February 14, 2002

BOX SCORE

Terre Haute, Ind. - DePauw, ranked seventh by Basketball America and 10th according to D3Hoops.com, clinched at least a share of its first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title with a 65-57 win at Rose-Hulman.

The victory lifted the Tigers to 20-3 overall and 14-2 in the SCAC, while the Engineers fell to  13-10 and 11-5. The win marked the Tigers' first 20-win season since the 1991-92 campaign and the first in Bill Fenlon's 17-year collegiate head coaching career. The conference title is DePauw first since the 1992-93 season.

It was a classic DePauw-Rose-Hulman battle all the way. The Tigers jumped out to early leads of 14-4 and 23-10, but the hosts fought back to within four at 25-21. DePauw held a 31-23 lead at the break.

The Engineers took the lead at 46-43 on Jon Query's three-pointer with 8:56 remaining and still led 48-47 after Jason Ludwig nailed a pair of free throws with 6:30 left.

Joe Ringger's three-point play, Mike Howland's layup and back-to-back baskets by Joe Nixon and Ringger made it 56-48 with 3:51 left. Query hit one of two free throws at the 3:28 mark, but Nixon came right back with a three-pointer just six seconds later to push the lead to 10 and essentially put the game to rest.

Ringger finished with 20 including 17 of the Tigers' 34 second-half points. Nixon and Jeremy Bettis each added 10 in the win. Chris Unton dropped in 13 for the Engineers, while Query added 12 and Ludwig scored 11.

Rose-Hulman outrebounded DePauw 30-24 marking just the third time all season that the Tigers trailed in that category. Ringger hauled down six boards for the Tigers and Unton grabbed seven for the Engineers. Howland dished out eight assists in the win.

The Tigers scored 18 points off of Rose-Hulman's 17 turnovers, while the Engineers managed only seven off of DePauw's 12 miscues.

In the victory, Ringger pushed his career scoring total to 1,017 points marking the first time in school history that three teammates reached the 1,000-point plateau.

DePauw can earn the SCAC's automatic qualification into the NCAA Division III Championship with a Trinity loss this weekend or with one win in next weekend's season finale games at Centre (Friday, Feb. 22) and at Sewanee (Saturday, Feb. 23).