Menu
The Tigers' challenge: Beat the best
WOOSTER, Ohio -- Four teams finished the North Coast Athletic Conference season with winning records this season.
The same four men's teams took care of business in the first round of the conference tournament, leaving them standing in the semifinal round on Friday.
Wooster, DePauw, Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan converge on Wooster's Timken Gymnasium Friday and Saturday to determine the 2014 NCAC conference tournament champion.
The winner will earn an automatic bid in the 2014 NCAA Division III tournament.
With this in mind, the task at hand for the DePauw Tigers (19-7, 13-5) is relatively straightforward: Beat the best to be the best.
The good news is, the Tigers have been pretty good at that so far this season. With a regular-season sweep of Wittenberg and splits with Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan, DePauw has a 4-2 record against its competition this weekend.
But the regular season and postseason are two different things. DePauw's first order of business will be getting a third win against Wittenberg in the 6 p.m. Friday matchup.
Even after watching his Tigers defeat the (other) Tigers by an average of 24 points in the first two contests, DePauw coach Bill Fenlon said he expects a tough game.
"Wittenberg's a nationally-ranked team, a really good basketball team. Great tradition," Fenlon said. "They're going to be ready to go. We'll get ourselves ready to go. It should be a great game."
Sitting at 20-6 on the season and 13-5 in the NCAC, Wittenberg is ranked 22nd in the latest d3hoops.com top 25. The Tigers have won three straight games since losing consecutive contests to DePauw and Wooster on Feb. 12 and 15.
Wittenberg is averaging 71.9 points per game on .464 shooting, while holding opponents to 62 points on .391 shooting. It has also grabbed nearly nine more rebounds per game than its opponents.
DePauw reversed these trends in its two contests with Wittenberg, shooting an impressive .546 while holding Wittenberg to .330 shooting. DePauw also outrebounded Wittenberg in each contest.
These are the two key stats Fenlon has cited regarding his team's successes and failure in recent weeks. In particular, when the Tigers began struggling on the glass in early February, they lost three of five games.
They have since righted the ship and won three straight.
For the season, DePauw is averaging 69.9 points per game on .448 shooting, while allowing 63.3 points on .426 shooting. The Tigers outrebound opponents by an average of three per game.
Tommy Fernitz leads three DePauw double figures scorers with 14.6 points per game, followed by Pat Haggin at 12.5 and Michael Wilkison at 11.6.
DePauw has shown recently that it can get contributions from a number of sources, with Fernitz, Haggin, Wilkison and Adam Botts all notching 20-point games at some point this season.
Fernitz leads DePauw on the boards, with 10 per game. His 47 blocked shots put him only three behind the school single-season record, set by Jim Giesen in 1994-95.
Frank Patton III leads DePauw with 1.6 assists per game and 26 steals.
Scott Masin leads Wittenberg with 15.9 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game. Zack Leahy contributes 11.6 points per contest and Sam Collins follows with 10.5.
Trying to beat a quality opponent for the third time in a season can be tough, but after finding out his team would again face Wittenberg, Fenlon said that factor does not bother him.
"We've matched up pretty well against them the first two times," Fenlon said. "People talk about that whole thing about trying to beat somebody three times in a year. I've always thought I'd rather be the guy who already won twice than be the guy who hadn't won at all."
The game will be broadcast live on 91.5 WGRE or online wgre.org. Live video is available at client.stretchinternet.com/client/wooster.portal#
The winner of the first semifinal will await the winner of Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster from semifinal No. 2. The teams split their regular season contests, each one winning on the opponents' home court.
The final tips off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Timken Gymnasium on the College of Wooster campus.
-