DePauw trailed by as many as 13 midway though the second half of its North Coast Athletic Conference game at Wittenberg and battled back to within three, but the hosts held on for a 66-62 win.

DePauw dropped to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in the NCAC, while Wittenberg improved to 14-4 overall and 8-1 in the conference.

Wittenberg took the early lead and expanded it to 11 late in the opening half, but Barry Flynn's layup and Michael Wilkison's three close the hosts' halftime lead to 30-24. DePauw shot just 39.1 percent in the first half to Wittenberg's 56.5 percent.

Scoring the first five points of the second half, Wittenberg pushed the lead back to double digits. That margin reached as many as 13 on a couple of occasions with the last coming at 45-32 with 9:24 left.

Wittenberg still held a 47-36 advantage after Clayton Black's jumper with 6:30 remaining. Flynn's layup followed by Alex Payne's three-pointer and Flynn's three-point play cut the lead to 47-44 with 4:32 left.

Flynn's steal gave DePauw a chance to tie the game, but Wilkison's three-pointer was off the mark. Wittenberg missed a pair of free throws with 3:40 left, but the hosts grabbed the offensive rebound and Michael Cooper buried a three to push the lead to six.

That was the first of a stretch of five straight possessions with a three-pointer over a 1:16 stretch. Kevin Sullivan answered for the Tigers, but Cooper hit another to make it 53-47. Wilkison's trey with 2:35 remaining closed the Wittenberg lead to 53-50, but Cooper knocked down his third three-pointer in just over a minute to make it 56-50.

Payne's layup made it 56-52, but the hosts hit all 10 free throws in the final 1:12 of the game and secured the victory.

Sean Haseley led the Tigers with 14 points and, early in the second half, became the 24th player in program history to reach 1,000 points. Wilkison and Flynn each scored 11 and Sullivan added 10. Flynn and Camron Burns each grabbed five rebounds and Wilkison dished out three assists.

Black paced Wittenberg with 19 points, while Cooper added 12. Black also topped the 1,000-point plateau in the win. Josh McKee and Black each grabbed eight rebounds as Wittenberg held a 35-25 edge on the boards.

DePauw shot 43.9 percent for the game and committed just eight turnovers, while Wittenberg hit 54.8 percent from the floor for the best shooting performance against the Tigers this year.