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Tigers survive Little Giant comeback, 75-74
DePauw never trailed Wabash on Wednesday but still needed a last-second steal to top their archrivals 75-74 at Neal Fieldhouse.
With the final seconds ticking away, Little Giant junior Houston Hodges lobbed a pass toward the bucket, but 6-9 DePauw center Tommy Fernitz grabbed the pass to preserve the one-point win.
The Tigers improved to 17-7 on the year and 12-5 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
After opening the game on an 11-0 run and leading by as many as 15 points, it was a more exciting ending than the hosts expected for much of the evening.
A number of second-half surges never got the Little Giants (8-15, 7-10 NCAC) closer than four points down until Hodges nailed a 3-pointer with 1:34 remaining to cut the lead to one at 73-72.
The Hodges bucket capped a five point possession that also included a Daniel Purvlicis bucket, a DePauw foul on the shot and a Little Giant offensive rebound on the missed free throw.
"You're kind of in the driver's seat," DePauw coach Bill Fenlon said, "but then we fouled the guy that scored the bucket and then didn't rebound the free throw. They kick it out for the three and it's a five-point possession. That really kind of put a little heat on us."
After a Tiger timeout, DePauw looked where it had much of the night, to Adam Botts' hot hand. The sophomore scored a career-high 29 points, but none were bigger than his fadeaway jumper from the right elbow with 58 seconds remaining to push DePauw's lead back to three at 75-72.
Wabash junior Kasey Oetting answered with a pair of free throws with 44 seconds to go, again cutting the lead to one and setting up a frantic finish.
DePauw ran the shot clock all the way down on the next possession, but Bob Dillon's shot was off the mark. Oetting grabbed the rebound with nine seconds remaining and sent an outlet pass to Hodges as both teams sprinted to get back in transition.
But Fernitz was there to intercept Hodges' lob intended for Purvlicis, and the Tigers held on to the ball who held on as time expired. With the clock at zeros, their teammates and the Tiger student section mobbed the juniors.
While there was a feeling of elation in the student section after a long, loud game, for Fenlon it was a feeling of relief after nearly letting one get away.
"I felt we made some really bad decisions," Fenlon said of the closing minutes. "I thought we quick-shot it on one possession for sure, when at that point the clock is maybe as important as scoring is. We put them on the free throw line a couple of times where we didn't have to.
"We didn't rebound the ball consistently all night and we let them get a couple of offensive rebounds in the last minute and a half of the game that really hurt us."
The coach also praised his team, though, for taking care of the clock most of the time as well as hitting free throws when it was absolutely necessary.
After being outshot and outrebounded, the coach was not complaining about the win.
"When you look at it at the end, you let somebody come in and shoot 52 percent and outrebound you, you're pretty luck to win," Fenlon said. "I'm taking it. I'm not giving it back."
The Little Giants' 24-for-46 shooting certainly kept them in a game that could have been derailed by early turnovers.
However, the Tigers were 25-of-53 for 47 percent, so they were not far behind.
DePauw's leading scorer on the season, Fernitz had a relatively quiet eight points, but more than made up for it in other areas, pulling down nine rebounds and blocking five shots, both team highs. The final play was also his second steal of the game.
Fenlon praised the junior, who he said is understanding his role better all the time.
"He just needs to understand that he's got to be a presence for us," Fenlon said. "And he's got to get better at picking his spots, which I think he's getting better at. Early on in the year and last year, he'd be trying to block everything."
Botts was the offensive star of the night, tying his previous career high for points with 17 in the first half. His 12 after the break came at some big moments, including the Tigers' last two field goals.
The sophomore was 10-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.
"Adam got hurt at the beginning of the year. He's been a little up and down and he hasn't really shot it as well as we think he can and he thinks he can," Fenlon said. "I don't expect him to come out and score 30 points every night, but I think that performance is a little closer to what we think he is capable of doing than maybe some of the games he's had during the course of the year."
Dillon also had a career high with 15, having scored 10 twice before, followed by Luke Lattner, who chipped in 10 coming off the bench.
The bench came up big for Wabash, as subs Andy Walsh (20 points) and Oetting (12 points) were the two leading scorers. Starters Kyle Aiton and Purvlicis each had 10.
Wabash outrebounded the Tigers 32-24 with a balanced effort, as Purvlicis and Pete Nicksic each grabbed six, and three others pulled down four.
"They say the two stats that are most related to winning are rebounding and opponent field goal percentage," Fenlon said. "We stunk in both of those areas and were still able to win the game. So in my view in some ways we dodged a bullet.
"The way we were able to counteract the rebounding is they turned it over 10 more times than we did. We had a few extra cracks at it that way."
The game started with the Little Giants committing five turnovers before their first points. On the night, they gave the ball away 14 times, compared to five for the Tigers.
DePauw led the Little Giants 19-10 in points off turnovers.
The Tigers wrap up NCAC play with a 3 p.m. Saturday game at Ohio Wesleyan. With a win, DePauw earns the number-two seed in next week's conference tournament.
Regardless of the outcome, the Tigers will host an NCAC tournament quarterfinal game on Tuesday, Feb. 25, following the DePauw women's quarterfinal game.
The game could be a rematch of Wednesday's contest, as the Little Giants will be either the sixth or seventh seed, depending on their Saturday outcome at Kenyon.
Fenlon said his team needs to rebound better if it expects to make a run in the conference or potentially in the NCAA tournament. A recent downturn in rebounding has coincided with losing three of five before the Wabash game.
"We've got to rebound better. The last five or six games, we haven't done a very good job," Fenlon said. "I thought that was something we did a really good job of for about the first three quarters of the season and then just the last couple of weeks, we just have not rebounded the ball as a team nearly as well as we need to and as well as I think we're capable of."
At DePauw
Wabash 33 41 -- 74
DePauw 45 30 -- 75
Wabash: Walsh 7-9 0-0 20, Oetting 3-6 6-7 12, Aiton 3-6 2-2 10, Purvlicis 4-6 2-4 10, Kammrath 2-3 11 5, Burton 1-4 2-3 4, Scofield 1-1 2-3 4, Ulrich 1-1 0-0 3, Nicksic 1-1 1-2 3, Hodges 1-5 0-0 3, Wagner 0-1 0-0 0, Sponsler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-26 FG, 16-22 FT, 74 points.
DePauw: Botts 10-15 4-5 29, Dillon 5-10 3-3 15, Lattner 1-5 8-8 10, Fernitzh 4-9 0-1 8, Onuorah 3-3 2-3 8, Haggin 1-3 0-0 2, Burns 1-2 0-0 2, Johnson 0-1 1-2 1, Wilkison 0-4 0-0 0, Patton 0-1 0-0 0, Fey 0-0 0-0 0, Rich 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-53 FG, 18-22 FT, 75 points.
3-pt FG: WC 10-17 (Walsh 6-8, Aiton 2-4, Ulrich 1-1, Hodges 1-2, Burton 0-1, Oetting 0-1), DPU 7-14 (Botts 5-6, Dillon 2-5, Patton 0-1, Lattner 0-1, Haggin 0-1). Rebounds-off: WC 32-7 (Nicksic 6-2, Purvlicis 6-1), DPU 24-7 (Fernitz 9-2). Assists: WC 9 (Nicksic 3), DPU 8 (Wilkison 2, Dillon 2). Steals: WC 0, DPU 8 (Dillon 3). Blocks: WC 3 (three with 1), DPU 5 (Fernitz 5). Turnovers: WC 14, DPU 5. Fouls: WC 21, DPU 18. Fouled out: Kammrath. Technical fouls: None. Attendance: 850.