The women’s basketball season came to an end this past weekend. After defeating Webster University 71-45 on Friday night, the Tigers lost 71-60 to Loras College on Saturday.
DePauw dominated Webster from start to finish, controlling the tempo of the game and enforcing their gameplan from the tip-off. “I thought we did a pretty good job of responding when we needed to respond,” head coach Kris Huffman said. “We had different people step up-- Hayley Cange in the paint, Claire Keefe got us off to a fast start, and these two scoring machines [Sydney Kopp and Mya Shannon].”
Mya Shannon was 4-6 from three-point range, leading the team in scoring with 22 points.
A year ago, DePauw knocked Loras out of the national tournament, however, the Duhawks took their revenge this year. “We have so much respect for who [DePauw] is, what they’ve done, and their seniors. I thought physically, we came ready to play,” Loras’s head coach Justin Heinzen said. “I’m really proud of the way these guys executed and battled.” The Tigers lost control of the game in the second quarter, as they were outscored 24-17 before the first half concluded.
“The press took us out of our comfort zone and we didn’t get any good offensive possession once we got down the floor,” Huffman said. “It did not help us that our point guard [Grace Kinsey] was sitting on the bench.”
Kinsey took three fouls in the first half. In the second half, DePauw barely scored, however, Claire Keefe nailed the last three points of the game right as the buzzer sounded.
For seniors Natalie Kehrt and Sydney Kopp, the last minutes of their final game were extremely emotional. “We owe a lot to our coaches and all of our teammates for this season and for the best four years,” Kehrt said. “If I could suit up with these girls for the rest of my life, I would,” Kopp said.
The two combined for a 105-13 record over four years, and Kopp holds the record for most points scored and three-pointers. The two leave a legacy behind in Keefe, Cange, Imani Graham, and Emma LeMasters, the four juniors returning next year.
Despite the loss, Huffman said, “I’m so proud of this team and what they have accomplished this year, you know our goal is to always reach our full potential and I think we did.”
Although the team’s goal was to make the final four, “It ended a couple of weeks earlier than we wanted, but this team achieved great things, I’m really proud of the work that they put in, the gritty nature that they always came to battle with and the people they are.”