Wooster, Ohio- The DePauw men's basketball team took 10th-ranked Wooster down to the wire, but Evan Pannell's three with 20 seconds left lifted the Fighting Scots to a 63-62 victory.
With the loss the Tigers dropped to 11-6 overall and 4-6 in North Coast Athletic Conference play, while Wooster improved to 15-2 on the year and 9-1 in the NCAC.
Wooster jumped out to a fast start, taking a 10-3 lead in the opening minutes. Xavier Brown netted eight of the Scots' opening 10 points, but failed to score for the remainder of the half.
DePauw closed the deficit with an 8-0 run of their own highlighted by a pair of threes from Bob Dillon. Tied at 21 with 4:30 left in the half, the Tigers would go on a 10-0 run, taking a 31-21 lead into the halftime break.
Tommy Fernitz led all scorers with 11 first-half points. The Tigers shot 13-of-32 (40.6%) from the floor and held Wooster to just 28.6 percent (8-for-28) shooting.
In the second half, DePauw maintained a double-digit lead for the first eight minutes before the Scots began to close the gap. Trailing 43-33, Wooster used a 14-1 run to take a 47-44 lead at the 8:55 mark.
The Tigers tied the score on Dillon's three with 3:36 left and would take the lead on Frank Patton III's three with 1:37 remaining.Luke Lattner's layup with 50 seconds left extended DePauw's lead to 61-57.
Ari Stern hit a three with 37 seconds on the clock to pull Wooster to within one. The Scots fouled Patton on the ensuing inbounds play where he hit the first free-throw, but missed the second.
Following the miss, Alex Lalonde grabbed the rebound and found Pannell who buried a three from the top of the arc, putting Wooster up 63-62 with just 20 seconds left.
Lattner's jump shot with five seconds left was blocked by Lalonde, leaving Lattner with just one second to fire a wild layup that went wide of the hoop.
Fernitz led all scorers with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Dillon added 16 points in the loss. The Tigers shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from the floor, but struggled from the charity stripe going just 7-for-16 (43.8%).
Brown led Wooster with 16 points, while Dan Fanelly and Pannell each added 11 points. The Scots went 19-of-47 (40.4%) from the floor and capitalized from the free-throw line, shooting 80 percent (16-of-20) from the line.
DePauw held a 36-35 advantage on rebounds and won the turnover battle, committing just eight, while forcing 11.
The Tigers return to Neal Fieldhouse Wednesday, January 28, when they host Denison starting at 8 p.m.