women's basketball

Tigers Avenge Earlier Loss with 68-56 Road Win

Tigers win for 13th time in last 14 contests and move into first-place tie

GAME STATISTICS

HANOVER, IND.- It may be overstating things, but Tuesday's win at Hanover may go down as one of the biggest in DePauw women's basketball history. Sure the 1995-96 Tigers earned the school's first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III tournament, but they failed to achieve one big goal - winning the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference title. Tuesday, the Tigers took a huge step to taking this year's championship and hosting the postseason conference tournament by beating the Panthers 68-56.

The Tigers lost to the Panthers at the Neal Fieldhouse on January 14 and hadn't lost since. Hanover entered the game on a seven-game roll and was perched atop the ICAC standings. Something had to give, but it was not the Tigers' will.

"This was a great win for our team," DePauw coach Kris Huffman said. "We could face them (Hanover) again and there's no question they will again be ready for us."

The early stages of the contest resembled nothing of last month's 51-48 Hanover win as the hosts held an 11-10 lead just 5:26 into the faster-paced contest. But who would have thought that that would be the last Hanover lead of the game as the Tigers led by as many as six on the way to a 23-19 halftime advantage. The first half stats showed the Old Gold shooting just 37.5 percent from the floor, but Hanover at 29.6 percent was far off the 48 percent they shot in the first 20 minutes of the last meeting.

Hanover quickly cut the margin to two at the beginning of the second half, but the Tigers scored seven straight (four from Jenn Hein and three from Amie Williams) to take a 30-21 lead. That advantage reached as many as 10 at 34-24 at the 13:44 mark after Dona Haskett scored, but the Panthers' full-court press started to unnerve the Tigers. In just over a minute the hosts cut the gap to 34-30. Kelly Morrison responded with a jumper as did Erin Mulford and the Tigers were back up by eight with 11:33 left.

A pair of Panthers' free throws cut the margin back to six before Morrison answered with a three-pointer at the 10:22 mark. Hanover would get no closer. The Tigers increased the lead to as many as 14 at 50-36 and 52-38 and spent most of the final seven minutes on the free throw line. In that span the Old Gold connected on 14 of 22 from the charity stripe. Hanover closed the gap to 63-56 with just under a minute to play on Alicia Smith's three-pointer, but the Tigers withstood the final surge for the win.

Morrison led all scorers with 19 including 17 in the second half. Those 17 came in just the 12:33 as the sophomore hit six of seven field goal tries for the game. Ann Hall added 10 points. Smith led Hanover with 14 and Leslie Fryman chipped in with 10. The Tigers dominated the boards by a 45-26 margin and held a 26-13 advantage in the second half. Hein and Mulford each grabbed seven as the Tigers also hauled down 18 off the offensive glass.

DePauw improved to 17-3 on the season and 6-1 in the ICAC, while Hanover fell to 12-8 and 6-1 in conference play. The win, the Tigers' sixth in a row and 13th in the last 14 games, put them in the driver's seat to host the ICAC tournament later this month.

The Tigers continue ICAC action when they host Rose-Hulman at 1 p.m. on Saturday.