The men’s basketball team dropped two conference games this weekend after falling to both Allegheny College and Hiram College. They now move to an overall record of 7-14 for the season.
Friday night’s game against Allegheny proved to be a fairly even matchup.
DePauw managed to secure an 11-point lead in the second half, only to let it slip to the Gators.
“We lost flow on offense and weren’t able to get stops like we had been in the first half,” said sophomore guard Mason Hankins.
Allegheny dominated the last few minutes of the game and closed on a 19-3 run to secure a 59-54 victory.
With only an 18-hour turnaround, the Tigers tipped off Saturday afternoon against a talented team of Hiram College Terriers, who currently hold a record of 15-6.
The two teams originally faced off in early January when Hiram earned a 91-60 victory. This time, however, the Tigers knew what kind of team to prepare for.
“We knew Hiram wants to press and put a lot of pressure on you defensively, so we took care of the ball better than the last time, and we got back in transition better,” sophomore guard David Vogel said.
DePauw took advantage of the home court to maintain a lead for majority of the first half. Despite their efforts to establish a lead early, the Tigers still headed into the locker room trailing by six with a score of 31-25 at halftime.
DePauw came out strong in the second half, quickly closing gap to just three points with the help of a basket from junior guard Luke Lattner. From that point forward, the game was dictated by a series of back-and-forth runs made by each team.
Although their performance had greatly improved from the last matchup against Hiram, the Tigers were unable to pull out the victory and lost to the Terriers by a score of 72-65.
Sophomore Jack VandeMerkt led the Tigers with 17 points. Other strong performances came from Lattner with 15 points and Vogel with 9 points on three three-pointers.
After the games this weekend, DePauw now holds a conference record of 3-11. This places them in a tie with Allegheny College for ninth place in the North Coast Atlantic Conference standings.
The men have four games left in the season, all of which are competitive conference matchups.
“Since we only have four games left in the regular season we need to keep improving and I think we can come out with some W's,” Vogel said.
The team travels to Springfield, Ohio on Wednesday to face the Wittenberg Tigers. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.