GREENCASTLE, Ind. – Shooting accuracy escaped the Kenyon College men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at DePauw University. The host Tigers benefitted from the Lords' shooting struggles and went on to claim a 54-39 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) win.
Kenyon's final point total was its lowest of the season and lowest since a 53-37 loss at DePauw four years ago. The low mark spawned from a 14-of-58 shooting performance (24.1 percent), which was also a season-low for the Lords.
Despite the inaccuracy, the Lords didn't rule themselves out of the game entirely. A pair of
Matt Shifrin three-pointers gave Kenyon leads of 6-2 and 9-8. With 8:17 left in the first half,
Ben Stern completed a layup that knotted the game at 13-13.
DePauw then took control over those last eight minutes before the half. The Tigers weren't exactly lighting things up, either, but they did manage to put together a 17-7 run that gave them a 30-20 halftime lead. During that same stretch the Lords missed 7-of-10 shots from the field.
Throughout the game, the Tigers shot just well enough to maintain the lead. Overall, they were 20-of-52 (38.5 percent).
When Stern snapped in a three-pointer at the 12:29 mark of the second half, Kenyon cut its deficit to nine. One minute later, however, the Tigers answered with a three from David Vogel and they never looked back. Kenyon couldn't get closer than ten points the rest of the way and the Tigers built a lead as big as 16 points with about eight minutes remaining.
Stern wound up leading the Lords in scoring with 14 points. He was 4-of-7 from the field and 5-of-7 at the free throw line. Shifrin finished with eight points and both
Phillip Crampton and
Will Sigl scored six. Sigl also snared a team-high nine rebounds for the Lords, who fell to 4-9 overall and 1-5 in the NCAC.
Vogel ended up matching Stern for a game-high 14 points. DePauw also got 13 points from Ken Decker and 13 rebounds from Jack VandeMerkt, who boosted the Tigers to a 46-36 advantage on the glass. Those numbers helped the Tigers post back-to-back wins for the first time this season and improved the team's records to 5-8 overall and 1-5 in conference competition.
