women's basketball

 

 

TICKETS: Tickets will be available for DePauw fans who plan to attend Friday's game. The cost is $5 for adults and $3 for students and can be purchased at the DePauw athletic department. There may be a limited number of tickets available at the door.

RADIO: WGRE (91.5 FM) will carry the game live to Putnam and surrounding counties in West Central Indiana with pregame coverage beginning at 8 p.m. in Greencastle. Chris Forde, Josh Melton and Todd Morgan will bring the action back to Putnam County.

ADDITIONAL LISTENING OPPORTUNITIES: There are a couple alternatives for those outside the WGRE signal who can't make the game. The first is to pick up the love WGRE feed of the game through Teamline. By dialing 1-800-846-4700 and entering the Tigers' access code of 4613, listeners will be connected to the broadcast for a charge. The other choice is to listen to the St. Benedict RealAudio broadcast from station KNSI. To listen to that broadcast you must have a Real Audio player.

PROBABLE STARTERS:

DEPAUW UNIVERSITY TIGERS (21-4)
POS	NO	PLAYER	HT	YR	PPG	RPG	APG
F	34	Amy Hasbrook	5-9	Jr.	7.7	8.0	1.7
C	44	Kelly Bailey	6-2	Jr.	11.1	6.5	1.5
G	13	Jamie Selip	5-4	Jr.	4.7	2.9	3.2
G	23	Susan Bender	5-9	Sr.	10.5	6.0	4.0
G	24	Kelly Morrison	5-8	Sr.	17.9	2.2	2.0
COLLEGE OF ST. BENEDICT BLAZERS (25-1)
POS	NO	PLAYER	HT	YR	PPG	RPG	APG
F	44	Robyn Ruschmeier	6-1	Sr.	14.3	7.2	1.2
C	41	Laura Wendorff	6-1	Jr.	16.3	8.7	0.5
G	34	Jenny Blazer	5-8	Jr.	9.8	2.7	2.5
G	35	Julie Korf	5-9	Jr.	4.4	2.7	1.8
G	25	Molly Mark	5-9	Jr.	11.9	3.7	3.2

COACHES: St. Benedict coach Mike Durbin is in his 14th year overall and his 13th with the Blazers. Overall, his teams have posted a 295-86 record and hist St. Benedict teams are 265-64 for an .805 winning mark. He has twice been named the Division III Coach of the Year and has led the Blazers to the NCAA Division III tournament each of the last 11 years including an appearance in the national semifinals in 1992-93.

Kris Huffman, in her sixth season with the Tigers, is the winningest coach in school history with a 108-46 record. Last week she was named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after directing DePauw to a perfect 18-0 record in conference play. It was her third conference award in the last four years. Over the last three seasons the Tigers are 67-13 for an .838 winning percentage.

SERIES RECORD: Saturday's game is the first meeting between the two schools in women's basketball.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY: This is the Blazers' 11th appearance in the NCAA Division III Championship and they've posted a record of 11-13 after Saturday's 76-68 win over rival St. Thomas. The Tigers are making their third appearance in the last four years with a 2-2 record after Saturday's win over Austin. In 1996 they lost to eventual national champion Oshkosh in the first round. Last season the Tigers knocked off Baldwin-Wallace in the second round before falling at St. Thomas (Minn.) in the round of 16.

REVIEWING THE SECOND-ROUND WINS: Both teams drew first-round byes and won their second-round games to advance to the quarterfinal. DePauw defeated Austin 67-62 behind Susan Bender's 21 points and five assists and St. Benedict beat St. Thomas 76-68 with Robin Ruschmeier leading the way with 20 points and six rebounds.

COMPARING THE TEAMS
Category	DPU	CSB
PPG-Offense	75.1 (24)	79.9 (9)
PPG-Defense	56.4	55.8
Scoring Margin	+18.7	+24.1 (4)
FG%	.466 (9)	.478 (6)
FG%-Defense	.362	.355
3Pt%	.417 (2nd)	.339
3PtFGM/G	4.4	4.1
3Pt%-Defense	.304	.275
FT%	.756 (1)	.680
Rebound Margin	+9.0 (14)	+9.4 (9)
TO/Game	19.0	19.1
Opp TO/Game	20.4	22.2
(numbers in parentheses are their Division III rank as of Feb. 28)

TWO OF THE TOP SHOOTING TEAMS: For the second straight week, this game features two of the top field goal shooting teams in Division III. St. Benedict enters the contest ranked sixth in Division III at 47.8 percent and DePauw is ninth at 46.6 percent. DePauw is also second in the nation in three-point shooting

TOURNEY TALK: DePauw senior guard Kelly Morrison leads Division III in free throw percentage and three-pointers per game and is second in free throw percentage ... St. Benedict's Laura Wendorff is second in Division III percentage at 65.8 and Robyn Ruschmeier is 24th at 56.0 percent ... Wendorff is also 11th in the country with 3.0 blocks per contest ... Molly Mark, Robyn Ruschmeier and Wendorff each were named the the all-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team ... Wendorff was named the MIAC Player of the Year ... Susan Bender is the only player in DePauw men's or women's history to total 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 steals ... Morrison was named the SCAC Player of the Year, while Bender was named to the first team. It marked Bender's fourth all-conference honor in as many years and Morrison's third ... Through the first two rounds of the tournament, home teams have posted a 19-13 record.

AUSTIN POSTGAME NOTES: Saturday's win extended the Tigers' school-record win streak to 17 straight games ... Kelly Bailey's blocked shot with 18:16 left in the game was her second of theafternoon, but it was also the 93rd of her career breaking the record held by Jenn Hein (1993-97) ... Kelly Morrison's 4-for-4 free throw shooting performance lifted her NCAA-leading mark to 90.5 percent and her career percentage to 83.17 percent which is higher than the DePauw record of 82.9 percent held by Carla Weaver (1988-92) and would top the NCAA Division III record of 83.04 percent by Southern Maine's Tammy Anair from 1984-87 ... The Tigers' win lifted their NCAA Championship record to 2-2 and their mark in the Neal Fieldhouse to 2-0 ... The seniors finish their home careers with a 50-7 mark at the Neal.

 

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