Wednesday women: Change at the top

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Jordan Holmes and Denison have muscled their way into a tie for first in the NCAC.
Denison athletics file photo by JRD photography

Denison and Rowan grabbed shares of first place in their conferences by beating perennial conference champions on Wednesday night.

Denison scored an extremely rare road win at DePauw, 63-54. It's only the Tigers' second regular season loss in the NCAC since they joined the conference in 2011. It also ended DePauw's 96-game home winning streak in conference play, dating back to DePauw's time in the SCAC in January 2003. Recap

Denison outscored the Tigers 16-6 in the final quarter as DePauw made just one of its final 15 shots. Jordan Holmes notched a double-double (13 points, 14 rebounds) for the Big Red who improve to 11-3, 4-1 in the NCAC. DePauw, which is also 4-1 in conference, will travel to Denison later this month.

Rowan beat No. 23 Montclair State 68-64 in a meeting of two teams going different directions. The Profs held the Red Hawks to one free throw in the final two minutes while making enough of their own to pull away. Kate Matthews posted her fourth double-double in a row for Rowan, which is 12-1, 6-0 in NJAC. Montclair has dropped three of its last four.

York (Pa.) and Salisbury played a game that was so tightly contested it took extra time to determine the winner. York twice appeared to win the game with made baskets in the final 26 seconds of regulation, but Julia McLaughlin's buzzer beater forced overtime where the Spartans finally prevailed, 80-74. Recap

The WIAC tipped off conference play with an upset as UW-River Falls beat No. 13 UW-Oshkosh, 76-69. The Falcons never trailed and led by as many as 21 points. Richell Mehus scored 30 points and had six steals for River Falls (10-2). Taylor Schmidt had 12 points for the Titans (9-3) who have dropped three straight.

UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point prepped for Saturday's showdown with home wins. The sixth ranked Warhawks beat UW-Stout 72-60 while the 24th ranked Pointers pulled away from UW-Eau Claire 59-52. Stevens Point hosts Whitewater on Saturday afternoon.

No. 17 Wheaton (Ill.) evened its CCIW record by beating Illinois Wesleyan 72-66. Katie McDaniels had 19 points and seven assists in 39 minutes for the Thunder. Liz Rehberger had another big night in North Park's 69-52 victory over Carthage. She has scored 73 points in the Vikings' first two conference games, both wins.

Lauren Hancher scored 38 points for Wooster and Anna Gibbs added 20 more, but it still wasn't enough to overcome Ohio Wesleyan. The Battling Bishops outlasted the Scots 101-94 in double-overtime. Ohio Wesleyan's starters scored 91 points, led by Megan Kuether (34) and Taylor Dickson (33).

Brandi Blattner scored 27 points to lead St. Mary's (Minn.) past St. Catherine 71-67. The Cardinals sit atop the MIAC with an 11-1, 5-0 mark. No. 9 St. Thomas rallied past Gustavus Adolphus 67-45 to stay one game back.