The 209th meeting between the Wabash College and DePauw University basketball teams may very well have been the longest and most exciting. In front of 975 fans, Wabash dropped a 114-110 triple overtime thriller to the Tigers.
 
The Little Giants trailed 49-44 at the end of the first half before falling behind by as many as 10 points with 5:47 left to play in regulation. Wabash whittled the DePauw (8-16, 4-13 NCAC) led to four points off baskets by Ben Stachowski and Daniel Purvlicis along with a free throw by Johnny Jager. The Purvlicis jumper in the paint brought the margin to 90-86 with 2:17 remaining in the second half. in favor of DePauw. The two teams traded baskets before senior Austin Burton buried a three-pointer to bring the score to 92-89. Stachowski followed with a game tying three-pointer to even the score at 92-92 with 53 seconds left to play. Neither team scored for the remainder of the half, bringing forth the first overtime.
 
"By giving up 49 points in the first half, we let them [DePauw] get confident and comfortable," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumetr said. "That's not who we are. We are built on defense, and we've been defending pretty well. I'll have to go back and watch the film."
 
Momentum was on the Little Giants side heading into the first overtime. Stachowski started the scoring with a lead off bucket to put Wabash up 94-92. Then, freshman Logan White contributed a huge block, followed by an even bigger basket at the other end. From that point, Wabash would try to fend off the Tigers, but DePauw would mount a scoring effort to eventually tie the game up at 98-98 at the end of the first overtime.
 
The energy from the Wabash fans stayed at a consistent high to begin the second overtime. With fatigue mounting, each team had fallen into the double bonus and would utilize the free throw line down the stretch. Wabash trailed 105-100 with 48 seconds to play in the overtime. DePauw seemingly had the game won, when the Little Giant fought back with a timely Jager three-pointer, followed by a Stachowski bobbling layup to tie the game at 105-105.
 
Entering the third overtime, both teams were bordering on exhaustion. Wabash struck first with a Stachowski jumper, but was quickly answered by a DePauw layup to knot the game up for the 11th time, 107-107. DePauw nailed a timely three-point basket with 1:37 to play in the third overtime. Wabash would fight back to bring the score to 112-110 off of a Jager three point basket with under 30 seconds left to play. However, Jager's game-tying pull up jumper with six seconds left fell away from the basket. DePauw snatched the rebound, added two late free throws and won the game.
 
The host Tigers finished 42-of-83 from the field, with most of the shots coming from junior Luke Lattner. The guard scored a game-high 55 points to set a new North Coast Athletic Conference record, eclipsing the mark of 50 set by Ohio Wesleyan's Scott Tedder in 1987. Lattner also grabbed 10 rebounds. Cris Burrogh added 21 points.
 
Jager led the Little Giants in the scoring column with a career-high 32 points. Stachowski tallied 19 points, while Evan Frank chipped in with 14 and Austin Burton added 13.
 
Wabash (13-11, 7-10 NCAC) is tied with Oberlin and Kenyon for sixth place in the conference standings entering Saturday's finale to the regular season. The Little Giants travel to Kenyon for a 3 p.m. tip.