Meadville, Pa. - Fourth-ranked DePauw extended its win streak to 16, but needed an overtime period to do so as the Tigers topped Allegheny, 73-69, in a North Coast Athletic Conference road contest. The Tigers moved to 20-1 overall and 12-0 in NCAC play, while the Gators dropped to 7-13 overall and 3-8 in the conference.

Allegheny jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the opening four minutes, but the Tigers closed the quarter on a 15-2 run to take a 16-12 lead at the quarter break. DePauw's lead reached as many as nine on a couple of occasions in the second before the Tigers went to the halftime intermission with a 34-27 advantage.

The Tigers pushed the margin back to nine early in the third on Claire Keefe's layup, but the hosts gradually chipped away at it and tied the contest at 46-46 on a pair of Alexis Caldwell free throws with 1:34 left in the quarter and that's how the period ended. 

The lead see-sawed until DePauw's Sydney Kopp hit buckets on consecutive possessions to give the Tigers a 57-54 lead with 3:09 remaining. Zoe Youdell's basket closed the gap to one and Kopp hit one of two free throws to extend the Tigers' lead to 58-56. Julianna Skowron's basket with 1:47 left in regulation evened the count at 58 and neither team scored as the fourth quarter ended with Allegheny's Rylee Donovan missing a 3-pointer. at the buzzer.

The teams exchanged scores over the first four minutes of the overtime session before Donovan connected on just one of two free throws with 33 seconds left and DePauw led 68-67. Kopp drew a foul and canned the second of two free throws before Donovan missed on the ensuing Allegheny possession. Keefe knocked in two free throws with three seconds left to make it 71-67. After Donovan converted a layup, Keefe hit two more charity tosses to seal the win.

Kopp led all scorers with 22 and now needs 13 points to break the DePauw career scoring record of 1,539 held by Maya Howard (2015-19). Keefe added 20 points and 11 rebounds and Kopp dished out five assists.

Skowron paced Allegheny with 18 points followed by Donovan and Youdell with 17 each and Caldwell with 12 and a team-high 10 rebounds. Donovan also dished out eight assists.

The Tigers shot 41.2 percent for the game to Allegheny's 43.5 percent and DePauw held a 46-37 rebounding edge.

DePauw travels to Hiram tomorrow for a 4 p.m. contest.

This Freaky Fast postgame report is sponsored by Jimmy John's in Greencastle, Indiana.