Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw trailed by as many as five in the third period, but in the final 15 minutes the Tigers outscored visiting Kenyon 35-17 to take a 68-55 North Coast Athletic Conference win. The 19th-ranked Tigers improved to 14-1 overall and 6-0 in the NCAC with their 11th straight win, while the Ladies dropped to 9-5 overall and 4-2 in conference.
The teams battled through a tight first half that included nine ties and four lead changes with Kenyon taking a 29-26 lead into the intermission. Neither team held larger than a four-point lead as Kenyon shot 44.4 percent from the field to the Tigers' 27.6 percent.
The Ladies grabbed a five-point lead on two occasions in the third with the latter coming on SharonHull's jumper with 6:28 left in the period. Melinda Franke's layup off a Taylor Howard assist at the 5:16 mark cut the Kenyon lead to three before Maya Howard's bucket on a break and subsequent free throw knotted the scored at 38-38 with 4:45 remaining.
Maya Howard added two more free throws just 37 seconds later to give DePauw the lead. Kenyon'sSidney Cera countered with a three-pointer, but the Tigers scored seven straight starting with a layup from Blair Carlin before Maya Howard converted another three-point play and Kylie Morris finished with a layup from Maya Howard's assist. That run gave DePauw a 47-41 lead with 2:47 left in the third and the Tigers took a 52-47 lead into the final period.
Kenyon's Ifeoma Archimalo opened the fourth with a three-point play before the teams exchanged baskets to make it 54-52 in favor of the hosts. Maya Howard hit two free throws and a jumper to start a 13-0 run that gave the Tigers a 67-52 advantage with 2:31 left and sealed the victory.
Maya Howard led the Tigers with 19 points, while Claire Ryan added 17 and three steals. Taylor Howard, Ryan and Sydney Kopp each grabbed seven rebounds, while Taylor Howard dished out four assists.
Bailey Dominguez led Kenyon with 12 points followed by Jessica Gerber and Archimalo with 11 each. Miranda Diesz hauled down nine rebounds and shared the assist lead with Cera as each had four.
DePauw shot 36.4 percent for the game to Kenyon's 37.0, but the Tigers outscored Kenyon from the line, 25-6. The Tigers committed just 11 turnovers to Kenyon's 16 and held a 16-3 edge in points off of turnovers.
DePauw travels to Denison on Wednesday, January 11, for a 6 p.m. game.