Box Score Box score and play-by-play
St. Louis, Mo. - A strong start in each half propelled the Tigers to their fifth straight win in as many tries as they topped Illinois Wesleyan, 80-68, in the first game of the Washington University DIII Shootout.
The 5-0 Tigers, ranked eighth in Division III, advanced to Saturday's title game against top-ranked Washington. The Bears defeated Illinois College by a 83-58 score in Friday's second game. Illinois Wesleyan dropped to 3-2 on the season.
DePauw trailed just once at 3-2 before putting together a 10-2 run to pull ahead 12-5 just 4:35 into the game. DePauw led 22-14 after Katie Cantrell's three-pointer with 12:08 left in the half and then scored the next six points and 16 of the next 20 to take a 38-18 advantage with 6:08 remaining in the half. Illinois Wesleyan scored the final eight points of the half to close the margin to 42-30 at the break.
Sarah Zondor scored a career high nine points in the first half alone and the Tigers connected on 57 percent from the floor including six-of-10 three-pointers.
An 8-2 run in the opening 2:23 moved the DePauw advantage back to 18 at 50-32 as the Tigers got the ball inside with Dana Fegruson scoring the first four and Jill Schneider the next two.
Later in the half the Tigers scored nine straight with two layups from Colleen Powers, a three by Erin Miller and a layup by Amy Argetsinger in a span of two minutes to push the margin to 65-38 with 9:45 left. That margin reached as high as 28 at 68-40 on a layup from Argetsinger with 9:01 remaining.
"I thought we had good balance inside and outside tonight," DePauw head coach Kris Huffman said. "I was disappointed that they had those runs at the ends of the halves though and I thought we could have done a better job on the boards."
Dana Ferguson led DePauw with 15, while Powers posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Zondor finished with 11 and a team-high four assists. Katie Cantrell paced the Titans with 27 followed by Elisa Ettner with 15 and Emily Ettner with 10. Katie Blonn grabbed seven rebounds.
The Tigers shot just under 54 percent from the field and held the Titans to just under 42 percent. Illinois Wesleyan held a 32-31 edge on the boards and hauled down 15 offensive boards. DePauw, however, held a 38-16 advantage in the paint.
