Sophomores Luke Lattner, Clint Cunningham, Austin Morton and
Nate Jahn hold the NCAC trophy after defeating Wooster 69-56.
DePauw's first NCAA Championship matchup is against
Washinton University-St. Louis on Thursday.
PHOTO COURTESTY OF BRENNAN CHAMPION
If you ask him, he’ll say that it’s not a big deal, that all he’s focused on is winning the next game and moving on. What is DePauw University Men's Basketball Head Coach Bill Fenlon talking about? Is it his 500th career win as a coach, or the fact that his Tigers are North Coast Athletic Conference champions?
It’s both actually.
“I was going to get 500,” Fenlon said. “Unless I was hit by a truck, I was going to get 500. That was just a non-issue for us. What was the issue was getting the game that was in front of us.”
To get there, the Tigers defeated the top seeded Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan University 69-65 on Friday night and then downed the College of Wooster Fighting Scots the following evening in the championship game by a score of 69-56.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors on the team, so we really wanted to go out with a fight,” senior Tommy Fernitz said. “We knew what was at stake, knew we had to go through some tough opponents in some big games.”
The win for the Tigers locks down their first conference title since making the jump to the NCAC and it also guarantees them a spot in the NCAA tournament where they will compete for a national title beginning on Wednesday night when they will travel to face Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday.
“Winning the tourney was a dream come true,” senior Frank Patton III said. “As a kid growing up, you dream about cutting down the nets, whether that is for the conference tourney or the whole thing.”
After defeating Wittenberg University last Tuesday to advance to the conference semifinals, things didn’t look great for the Tigers. Their combined record against the Fighting Scots and Battling Bishops was 0-4 with only one of those losses coming by a single digit point margin.
Friday’s game against hosts Ohio Wesleyan also looked difficult on paper as the Bishops had yet to lose a game at home all season. It looked like that mark would continue, as the Battling Bishops took an eight point lead into halftime.
Ohio Wesleyan stretched the lead to nine with just under 10 minutes to play in the game and looked as if they were headed to the conference finals.
It was there, however, where the Tigers made their comeback. Over the next seven minutes of play, DePauw erased the deficit with a 12-0 run that gave them the lead. Not to be outdone, the Bishops clawed their way back into the game, converting four straight free throws to retake the lead at 63-62 with 1:42 to play.
Senior Tommy Fernitz then converted a layup on the other end to give the Tigers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Patton also chipped in with a key block late in the game to seal Coach Fenlon’s 500th career victory.
“It was really emotional for him,” Fernitz said. “Especially against a team like OWU where everyone kind of counted us out, to get that victory was a really special moment for Coach Fenlon and our team.”
Fernitz led the way for the Tigers, recording a double double with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Bob Dillon was also clutch for the Tigers, scoring 15 points and grabbing 5 boards. Sophomore Luke Lattner also chipped with 11 points off the bench.
The turnaround had to be quick as the Tigers were back in action at Branch Rickey Arena the following day to take on Wooster.
While Friday’s game had a sentimental side to it with Coach Fenlon reaching a coaching milestone, Saturday had a win or go home atmosphere.
With their regular season record, the Tigers likely would not have qualified for an at-large bid to the national tournament. This meant their only path to March Madness involved winning the conference tournament and using the NCAC’s automatic bid.
The Tigers sure played like a desperate team, opening the game on a 13-4 run and holding the Fighting Scots in single digits for the first 11 minutes.
Wooster then turned around and matched DePauw’s energy, as they went on a run of their own to grab the lead late in the half.
While they struggled shooting from the field, DePauw’s 11-of-13 mark from the free throw line allowed the Tigers to take a one point lead into halftime.
Midway through the second half, the Tigers went on an 11-2 run spurred on by five points from junior Connor Rich.
The Fighting Scots trimmed the DePauw lead to seven once again late in the half, but once again, the Tigers’ free throw shooting won the day. DePauw’s final 13 points of the game all came from the charity stripe as the Tigers knocked down 13 of their 16 freebies.
Patton went 15-for-16 from the line and sophomore Luke Lattner went made 11 of 14 tries. Patton’s 20 points marked a career high and helped him secure tournament MVP, while both Lattner and Rich contributed with 15 points each.
“The MVP was just icing on the cake,” Patton said.
Next up for the Tigers is the first round of the NCAA tournament. DePauw will travel to St. Louis to take on Washington University on Thursday.
The Bears are in the tournament thanks to a 22-5 record that saw them finish second in the conference and take one of the tournament’s at-large bids.
The two teams last met in December of 2013 and it was the bears who pulled out a 71-60 win over the visiting Tigers.
“They’ve won a couple of national championships in recent years,” Fenlon said of his team’s next opponent. “They’re just everything that college basketball is supposed to be about: they’re good, they’re competitive, great students at a fantastic institution. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”