Over their last two seasons, the DePauw University women's basketball team repeatedly gave our community reasons to cheer.
The women won their conference this season and last season with records of 15-1 and 16-0, respectively. In the 2012-2013 season, they went undefeated and brought home an NCAA national championship (Whoo!).
This season, they continued their winning streak, bringing home 58 regular season victories between the two seasons before finally being taken down by Ohio Wesleyan University on Feb. 22, 65-64. Clearly Ohio Wesleyan just got lucky.
They score, on average, 75.5 points per game, giving them a scoring margin of +24.8. They grab, on average, about 10 more rebounds than their opponents and give up about 6 fewer turn over, according to the NCAC website. As of Feb. 26, the NCAA had them ranked number one in Division III for the Great Lakes region.
But the team impressed their fans years before the 2012 season began. The Tigers have taken their conference each year since the 2006-2007 season, five seasons before DePauw left the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for the NCAC. In 2007, they brought home an NCAA championship.
Tonight, the women's basketball team will defend an NCAA top spot for the second time in just over five years, but whether they win or lose does not matter. They will still be a team for us to cheer.