The Tigers had their four-game winning streak snapped Saturday afternoon as they lost to Kenyon College, 68-64. This was the first time the Lords defeated DePauw (4-2, 0-1 NCAC) in the history of both schools.
Barry Flynn tallied a career-high 26 points to go along with 14 rebounds in the loss. Flynn also guarded Kenyon's (4-2, 1-0 NCAC) best player, Ikenna Nwadibia, and held the guard to only nine points - seven below his season average.
"I think Barry at many times is our only guy who goes after the ball consistently and is consistently working on the backboard when the shot goes up," head coach Bill Fenlon said. "Until we get it figured out that we're not going to be very effective if we only have one rebounder and one guy that's serious about rebounding, we're going to have games like this."
In the opening minutes, DePauw's offense was highlighted by two three-pointers by guard Michael Wilkison, but then the DePauw offense went stagnate. The team did not score for eight minutes, 46 seconds and were 0-13 from the floor as it fell behind, 21-11, to the Lords.
"We kind of let them punch us in the face until we responded," Flynn said.
The Tigers did respond as they finished the half on a 19-3 run highlighted by Flynn dropping in a tough layup, despite being fouled to tie the game at 24. Senior Kevin Sullivan, who appeared in his first game this season due to a foot injury, was vital in the comeback as he provided eight first half points to push the Tigers to a 30-24 halftime lead.
"I thought he was great. He's an energy guy who goes and gets the ball," Fenlon said.
The second half featured back-and-forth action as there were 10 ties and nine lead changes. After DePauw's Connor Rich hit a three-pointer off a nicely-executed play with 2:21 left to give the Tigers a 62-61 point lead, the Lords to benefitted from two fouls and made all four of their free throw shots to lead 65-62 with 1:14 left. Coming off a timeout, the Tigers tried a lob play for Flynn, but turned the ball over.
"It's not really what we were looking for, we were looking for something else," Fenlon said. "Unfortunately that didn't get communicated well enough in the timeout. We have to do a better job making sure we're all on the same page in those situations."
Despite a late steal by Pat Haggin and a bucket by Flynn to cut the lead to 65-64, the Lords hit three out of four free throws to secure the 68-64 win. The Tigers will look to rebound from the loss Dec. 8 on the road against NCAC opponent, Ohio Wesleyan University (5-1, 1-0 NCAC).