No. 1 Tigers come back for blowout win against Bishops

Saturday, January 18, 2014
DePauw senior Alison Stephens makes a layup with a defender's hand in her face during the second half against Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday. Stephens had 10 points and 11 rebounds in the win.

Ohio Wesleyan got off to the start every team dreams of against the No. 1 team in the country, but DePauw turned it into a nightmare winning 76-61.

The Bishops led 13-0 and forced a pair of timeouts from the Tigers before junior Hannah Douglas scored the first basket for DPU. She finished with 15 points, the third consecutive game she's reached that plateau.

"Finally our defense responded when we started hitting shots," DPU coach Kris Huffman said. "Our defense needs to respond a little bit sooner but all the credit goes to Ohio Wesleyan. They got great shots, they hit great shots."

DePauw (16-0, 7-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) got it back to a tie game when senior forward Alex Gasaway hit a 3-pointer with 7:00 left in the first and DPU closed the half with a 34-28 lead.

After falling behind, the Tigers offense relied heavily on dribble penetration instead of the usual balance with outside shots, but DPU head coach Kris Huffman said they just took what the defense gave them.

"We were trying to go to go to some dribble-motion offense," she said. "It wasn't the answer, so then we got into something else. We went to our passing motion offense and that seemed to help us a little bit."

Trailing by 13 points wasn't the start DePauw had hoped for, but Huffman said it did give her team a test it hasn't faced in recent games, which can only help the team improve.

DPU, winners of 48 straight overall, has won its last four by an average margin of 30.5 points.

"They were hot to start the game, thankfully we were resilient and fought back and got ourselves back in the game," Huffman said. "It showed good fight in us. We didn't panic and we continued to work for good shots."

The run continued into the second half as DePauw built a lead and expanded on it. After shooting just 39.4 percent in the first half, the team was 15-for-29 in the second.

Douglas's 15 points came after scoring 16 at Kenyon last Saturday and 17 against Wittenberg Wednesday. She has led the team in scoring each of those games, the first three times she's reached double-figures since joining DePauw.

Douglas led the team with four assists.

Senior Alison Stephens finished with a double-double for the Tigers, grabbing 11 rebounds and scoring 10 points. Seniors Savannah Trees (10) and Alex Gasaway (11) and junior Emma Ondik (14) also reached double figures for the Tigers.

Sophomore Emily Julius led the Bishops with 12 points.

DPU hosts Oberlin Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: