Head coach Kris Huffman called it “Toughness tour 2013.”
A slew of road games logged more bus miles than points during a three-game road stretch. But while the path was long, it came with an expected reward at the end.
The DePauw women’s basketball team is the outright winner of the NCAC regular season title, and in doing so, clinches home-court advantage in the NCAC tournament. The Tigers claimed their fourth straight conference title by downing Allegheny College, 67-36, and Hiram College, 91-44.
In both games, the No. 1 ranked team in the country led by 19 points at halftime, and out-rebounded both opponents by a combined 33 boards.
“We had a great week,” Huffman said. “You can’t miss a beat when you’re leading the conference, and everyone wants to take a shot at you. I do like how we’ve prepared, and how they’re ready to play each day.”
Friday’s game against Allegheny (11-10, 6-6 NCAC) featured the Tigers snatching the lead early on, and scoring 12 unanswered points for a 16-2 lead after just four minutes.
“They have a very guard-heavy team, and their strength is that they can beat you off the dribble,” Huffman said. “Allegheny was ready to play us. They were extremely physical in that game. I thought we played a good first half, and an even better second half.”
Junior forward Alex Gasaway and sophomore guard Savannah Trees paced DePauw’s offense with 14 points apiece. The defense also shined bright, holding the Gators’ field goal percentage at 28.4 percent on 18-36 shooting.
On Saturday, the game was notably closer early on, as Hiram (8-14, 3-10 NCAC) responded to DePauw’s opening 10 straight points with an 8-2 run of its own. After nine minutes, the Tigers led by three.
“They were going more of an up-tempo game and more guard-oriented than they’ve been before,” Huffman said. “They were ready to play us, and there was some excitement there before the game in shooting the ball. It was a challenge for us initially.”
That was as close as the Terriers would come, however, as the Tigers scored 14 straight points, and led by as much as 47 with just one minute left to play in the game to seal home-court advantage in the NCAC tournament – and the senior class’ 100th win.
Leading the way on offense again was Gasaway who piled on 17 points with seven steals and four rebounds.  
“Alex is a special player who is a little bit undersized in the post, but plays a little bit bigger than who she is,” Huffman said. “She’s playing as well as she’s ever played. She wants the ball for us, which is key.”
Ali Ross also stood out on offense against Hiram, and completed a week where the junior guard scored 40 points and nailed six three-point shots.
“What Ali doesn’t get credit for is we put her on one of the best guards, a lot of times the point guard to see if she could go and disrupt the offense,” Huffman said. “She is so valuable defensively for us.”
Both wins improve DePauw to a perfect 22-0 overall, and 13-0 in NCAC play. The Tigers now have won 22 or more games in 12 straight seasons – the first Division III women’s basketball team to accomplish the feat.
“We didn’t go into the season saying, ‘OK, we want to be undefeated,’ but we wanted to try and get better every day, and see how good we could become.” Huffman said. “This team, if I can label them, would be one of the most consistent teams we’ve had, and one of the hardest working we’ve had, maybe the hardest working team.
“They seem to have a great focus about them. They have a lot of fight in them. They push each other in practice, they encourage each other and it’s really just been a lot of fun to coach this team.”
DePauw next hosts Oberlin College (8-14, 3-10 NCAC) on Saturday at the Neal Fieldhouse.