DePauw women stay atop NCAC with Denison win

The DePauw women’s basketball team used a strong second half and 26 points from guard Riley Mont to remain in a tie atop the NCAC conference with a 66-54 victory over the Denison Big Red at Neal Fieldhouse Wednesday night.

Mont would get going quickly, scoring 11 of DePauw’s first 13 points, mostly getting to the rim driving to the basket. Denison battled back using their inside game and kept things close, trailing only 18-14 after the opening quarter.

The Big Red came out strong to start the second quarter, scoring the first seven. DePauw countered back. Ava Hassel scored six in the quarter. Lydia Stullken came off the bench and grabbed six first half rebounds to help keep pace with the strong posts of Denison.

The Tigers were trailing by two when Lily Huntzinger scored with just seven tenths of a second left to tie it up at the half.

Denison would keep it close in the third. Riley Mont scored eight more in the quarter though to edge the Tigers to a slim five-point lead. Denison then answered with Ava Warcaba with four straight. Moira McGinley and Diana Burger then scored five consecutive to keep DePauw out in front going into the final quarter.

A solid start to the final session, DePauw used an 11-2 spurt in the early portion grew the lead to 11. Five different Tigers scored in that stretch. They would pull out to as many as 15 after a basket from Mya Shannon and four foul shots from Hassel. Denison could only add a late three-pointer and fell to DePauw 66-54

The Tigers moved to 10-1 in conference play and picked up their 15th win overall. Three Tigers finished in double figures, paced by Mont’s 26. McGinley finished with 12 and Hassel 11. Mont and Stullken each finished with six rebounds. DePauw’s defense held Denison to just 35 percent shooting from the field and 29 percent from three point range.

DePauw has three games remaining as they battle for the number one seed and home court for the conference tourney. They will travel to Oberlin on the 11th then return home to face third place Ohio Wesleyan, who sits just one game back. Before finishing on the road at Wooster.

Team Stats

Individual Scoring

DPU - Mont 26, McGinley 12, Hassle 11, Shannon 6, Huntzinger 5, Stullken 4, Burgher 2

DEN - Carpenter 12, Westmeyer 8, Toigo 8, Warcaba 7, Elliott 7, Fisher 5,Sileo 3, two with 2