Box Score Wabash entered Wednesday night's North Coast Athletic Conference basketball game at DePauw hoping to earn its first series sweep against the Tigers since 1998. However, DePauw earned the season split with a 70-50 home victory.
 
Missed shots and rebounds plagued the Little Giants all evening. Wabash (11-13, 7-10 NCAC) finished 21-of-62 (33.9 percent) from the field and 5-of-20 (25 percent) from three-point range. DePauw (11-13, 7-10 NCAC) shot 25-of-60 for 41.7 percent overall, 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from three-point range.
 
"I'll have to go back and see if the looks we got offensively were as good as they appeared," Wabash head coach Kyle Brumett said. "It never felt like we ever go any rhythm offensively. Harry (Harrison Hallstrom) made a few good moves and was good on the glass. Logan (White) never really made any post moves. He let DePauw play between him and the basket. That's a problem."
 
Both teams looked to limit the opponent's big offensive guns. Wabash freshman Colten Garland scored a career-high 37 points in the first meeting between the two squads --- an 86-80 overtime win by the host Little Giants on January 18. Luke Lattner, DePauw's leading scorer on the season with a 20.4 points-per-game average, tallied 24 in that contest, along with 21 from Jack VandeMerkt. Lattner notched 55 points a year ago in a 114-110 triple-overtime win by DePauw on its home floor.  
 
Wednesday night both Garland and Lattner were held below their season averages. Garland scored 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting for Wabash. Lattner picked up 12 points, hitting 3-of-8 shots with two from three-point range.
 
The Tigers were able to provide more scoring around Lattner in the winning effort. Andrew Kus tossed in 12 points for DePauw, while VandeMerkt added 11 points. Nate Jahn provided the scoring punch for DePauw in the first half, leading the Tigers with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field before finishing with 10 points overall. Wabash limited Lattner to five points with only one three-point basket in four tries.
 
Logan White opened the game with a pair of reverse layups to combine with another layup by Hallstrom to take a three-point lead two minutes into the contest. That would be the only lead the Little Giants would enjoy. DePauw rallied to tie the game at 8-8 before riding a 25-15 scoring run over the remainder of the half for a 33-23 edge at the break.
 
"Our defense was okay in the first half, considering we gave DePauw as many second-chances as we did. It just didn't feel great. We have had a number of halves like that where we just can't muster enough points. DePauw did a good job of pressuring the ball. We did not do a very good job of trying to drive it by them."
 
Wabash was unable to get the lead under 10 points over the final 20 minutes despite two quick baskets by Hallstrom, a jumper from Ben Stachowski, and one of three three-points from Duncan Roy. The sophomore shot 4-of-9 from the field with a 3-of-7 effort from behind the line to lead Wabash in scoring with 11 points. Hallstrom chipped in eight points and grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds.
 
DePauw outrebounded Wabash 42-34 and outscored the Little Giants in the paint by a 30-22 margin.
 
"Today was a catch-22," Brumett said. "We had Logan chasing Lattner around, and he did a good job of that on defense. But then we didn't have enough help for him in terms of covering for some of the rebounding he normally does for us. I was really disappointed in some of our perimeter guys that played heavy minutes but came up with one or no defensive rebounds. You've just got to finish the possession and we weren't able to do that."
 
The victory by DePauw moves Wabash and the Tigers into a three-way tie for fifth place in the NCAC standings. Wabash closes out the regular season with a road game against Denison (20-4, 14-3) Saturday at 3 p.m. DePauw travels to Oberlin (3-21, 2-15 NCAC) an Hiram closes out the regular season at home versus Kenyon (5-20, 4-13 NCAC).