Box Score
Senior Joe Nixon led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Tigers' 68-66 win over Trinity.
Greencastle, Ind. - The Tigers increased their lead in the SCAC standings to two full games over second-place Rose-Hulman and 2 1/2 games over Trinity with Sunday's 68-66 win over Trinity at the Neal Fieldhouse.
DePauw (19-3, 13-2 SCAC) stretched a three-point first half advantage to 13 with a 13-3 run to make it 32-19 with 4:06 left in the half.
Trinity (14-7, 10-4 SCAC) scored the next six to close the gap to seven which was the halftime margin with DePauw leading 34-27. That lead was increased to as many as 14 in the first eight minutes of the second half and the Tigers still held a 50-37 advantage at the midway point of the second half after Jeremy Bettis' dunk.
Over the next three minutes, Trinity closed their deficit to two with a 13-2 stretch. During the middle of the run, Trinity's Jason Morris connected on three straight three-pointers over a 53-second span.
DePauw pushed the lead back to as many as eight points at 62-54 with 2:36 remaining, but Trinity refused to quit. Shane Fitts buried a three before Peter Murray added a layup with 1:22 left to make it 62-59.
Joey Hanger then hit one of two free throws for the hosts with 1:07 remaining before Trinity's Nate Coelen connected on two free throws with 50 seconds remaining to make it 63-61. Joe Nixon's jumper with 34 seconds left pushed the lead to 65-61, but Morris hit a pair of free throws with 19 seconds remaining to trim the DePauw lead to 65-63.
Nixon then nailed one of two free throws with 17 seconds left to make it 66-63 and the Tigers, in a planned strategy, fouled Coelen with seven seconds remaining. Coelen hit both tosses to make it 66-65. Trinity fouled immediately on the in-bounds play and Nixon made both free throws with six seconds left to make it 68-65.
DePauw then fouled Coelen before he could get off a game-tying three with two seconds left. Coelen hit the first and missed the second intentionally, but the ball went out-of-bounds as time expired.
On a day in which the Tigers honored seniors Nixon and Mike Howland it was only fitting that Nixon recorded a double-double with game-high totals of 22 points and 10 rebounds. Nixon moved into fourth place on the all-time scoring list with 1,434 points. Joe Ringger added 19 points, while Bettis finished with 13 and eight boards. Howland had a game-high four assists in the win.
Morris paced Trinity with 19, while Coelen added 12 and Murray 10.
The Tigers travel to Terre Haute on Thursday evening for an 8 p.m. contest with the Engineers. A DePauw victory would give them at least a share of the SCAC title.
Tiger seniors Joe Nixon (left) and Mike Howland (right) with their families following their final regular season home game at the Neal Fieldhouse.
