Box Score The "Chadwick Crazies" roared to life Wednesday night when the Wabash College basketball team defeated the Depauw Tigers 52-48. Students and Sphinx Club members packed the stands and provided a deafening home-court advantage. Ross Sponsler sank the final free throw with 14 seconds remaining to give the Little Giants the win in North Coast Athletic Conference play.

View photos from the game here.

“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” Coach Antoine Carpenter said. “We really appreciate it. I talked to the team about playing off the emotion but also playing smart.”

The emotion and excitement lasted to the waning seconds. Sponsler was fouled with 17 seconds remaining in a 50-48 ball game. He had a chance to effectively ice the game by hitting both free throws of the one-and-one. Unfortunately, he missed the front end but his freshman counterpart Daniel Purvlicis tipped the ball back to Sponsler.

“I was kind of surprised I missed the first one,” Sponsler said. “But Daniel made a great tip and I just tried to corral that sucker. Once I stepped up again, I knew I'd hit the second one.”

Sponsler was right. After another intentional foul by DePauw (13-7, 6-5 NCAC), he calmly drained both free throws to give Wabash a two-possession lead.

“I always expect to hit them, even in late game situations,” he said. “I just went up there with a lot of confidence expecting to make them.”

The start of the game appeared as though the January slump for Wabash would continue. The Tigers pounced out to a 14-4 lead before Carpenter called a timeout to settle his players.

“I told them to just stay composed because we're getting good looks at the bucket,” Carpenter said. “We missed some layups but I told them we had to keep throwing the ball inside. We wanted to look to score that way and not try shooting our way back in with threes.”

Wabash (6-14, 4-7 NCAC) trailed for the entire first half, but was only down 28-22 at half time.

The Little Giant defense increased its ball pressure and intensity in the second half. DePauw had to work for every one of its 20 points after intermission.

“With five games remaining, every game is a playoff and we're going to win them by playing great defense,” Carpenter said. “We just want to really get after the other guys and compete and make sure they don't get second-shot opportunities.

“If you're going to play great defense, then everyone one on the team has to be involved. If one person helps, someone else has to help the helper. Everybody is flying to different spots and the rotation has to be in sequin.”

The Little Giant defense was most evident in an 8-2 scoring run that last for seven minutes in the second half. Andy Walsh, Houston Hodges, and Sponsler came up with big shots while the team defense stifled DePauw. The Tigers were held to 34.8 percent in second-half shooting compared to Wabash's 52.4 percent.

DePauw was held to its second-lowest scoring output of the season. The Tigers lost 52-39 to nationally-ranked Rose-Hulman earlier this year. DePauw came into the contest averaging 67.5 points a game.

Wabash had an eight-point lead when Pat Haggin hit a three pointer for DePauw at the 2:02 mark. With 23 seconds left and the score 50-45, Michael Wilkison connected on his sixth three of the evening to draw the Tigers to within two. Shortly afterwards, Sponsler connected on the free throws to deliver Wabash its third conference win.

Wabash held Barry Flynn, DePauw's leading scorer, in check for the second consecutive game. Flynn entered the night averaging 15.7 points per game. His 55.2 percent field goal shooting mark was sixth in the NCAC. The Little Giants held him to a 2-of-6 effort from the field for four points, all coming in the second half. Flynn only scored five points in the first meeting between the two schools on January 9.

“Barry Flynn is one of the top players in the NCAC,” Carpenter said. “You do want to go at him defensively and compete with him.
Wilkison really hit some tough shots. We expected him to hit those shots but late in the second half, Houston was really able to get up into him.”

Sponsler led the Little Giants in scoring with 14 points, including 3-of-4 shooting from distance. Hodges had one of his best games of the season with 10 points while shootig 50 percent (4-of-8)  from the field.

The Little Giants proved to be giants in the paint by out-rebounding the Tigers 36-20. Pete Nicksic grabbed eight boards and perimeter players Jordan Surenkamp and Hodges each had six.

Wilkison was the high-point man for DePauw. All of his baskets came from the outside as he finished with 18. Haggin scored 13 off the bench for the Tigers.

Every game will increase in importance now for Wabash as the team tries to make the eight-team conference tournament. The Little Giants next opponent is the eight-ranked College of Wooster. Tipoff is set for Saturday at 2 p.m.

“We can be excited about the win, but we still have five games to go,” Carpenter said. “We have to take it one game at a time.”