GRANVILLE, Ohio (January 17, 2024) – The Denison University women's basketball team held the Tigers to just four made field goals in all four quarters and tallied its second straight victory in North Coast Athletic Conference action on Wednesday night as they handed a 54-48 defeat to DePauw University at Livingston Gymnasium in Granville. It was the first loss in NCAC action so far this season for the Tigers.

With the win, Denison improves to 12-4 overall and 3-2 in the NCAC while DePauw, which is receiving votes in the latest D3hoops.com women's Top 25 poll, saw its six-game winning streak snapped and fell to 12-5 and 5-1.

Brooke Toigo scored the first basket of the game on Denison's first possession, and then a layup by Bryana Woodard assisted by Toigo made it a 4-1 start for the Big Red two minutes in.

A layup by Morgan Kress with just over two minutes left in the first quarter made it 15-7 Big Red as Denison opened the game by making seven of its first 11 field goal attempts.

The Big Red came into the game with rebounding being a point of emphasis, and after outrebounding the Tigers 9-5 in the first quarter and starting the second quarter with a defensive board by Woodard, Abby Cooch connected on a 3-pointer to make it 18-11 after Denison's first possession of the period.

With just under two and a half minutes left in the second quarter, a two-point jumper from the corner by Cooch started a 7-0 Denison run to take a 34-21 lead late in the first half.

Denison outrebounded the Tigers 27-15 overall and 11-2 on the offensive glass in the first half, leading to a 9-0 advantage in second chance points. In addition, Denison outscored DePauw 24-8 in the paint in the first half and were led by Kress, who was already 5-for-7 from the field with 12 points at halftime.

Denison then opened the scoring in the second half with back-to-back layups by Woodard to take its largest lead (38-23), but then missed its next 12 shots as DePauw got back to within single digits (38-30) with under four minutes to go in the third quarter.

The Tigers' run grew to 9-0 as a layup made it 38-32 with under two and a half minutes left in the period before a layup by Cooch finally stopped the six-minute scoring drought for the Big Red.

A pair of layups by Maddie Goodman, both assisted on by Cooch, in the final minute of the third quarter put Denison back ahead by double digits (46-35) heading into the final period.

DePauw, however, opened the fourth quarter with a layup followed by its first made 3-pointer of the game to make it 46-40 less than a minute and a half in, and then after block by Cooch on a fastbreak layup attempt by the Tigers, DePauw kept its run going with two free throws to make it just a four-point game (46-42) with seven minutes left to play.

Denison's only points of the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter were a pair of free throws by Abigail Westmeyer with 6:20 remaining as the Big Red started the final period 0-for-8 from the field.

DePauw, meanwhile, missed five shots in a row before inching even closer (48-46) with two made free throws with 2:11 on the clock.

Up by two points entering the final two minutes of the game, Denison called a timeout to try and set up a good possession, and the call by Head Coach Maureen Hirt worked to perfection as the ball went to Ada Taute, who posted up her defender and then drove into the paint for the layup, which was Denison's first made basket of the fourth quarter.

A big defensive rebound by Taute on a 3-point attempt by the Tigers approaching the one-minute mark in the game was followed by another good offensive possession for the Big Red, who saw Cooch find a cutting Taute for the layup to make it 52-46 with just 41.8 seconds to go.

DePauw answered with a quick layup to make it 52-48 with 34.2 seconds left and put on the full-court press on the next Denison possession, but the Big Red were up to the challenge and broke the press before finishing with yet another layup by Taute, her third basket in the final two minutes of the game, to make it 54-48.

DePauw missed a 3-pointer and a layup in the final 20 seconds before Westmeyer grabbed the final defensive rebound to secure the win.

Despite finishing 0-for-6 from the field, Westmeyer made her presence felt with eight rebounds for the Big Red. She was one of four Denison players with seven or more rebounds in the game.

Both teams hit only one 3-pointer while DePauw stayed within striking distance in the second half after only committing one turnover over the final 20 minutes.

The calling card for the Big Red, however, to earn the win was defense and rebounding as Denison finished the game with a 55-36 advantage on the boards overall and a 20-10 advantage on the offensive glass, and outscored DePauw 38-20 in the paint.

In addition, the Big Red defense limited the Tigers to under 27 percent shooting in each of the final three quarters of the game, including 4-for-17 shooting (23.5 percent) in both the third and the fourth quarters.

Denison came into the game ranked first in the NCAC in opponents' field goal percentage (.352 percent) and second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.269 percent) while DePauw was leading the conference in 3-point field goal percentage offensive (.342 percent), but the advantage went to the Big Red in what was ultimately a grinder of a game offensively for both teams.

Taute finished with a game-high 14 points and added seven rebounds while Kress finished with 12 points and eight rebounds and Cooch stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Denison will finish off the week at Oberlin College with tipoff scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 20.