BOX SCORE

March 2, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - The ninth-ranked Tigers improved to 26-3 and advanced to the NCAA Division III second round following a 74-54 victory over visiting Transylvania. The Pioneers finished their season at 19-9 with the loss. DePauw advances to the second round where they face Denison. The Big Red defeated Hope by an 82-66 in the evening's first game.

DePauw never trailed in the game, but battled through a tight first half. After trailing by eight, the Pioneeres battled back to one at 26-25 on Jessica Hanson's layup with 1:25 left. Liz Bondi added a layup and Gretchen Haehl delivered a three-point play to push the Tigers' halftime lead to 31-25.

Suzy Doughty scored a couple of layups at the start of the second half and pushed the DePauw lead to double digits and eventually the Tigers stretched the margin to 18. Transylvania closed the gap to 13 on a couple of occasions, but the Tigers again pulled away for the win.

Haehl led DePauw with 18, while Liz Bondi and Cassie Pruzin each scored 10. Jenna Fernandez grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds as the Tigers held a 49-34 edge on the boards. Cindy Beavin led Transylvania with 12 points, while Julie Leach added a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds and Jessica Gilbert followed with 10.

DePauw shot just 38.8 percent from the field, but held the Pioneers to 30.2 percent. DePauw snagged 20 offensive rebounds which led to 14 second-chance points.

 "We thought they (Transylvania) were really talented and knew it was going to be a battle," DePauw head coach Kris Huffman said.

Denison looked amazing, great depth, great team defense," Huffman said of Saturday's second-round opponent.

"They can hurt you many different ways offensively. They're very, very impressive."

"They're (DePauw) a deeper basketball team and they definitely picked it up offensively and defensively in the second half," Transylvania coach Greg Todd said.

"I thought we did a pretty good job in terms of defensively challenging shots."

Tickets for Saturday's second-round game go on sale at the Lilly Center at 6 p.m.