Oglethorpe Comes to Town

It had been nine years since the DePauw Tigers Mens Basketball team came into Danville, Kentucky and won a game.  Last Saturday however was a different story as the Tigers took care of #17 Centre 65-63.  The Colonels play in one of the nosiest gyms in Division III, yet Tommy Weakley and Sean Haseley were able to knock down some clutch free throws to clinch the game.  Now Oglethorpe comes into town tomorrow night to try and revenge an earlier loss.  I cannot speak enough about the athleticism of Todd Ward.  The kid is 6-5 but his wingspan makes him about 7 feet tall.  Not to mention he has a great jump-shot, can easily drive to the hoop, and plays great defense.  This Oglethorpe team has underachieved this year in my opinion. 13-9 overall with a 9-4 conference record.  They have many seniors leading their roster including: Joe Kennedy, Alex Richey, and Ward.  They have all had great SCAC experience and yet have lost close battles to Colorado College, Birmingham Southern (x2), and DePauw in conference.  However this team can be very dangerous, as Centre found out earlier this year.  That being said, tomorrow's game has a lot riding on what post-season seedings will pan out to be at the conclusion of next week's games.  A sweep this weekend for the Tigers and some help that the Colonels take a loss, and we might be seeing DePauw in the first seed for the first time in years.  But lets not move to far ahead.

Keys to tomorrow's game:

• Limit the touches Todd Ward gets
• He has had great success this year driving to the hoop and creating his own points, however if you force him outside, he is more willing to jack up a contested 3 instead. 
• Hand up on 3 Pointers
• Oglethorpe leads the conference in three pointers made and live and die by it.  In the earlier matchup this season DePauw did a great job of forcing poor shots from the Stormey Petrels.  
• Keep offense running through Sever
• Ryan has had a great stretch here in the past couple weeks ever since Bergfeld went down.  The new line-up has worked well and to see the Tigers go 6-12 from the 3-point line Saturday against Centre is very satisfying.  Keep the ball running through Sever and that will open up a lot of good looks.

Tune into 91.5 WGRE at 8PM for tipoff as Ryan Myrehn and Scott White will be on the call.