Another successful season for the No. 8 Tigers (25-4) came to a close on Friday when No. 4 Hope College (27-3) stifled the DePauw offense and led from start to finish for a final score of 77-65.
Playing on Hope's home court in Holland, Mich., the Tigers traveled in to a hostile environment looking to upset last year's runner-up to the Div. III national title. Led by 6'3"center and last year's national player of the year, the Flying Dutch turned to Carrie Snikkers who led all scorers with 21 points. DePauw fell into a trap of trying to contain Snikkers and were exposed to perimeter jump shooting.
"I thought we did a decent job defensively, but it happens that you run into a team that gets in the zone and plays their best basketball," said head coach Kris Huffman.
As the Tigers chased the ball around the court, the Flying Dutch perimeter players came loose off of screens and took advantage of their earned space between them and their defenders. In the first half alone, Hope shot 6-10 from beyond the three-point arc, while the Tigers went 1-5. Hope shot 54.3 percent from the field and 10-18 from deep to the Tiger's 35.7 percent and 3-15.
"We have a tendency to catch teams on their best game," Huffman said. "But that's because of our tradition and people step it up when they face us."
Despite the poor shooting from the Tigers in the first half, they trailed Hope only by six points, due to hitting 14 of 16 shots from the free throw line. Credit DePauw's aggressiveness in driving to the hoop and putting pressure on the Hope defense.
"Hope is probably the toughest team in the nation because of the pressure they put on the guards," Huffman said. "When it's difficult to get into a flow on offense, it makes for a long night of manufacturing buckets."
Ten minutes into the second half, the Flying Dutch pushed their lead to 26 points with a score of 68-42. Huffman said the Tigers, who focuses on passing the ball quickly to the reverse side of the court, Hope's size is what dictated the Tiger's offense of pull-up jumpers and drives to the basket.
"He really went with his top five quite a bit," Huffman said of Hope head coach Brian Morehouse. "We could've doubled-down on Snikkers more, but what was happening is they were hurting us from the three-point line."
One positive for the Tigers was the effort on rebounding, where DePauw held the edge 32-30 and had 15 offensive boards.
"I definitely didn't expect our season to end so soon," said junior forward Katie Aldrich, who paced the Tigers with 14 points. "But it was still a very fun, exciting and memorable year."
The Tigers rode an 11-game winning streak into the tournament which included Huffman's 400th career win at DePauw, an SCAC title and Katie Mathews, a guard, scoring her 1,000th point on her way to close her senior year with a career total of 1,019 and placing her 10th on the DePauw all-time scoring list.
"I'm unbelievably proud what this team accomplished throughout the year," Huffman said. "We improved from game one ‘til the end of the season."
After the victory over the Tigers, Hope faced Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday for a second-round rematch of last year's national championship game. Hope fell to the defending champs by a score of 56-52.