GRANVILLE, Ohio (November 30, 2022) – The Denison University men's basketball team fell victim to a huge run by the Tigers early in the second half and ultimately dropped an 82-60 decision at home against DePauw University in its first North Coast Athletic Conference game of the 2022-23 season.
It was a very even and competitive first half as a steal and a layup by DePauw gave the Tigers their first lead of the game at 26-24 with under five minutes left in the opening period.
Then after an and-one by DePauw made it 31-26 with 3:37 remaining until halftime,
Darren Rubin answered with a 3-pointer.
Next, after back-to-back layups by the Tigers made it 37-31 with under two minutes remaining in the half, a layup by
Ricky Radtke followed by another 3-pointer by Rubin, his third 3-pointer of the first half, got the Big Red back to within one at the break.
Both teams shot over 53 percent from the field in the first half as Denison connected on five of nine 3-pointers (55.6 percent) and DePauw led 24-12 on points in the paint.
Rubin already had 15 points at the break on perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the field, and then after Rubin converted on his sixth field goal in six attempts to make it a one-point Denison deficit at 43-42 two and a half minutes into the second half, the decisive run came beginning with seven straight points by DePauw to up its lead to 50-42.
That run then grew to an 18-2 margin over five minutes of action to make it 61-44 with 12 and a half minutes left in the game, and then it was a 29-8 run as DePauw went ahead 72-50 to put the game out of reach with 6:25 remaining.
In all for the second half, Denison shot only 26.7 percent (8-for-30) and was 1-for-15 from three while DePauw shot 68 percent (17-for-25) from the field and outscored the Big Red 45-24.
Individually, Rubin was the only Big Red player to reach double figures in scoring as he finished with 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field.
Will Hunter added nine points while
Nick Heath had eight.
In addition to falling to 0-1 in the NCAC, Denison dropped to below .500 overall at 3-4 with the loss while DePauw earned its fifth win in a row and improved to 7-1 and 1-0.
Next up for Denison will be its first conference game of the season on the road as the Big Red battle Oberlin College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 7.
