Junior Sarah MacKay drives past a Southwestern defender. (photo: Marilyn Culler)

Box score and play-by-play

GREENCASTLE, IND. - The 17th-ranked Tigers built a big first-half lead and held on in the second half on the way to their sixth straight win as they defeated visiting Southwestern, 67-56.

The win kept the Tigers in first place in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings at 7-1 (one-half game ahead of Sewanee). DePauw also improved to 12-3 overall. Southwestern fell to 5-9 overall and 3-4 in SCAC play.

DePauw never trailed and used a 9-0 first half run started by three-pointers from Sarah MacKay and Lindsey Rush to jump out to an 18-6 advantage. That lead reached as many as 15 at 24-9 on Meredith Miles' layup with 8:04 remaining in the half. The Pirates closed the gap to 29-20 at the break.

Southwestern closed to within four on a couple of occasions early in the second half, but the Tigers were able to slowly put the visitors away. The big push came at the midway point of the second half as the Tigers held a 47-38 lead. Miles' nailed a jumper before Rush added a basket and Miles came back with a three-point play to push the gap to 16 at 54-38 with 9:01 to play.

Junior Lindsey Blackman battles through traffic in the paint during the first half. (photo: Marilyn Culler)

Rush led all scorers with 18 points and MacKay added 13. Each hit a pair of three-pointers. Anna Sykes posted a double-double for the Pirates with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Misty Richenau came off the bench to total 12 points. Southwestern held a 42-31 advantage on the boards including a 23-11 second-half dominance.

The Tigers travel to Terre Haute on Thursday for a 6 p.m. showdown with Rose-Hulman in the final game of the first half of double round-robin SCAC play.

NOTES: Southwestern was just the fifth team to hold a rebound advantage on the Tigers this season and their 11 board advantage was the biggest against DePauw since Sewanee outrebounded the Tigers by 12 early in the 1998-99 season ... The Tigers are 7-0 at home this season and have posted a 21-1 home record in SCAC games in their three seasons of play. Since the beginning of the 1995-96 season, the Tigers have compiled a 118-29 record for an .803 winning percentage and are 68-9 at home during that time for an .883 winning percentage  ... With one more win the Tigers will assure themselves of their sixth straight winning season.