Sophomore Luke Lattner pumps his arm in excitment after
Washington University's Nick Burk received a technical foul with
less than one minute left in the game. DePauw shot down the
Wash U Bear's 83 to 73 as they moved on to the second round of
the NCAA championship tournament where they will
play Augustana College.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
ST. LOUIS - He was there and he was gone. Five possessions, four threes,12 points and then nothing more.
Those are the numbers that senior Connor Rich put up in the first half of Thursday’s 83-73 win over Washington University-St. Lous in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Bears opened the game on a 9-3 run that was capped by a slam from Matt Paluki. It looked like Washington had all the momentum and was getting ready to open things up early. Rich had different ideas.
He hit a three, missed one, but proceeded to pour in three straight buckets from deep. Not only did this run get DePauw back in the game, but it also served to calm down some of the nerves of the Tigers. This is each player's first trip to the NCAA tournament.
“Just getting some buckets, that was the deal,” DePauw Head Coach Bill Fenlon said. “He knocks in a couple shots, and we kind of stem off having a super bad start.”
Taking a cue from Rich, the DePauw shooters quickly went to work building up a lead of their own and pushed their first half lead to 10 at its largest point.
DePauw men's basketball team won the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday,
defeating the Washington University- St. Louis Bears; 83-73.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
Sophomore Luke Lattner shot 5-of-10 from the field and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, while senior Bob Dillon was 2-of-2 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. As a team, the Tigers shot an impressive 52 percent from the field and 75 percent from three in the first half on their way to a 40-35 lead at the end of the half.
DePauw did this without any help from senior Tommy Fernitz who picked up two early fouls and finished the first half with zero points on no shot attempts.
Fenlon put the 6-foot-9 Fernitz back in to start the second half. The move to hold him out seemed to work.
Fernitz scored nine of his team’s first 12 points of the second half and gave DePauw a presence down low that they were lacking in the opening 20 minutes.
“I think a lot of that just starts with the warm up coming out to the second half,” Fernitz said. “I came in there with fresh legs and those guys have been battling.”
Pair that performance from Fernitz with the three three-pointers hit by junior Bradley Fe,y and the Tigers were in business in the second half.
The Bears wouldn’t go away, however. They kept the deficit within seven points for most of the second half. While the Tigers relied on bursts from several key players, Washington used its tournament experience to stay in the game.
Four Bears scored in double figures; only 10 appeared in the game.
The second half turned into a back and forth contest as the Tigers and Bears changed leads eight times in the final 10 minutes of action. DePauw took the lead for good with 1:46 to play when Fernitz converted on a basket down low to put the Tigers up by one.
After a layup from Lattner, the Bears had to force up a three that missed and was rebounded by Dillon, who was then fouled. Dillon converted on both of his free throws and senior Frank Patton III added four more from the charity stripe to end the Bears’ chances.
Lattner to lead the Tigers with 18 points followed up by Dillon and Fernitz with 13 each. Dillon finished just two rebounds shy of a double-double. Rich completely disappeared from the action, attempting just one shot in the second half and finishing with the 12 points.
Michael Onuorah, Mark Johnson, Connor Rich, Tommy Fernitz and
Luke Lattner (left to right) cheer as DePauw's matchup against
Washington University in St. Louis is announced.
Washington snagged an at-large bid to the NCAA championship
tournament while DePauw's NCAC post season titeguranteed them a spot.
SAM CARAVANA / THE DEPAUW
For the Tigers, this win comes after an emotional weekend where they played double overtime game, upset the number one seed in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament, Coach Fenlon earned his 500th career win and the Tigers claimed the conference championship.
“Well at the beginning of the year we had high expectations to begin with,” Lattner said. “We knew we could be a good team. We started slow, but we clicked right at the start of the conference tournament.”
For Fenlon, it was all about putting the weekend behind them and moving forward.
“Competition is just like life,” Fenlon said. “You accomplish something, you do something great, and then the important thing is there’s the next thing. It’s how well you reset to get to the next thing that really kind of defines who you are.”
Next up for the Tigers is a date with Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois on Saturday in the second round of the tournament.
Said Fenlon: “We’re going to enjoy it until we sit down and start talking about Augustana at some point tomorrow, and then if these guys have it in them to reset and refocus like they have the last couple of weeks, I think we’ll be able to go to Rock Island and compete well.”