With their 74-50 win over Hiram College, the DePauw University's women's basketball team clinched their third straight North Coast Athletic Conference championship on Saturday at home against Hiram.
With the win, the DePauw Tigers advanced to 22-0 overall, and 13-0 in conference. This win is the 56th consecutive win dating back to March 1, 2012. The Hiram Terriers fell to 5-17 overall and 1-12 in conference.
The Tigers tied the school record in that matchup with 13 three-point baskets over the course of the game with junior guards Emma Ondik and Lauren Abendroth each providing four.
The first half provided a close matchup with back-and-forth play throughout the half. A number of lead changes in the half kept the game interesting, but a 12-0 run in the second half put Hiram away.
"I think the run in the second half did give us the momentum we were looking for," Abendroth said. "Coach talks a lot about stopping other teams runs in order to start our own. The 12-0 run gave us the energy we needed to pick up our defense and start to withering them away."
Despite a surge toward the end of the first half by Hiram, the Tigers held off the Terriers going into halftime, up 43-24.
In the second half, the Tigers held off the Terriers with junior guard Hannah Douglas leading all scorers with 16 points closely followed by senior forward Alex Gassaway with 15 points.
Earlier in the week, on the seventh, the Tigers took part in the Play for Kay game in recognition of cancer research. The Tigers sported pink jerseys to display their support. In a matchup featuring the top two teams in the conference, only one came out with the victory as the Tigers romped the Allegheny College Gators with a 51 point win 91-40.
Despite the Gators kicking off the scoring and playing high pressure, full court press defense, the Tigers took control early and never looked back. As the game progressed, the Tigers defense took control, and the offense began firing at all cylinders like in so many other recent games.
Solid play from senior forward Alex Gasaway at both ends of the court kicked off and held an early 10-0 run. As soon as the Tigers broke away, they never let up.
The Tigers defense was the story of the game, however, as the defense held the Gators scoreless for long stretches of multiple minutes. Four minutes passed in the first half without the Gators scoring.
DePauw went into the halftime on a burst of momentum with a nice three pointer from Gasaway with 15 seconds remaining. The Tigers went into the locker room up 45-20.
DePauw maintained control throughout the second half, as the Gators did not score at all in the first seven minutes. As the Tigers put the game out of reach, the reserve players checked in and kept the game out of reach.
The Tigers are back in action tomorrow against Wittenberg University at 6 p.m.