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Defending national champs set for home opener
The DePauw women's basketball team will play its first home game since winning a national championship last season when it hosts Illinois College on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Tigers (4-0) come in as the No.1 ranked team in the country, as they were much of last year, but it's been more of a test to get to that point this season.
The largest deficit DPU faced all of last year was eight points, and that came in the national semifinals against Williams. In its second game this year, a 65-54 win at Franklin, the team faced a nine-point second half deficit.
Last week the Tigers were pushed into double-overtime before beating Centre 68-64. Neither team is ranked, but two of the three teams DePauw is hosting in the Midwest Challenge tournament this weekend are either ranked or threatening.
Prior to DePauw's game, No. 2 Washington University-St. Louis will face No. 27 Illinois Wesleyan at 2 p.m. with the winner of both games meeting on Sunday.
The Tigers played Wash. U twice last year, once in the regular season when they won by a single point and once in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 when they won by 17.
A potential early season 1-versus-2 matchup looms for Sunday, but to get there DePauw will first need to get past the Lady Blues of Illinois College (3-1).
Junior forward Hannah McGinnis leads the Lady Blues in scoring and rebounds and will be a challenge for the Tigers' bigs, a group that has been thinned by injuries in its first four games.
Senior Brittney Burgess, another 5-10 forward, is second on the Lady Blues in both scoring and rebounds. The pair combines for 36.8 points and 26.6 rebounds per game.
Junior Alison Stephens will be tasked with slowing McGinnis and trying to keep her below her 17.3 rebound average, but her post help isn't as experienced as DePauw hoped.
Senior preseason first-team all-American Alex Gasaway missed DPU's two games last weekend and sophomore Angela Hacker, who had been expected to become a significant part of the team's forward rotation this year, has yet to play at all.
Erin McGinnis started at forward for the Tigers last week and a few younger players, including junior Hannah Lukemeyer and freshman Taylor Howard, have gotten more playing time than was expected because of their defense and activeness.
DePauw will cause matchup problems for the Lady Blues as well. Junior Savannah Trees leads the Tigers in scoring at 16.5 points and several other guards, including senior Ali Ross and junior Emma Ondik, have helped balance their backcourt scoring.
The No. 1 Tigers tip-off for their home opener Saturday at 4 p.m.