Women's Basketball

Carolyn Simpson scored 18 points and 12 rebounds in Denison's NCAA first-round loss to DePauw.

Apparently DePauw got the memo.

Playing in their fourth consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament the Denison Big Red have a history of first-round upsets under their belts.  Defending national champion DePauw came out of the gates strong and saw to it that they would not be another bullet-point on the Denison resume, eventually stopping the Big Red 70-53 on Friday night in Greecastle, Ind.

With the win, DePauw improves to 26-3 and will face Washington University-St. Louis in the NCAA's second-round, which is a rematch of last year's Division III national championship game.  Denison's season comes to a close with an 18-11 record.

The Tigers jumped out to a 25-10 lead in the opening 10 minutes of play behind a 4-for-4 start from beyond the 3-point arc.  Denison would cut the lead back and trail 30-19 at the half.

Denison needed to make a statement coming out of the locker room but the Tigers managed to keep the Big Red at bay thanks to a Cassie Pruzin 3-pointer just 39 seconds into the half.  Throughout the second half DePauw would threaten to open up even larger leads but the Big Red remained within striking distance, hanging on 11 and 13-point deficits for most of the period.

With 4:05 to play in the contest junior Carolyn Simpson (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto) nailed her third 3-pointer of the game and cut the DePauw lead to 10 at 60-50.  If Denison was going to make a run, it would have to be here, but the Tigers' Katie Matthews quelled those thoughts with a jumper the next trip down the floor off an assist by Kalie Lowes.  That basket would trigger a 10-3 DePauw run to close out the game.

Pruzin led all scorers with 19 points.  She also added eight rebounds, five steals and four assists.  Gretchen Haehl added 13 points and Emily Marshall paced the Tigers with 11 rebounds.  DePauw forced Denison into 21 turnovers and committed just nine.  They shot only 38 percent from the field but they hit 7-of-14 3-point tries and their bench outscored the Denison bench 31-9.

Denison was paced by Simpson's 18-point, 12 rebound night.  It was her  ninth double-double of the season.  It also sets her on a collision course with 1,000 career points that should occur early next season.  Simpson will enter her senior year with 958 career points.

Following Simpson was first-year Haley Dahlgard (Walnut Creek, Calif./Northgate) who scored 12 points and had five rebounds in 29 minutes.  Junior guard Ellen O'Brien (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) added seven points, five assists and three rebounds.

Next season Denison returns six juniors, three sophomores and six first-year's off this year's team.  Current seniors Anna Mayo (Potomac, Md./Walt Whitman) and Mimi Pierson (Bainbridge, Ohio/Chillicothe) leave DU with a career record of 85-32 and four North Coast Athletic Conference tournament titles to their credit.