The Kenyon College Ladies defended their home court and broke DePauw’s 19 game winning streak, in a close 64-70 loss that came down to the final minutes of the contest.
DePauw dropped to 22-2 overall and 14-1 in the NCAC following the conference loss. DePauw recently solidified the top seed in the conference tournament while Kenyon clinched the second seed with the win.
“I guess we're not really thinking about the loss as a snap of our streak, rather it just being a disappointing loss,” said senior Taylor Howard.
DePauw got off to a hot start in the beginning of the game, scoring the first 5 points. Kenyon quickly returned and ended the first quarter up 13-12 on the Tigers.
DePauw again gained a five-point advantage after first-year Claire Ryan's three-pointer and layup made it 24-19 with 1:55 remaining in the half. Despite the growing momentum, the Ladies closed DePauw’s lead by 1 point, ending the half 24-23.
DePauw struggled with turnovers in the second half and totaled 16 throughout the game. Kenyon took advantage of this opportunity and scored 21 points off of turnovers at the end of the contest.
After first-year Maya Howard hit two free throws with 50 seconds left in the game, Dominguez came right back with a three-pointer that pushed Kenyon's lead to 66-62 with 29 seconds remaining.
Kenyon's Lane Davis knocked in two free throws with eight seconds left before the Tigers missed a three-pointer and Kenyon's Jessica Gerber ended the scoring with two more free throws.
“The outcome was definitely not what we wanted or planned on, but I think it's ultimately going to bring us even closer together and make us work even harder towards our goal. I'm just glad we got this loss out of the way now before the conference tournament and on,” said first-year Sydney Kopp.
Senior Lex Gaumer tried to find the silver lining in the team’s loss. “Sometimes you have to look at losses as timely wake-up calls,” said Gaumer, “and I think for us we will use this as motivation and as something to get us re-motivated to continue to work hard, get better, and prepare for the conference tournament.”