With wins over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College and Transylvania University over the weekend, DePauw University's women's basketball team will move on to the sweet sixteen of the Division III NCAA tournament.
The national tournament is familiar territory for the women, as this is their 11th straight appearance in the competition. It is not uncommon for DePauw to go deep in the tournament as well. The Tigers brought home a championship in 2007 and will be defending their title from last season in the upcoming weeks.
The title defense began on Friday night, as the Tigers took on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' Athenas in the first round of the tournament.
Despite playing the defending national champions on their own floor, the Athenas came out strong and played the Tigers tough in the first half.
"Games come down to matchups, not rankings, not records, " said DePauw head coach, Kris Huffman. "Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was a tough matchup for us with their perimeter play and the way we want to play defense."
This was evident, as seven minutes into the game, the Tigers and Athenas were tied at 12 points each.
It was then, that the DePauw women began to flex their muscles and pull away. Led by senior forward Alex Gasaway's 14 first half points, the Tigers stretched their lead to 34-29 at halftime.
The three-point shooting paced the Tigers through the first 20 minutes. DePauw nailed six shots from beyond the arc in the first half. Over a span of two minutes, DePauw scored 12 straight points thanks to deep shooting threes from senior guard Ali Ross and junior guard Emma Ondik and two from Gasaway paved the way to DePauw's halftime lead.
The depth of the Tigers bench proved to be too much for the Athenas in the second half. DePauw quickly jumped out to a 12-point lead. The Tigers would stretch that margin up to as much as 19 with two minutes and 29 seconds remaining.
Trailing by so much, the Athenas switched into a full-court press defense that allowed them to outscore the Tigers by eight in the final few moments.
"I think it's getting down; the game's a little bit tight," Huffman said. "We maybe didn't handle some possessions as well as we would have liked to, but credit to Claremont, they kept coming at us. They made some plays, and we turned it over."
However, the late run would not be enough as the Tigers would go on to win by a final score of 79-68.
Athena's head coach, Kristen Dowling commented on the difficulty of traveling across the country.
"We expected to travel, period," said Dowling after the game. "In our conference, you expect to travel in the NCAA tournament."
Gasaway led the Tigers in scoring by dropping 20 points on the Athenas. Junior guard Lauren Abendroth chipped in with 10 points off of the bench.
With the win, the Tigers earned the right to take on Transylvania in the second round of the tournament.
In the opening game on Friday night, the Transylvania Pioneers defeated Ohio Northern University 79-71 in a back and forth battle.
However, when the Tigers and Pioneers met on Saturday night, in the second round, Transylvania found themselves in a huge hole just a few minutes into the game.
Five different Tigers scored in the first five minutes and helped DePauw jump out to a 16-1 lead. Ross led the way for the Tigers during the run with five points of her own.
The Pioneers would recover, however, and score the next six points of the game to keep things close for a bit.
The Tigers pulled away midway through the first half. An Abendroth three-pointer made the DePauw lead 32-12 with nine minutes and 42 seconds to play in the first half.
The Pioneers would not lie down and scored a three pointer with less than a minute to play in the first half, Transylvania cut the DePauw lead to nine. The two teams would go into the half with the Tigers on top 43-34.
Transylvania would score the first points of the second half tightening the score within seven. The Tigers followed that up with a run to push their lead back up to as much as 15.
Once again, the Pioneers rallied and didn't let the Tigers run away. Playing a full-court press for much of the second half, the Pioneers forced turnovers and dragged themselves back into the game.
Transylvania narrowed the lead to 72-68 with less than a minute to play, but four made free throws from Ross sealed the deal for the Tigers as they went on to win by a score of 78-68.
"The guards should have been a little more assertive when it came down to it," Ross said. "I think especially on defense we really acted lockdown. They were really driving on us and getting to the free throw line, and I think once we kind of settled down and stopped it, at that point we were kind of able to run down the clock."
Gasaway recorded a double-double for the Tigers with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Senior forward Alison Stephens snatched a career high 16 rebounds and added eight points to the effort. Abendroth had another solid performance coming off the bench with 10 points for the second straight night.
Next up for the Tigers will be Carthage College. The two teams will meet at Neal Fieldhouse in the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament Friday night at 7:30 p.m.