The DePauw men's basketball team had a solid Thanksgiving break, as it came away with two wins in the Mike Rokicki Community Versus Cancer Challenge played at Neal Fieldhouse. The Tigers knocked off PurdueUniversity North Central 71-54, as well as Franklin College 72-55.
Despite winning both games by double digits, head coach Bill Fenlon was not satisfied with some aspects of his team's performance, primarily the start of each game.
"I thought we were a little sluggish on Saturday, and I wasn't very pleased with our general readiness on Sunday," Fenlon said. "But I thought we did a lot of good things, particularly in the second half."
The Tigers were able to utilize their depth as a couple of experienced players did not have as much court time over the weekend. Senior Kevin Sullivan did not play at all due to a foot injury and junior Alex Payne only played sparingly as he has been working his way back from anankle injury.
"We played a lot of other guys, and I thought we had a lot of good performances from a lot of guys," Fenlon said. "I thought we had pretty good depth in the group and hopefully we're developing that depth, which is what we're trying to do at this point in the season."
In the first game against Purdue University North Central, the Tigers dominated in the paint as they outscored the Panthers 36-12. Senior forward Barry Flynn led the charge scoring 16 points to go along with seven rebounds. However, the Panthers only trailed by one point at half partly because of their zone defense, something DePauw had yet to see this year.
"We got off to a big lead, and they went zone, and we got a little quick-shot happy from the three-point line which got them back into the game," Fenlon said. "It's the first time we've seen any zone, and we have a lot of guys that are very good three-point shooters and I think their eyes kind of lit up."
The Tigers were led in the second game against Franklin College by junior guard Michael Wilkison who dropped in 18 points in the win.
The team is now on a three-game winning streak and will look to continue it Wednesday at Earlham College.