Last Wednesday night, the Wittenberg Men’s and Women’s Basketball Team took on the Tigers of DePauw.
The Wittenberg men earned their stripes with a big win over DePauw with a score of 85-53, while the Wittenberg women fought until the end, but fell to the Tigers of DePauw with a score of 50-40.
The series of games started off with the women of Wittenberg taking on the women of DePauw.
The Wittenberg women put forth a valiant effort throughout the entire game. The Tigers started the first points of the game, scored by junior Michelle Brunswick. They continued to control the game for the majority of the first quarter, until the Tigers of DePauw began to heat up with the first bucket with 5:09 left in the first quarter. DePauw went on a 10-0 point scoring drive to end the first quarter, ending the quarter with a score of 10 – 5 with DePauw leading.
The second quarter began and continued to be in favor of DePauw. DePauw continued to score with almost each possession, while the Tigers struggled to get points on the board with missed lay-ups and jump shots. The Tigers of Wittenberg continued to fight, ending the half with a score of 26-23, DePauw leading.
In the third, the Tigers continued to battle, but still struggled to put points on the board by scoring six points the entire third quarter, ending the quarter with a score of 43-29 with DePauw leading.
In the fourth quarter, the Tigers of Wittenberg showed no signs of giving up in the midst of adversity. Wittenberg stepped up defensively by holding DePauw down to seven points in the entire fourth quarter.
The Tigers of Wittenberg began to close the scoring gap, and got within eight points of DePauw with a three-point jump shot by sophomore Becca Ziska, which gave Wittenberg 37 points to DePauw 45.
Though the Tigers battled and persevered, their courage was not enough. Wittenberg took a loss to DePauw with a score of 50-40.
The women of Wittenberg were then redeemed by the men of Wittenberg taking vengeance.
The DePauw men’s team struggled to score in the beginning of the game with only five points. Then Andrew Kus, freshman forward, scored a lay-up with 10:36 left in the first half, ending the Wittenberg 11-0 scoring drive with the score being 23-7, Wittenberg in the lead.
The Tigers continued to dominate the half. Junior Cody Phillippi ended the half with a lay-up with three seconds left on the clock. This ended the half with the score 41-20, Wittenberg in the lead.
At halftime, Phillippi led both teams in scoring with a total of 16 points, and 14 minutes of playing time. The DePauw Tigers started the half off with a lay-up, and a made free throw.
The Wittenberg Tigers continued their dominance into the second half. With quadrupled fouls and double the turnovers in the second half, the Wittenberg Tigers devoured the Tigers of DePauw with a sweet scent of redemption in the air.
