close as a point at 56-55.
With a chance at the final shot, Haseley's fade away fell short and DePauw fell for the third straight game and sixth time in the last seven games.
DePauw head coach Bill Fenlon summed up the game in short order.
"Too many mistakes. Tonight, we were outrebounded by 15 in a one-point game. That's 10 extra possessions -- in a one-point game, and you can pretty much chalk it up to that," Fenlon said.
"We were rebounding the ball pretty well for a month. Then, we just stopped rebounding the ball consistently.
"Aside from last Saturday, we're playing really, really good teams. Four of those losses have been to teams that have been in the top 20," Fenlon added.
"They say young teams make more mistakes and that's probably true. When we were rebounding better and making fewer mistakes, we were playing better and winning.
"I thought our first shot defense was good tonight. But we've got to rebound. We have to keep people off the offensive glass and get on the offensive glass," Fenlon said.
"In the end, that's the game right there."
At Neal Fieldhouse, DePauw University
Wittenberg 28 28 -- 56
DePauw 26 29 -- 55
Statistics
Rebounding -- Wittenberg 40 (16 offense); DePauw 25 (6 offense)
Assists -- Wittenberg 11; DePauw 11
Turnovers -- Wittenberg 13; DePauw 10
Blocks -- Wittenberg 1; DePauw 5
Steals -- Wittenberg 5, DePauw 5
Shooting -- Wittenberg 18-54 FG, 11-27 3-FG, 9-12 FT; DePauw 21-49 FG, 8-24 3-FG, 5-7 FT
Scoring (DePauw only): Flynn 13, Payne 10, Rumpp 9, Sullivan 7, Rich 6, Haseley 5, Wilkison 5
Next Game: DePauw finishes the regular season with a trip to Wooster Saturday at 3 p.m.