January 17, 2002

BOX SCORE

Jeremy Bettis scored 11 and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to help the Tigers to a 71-67 win over Rose-Hulman.

Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw, ranked 12th by Basketball America and 13th according to D3hoops.com, stayed in first in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with a 71-67 win over visiting Rose-Hulman.

The win lifted the Tigers' overall record to 13-2 and their SCAC mark to 8-1. Rose-Hulman dropped to 8-8 overall and 6-3 in the SCAC.

The Engineers scored the first four points of the game before the Tigers went on a 10-0 run to take a 10-4 lead with 15:29 left in the first half. DePauw later held a 10-point advantage before Rose-Hulman closed the gap to 34-31 at the half after an 11-4 run over the final 5:09. DePauw senior point guard Mike Howland went down with a strained back with 3:05 left in the half and didn't return to the contest.

The second half was a tight battle all the way as the Tigers got out to a couple of seven-point leads early, but twice the Engineers closed the gap to one. DePauw still led 62-60 after Rose-Hulman's Jon Query hit a three-pointer with 1:57 remaining. Joe Nixon then buried a three-pointer with 44 seconds left to make it 65-60.

The Engineers' Jason Ludwig nailed two free throws with 35 seconds left to close the gap to three at 65-62 before Clint Ferguson stole the inbounds pass. Query's three-point attempt to tie was off the mark and Wes Thornhill buried a pair of free throws with 28 seconds. Jon Owens added a layup and two free throws before Michael Cash ended the contest with a put-back for the four-point margin.

Joe Ringger led the Tigers with 16 followed by Nixon with 15 and Jeremy Bettis with 11. Bettis grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Query paced Rose-Hulman with 21 followed by Chris Unton and Ferguson with 12 apiece.

The Tigers shot 53 percent for the game after hitting 64 percent in the first half.

DePauw hosts Hendrix on Friday, January 25, at 8 p.m.