Southwestern opened the game by knocking down 8-of-9 field goals over the first five minutes to take an 18-7 lead and extended the margin to as many as 12 at 39-27. DePauw's Todd Capes hit two free throws with 37 seconds left in the first half and Alex Stewart buried a three at the buzzer to close the halftime gap to 40-35.
DePauw took its first lead at 57-56 on Austin Brown's layup with 7:49 left and its largest margin at 61-58 on Stephen Schott's bucket with 6:24 remaining. The teams were still tied a 67-67 after DePauw's Mike Moore hit two free throws with 3:06 left.
Robert Cates put the Pirates ahead, 69-67 with two free throws at the 2:23 mark. After the teams exchanged misses, DePauw had a chance to take the lead, but a three-pointer was off the mark and Cates stole the ball off the Tigers' offensive rebound with 1:35 left.
Southwestern pushed the lead to 71-67 after Dan Slezak grabbed an offensive rebound off of Cates' miss and fed the ball back to Cates for a bucket with 1:06 remaining.
The Tigers missed on two chances at the other end and were forced to foul three times to put the Pirates into the bonus. Jamonn Little knocked down two free throws with 37 seconds left to push the margin to six. DePauw missed on a three-pointer on its next possession, but Southwestern's Aaron Bowser missed the front end of a one-and-one with 20 seconds left.
DePauw had three chances to cut the margin in half, but failed on three three-point attempts on its next possession after grabbing the offensive board each time. Stewart's tip-in and free throw with .9 seconds left closed the gap to 73-70. The Tigers then fouled before time ran off the clock and Bowser missed another free throw. Brown grabbed the rebound, but his length-of-the-court desperation heave was off the mark.
Stewart led DePauw with 21, while Schott added 14 in the loss. Slezak paced the Pirates with 20 followed by Bowser with 17, Cates with 12 and Little with 10.
The Tigers held a 40-33 advantage on the boards with Brown grabbing a career-high nine. Cates paced the Pirates with nine.
Ty Ragland dished out nine assists with Little adding seven for Southwestern, while Moore finished with seven for DePauw. The Pirates committed just four turnovers in the game including just one in the second half.
Southwestern shot 44.4 percent for the game and the Tigers hit 43.3 percent, but DePauw hit only one of its last 10 tries over the final five minutes and just one of 14 second-half three-point attempts.
DePauw hosts Trinity on Sunday at noon, while Southwestern travels to Rose-Hulman.
Southwestern (Tex.) vs DePauw University 1/27/06 8 pm at Neal Fieldhouse; Greencastle, Indiana At Neal Fieldhouse; Greencastle, Indiana SOUTHWESTERN (TEX.) 73, DEPAUW UNIVERSITY 70 SOUTHWESTERN (TEX.) (15-4, 7-1 SCAC) Dan Slezak 7-9 5-6 20; Aaron Bowser 7-18 0-2 17; Robert Cates 5-11 2-4 12; Jamonn Little 3-9 3-4 10; Danny Franklin 2-5 0-0 6; Ty Ragland 1-2 0-0 2; Matt Caplan 1-3 0-0 2; Casey Gorder 1-2 0-0 2; Goran Stojcic 1-2 0-0 2; Mike Powell 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-63 10-16 73. DEPAUW UNIVERSITY (7-11, 3-5 SCAC) Alex Stewart 8-18 2-2 21; Stephen Schott 5-8 4-4 14; Todd Capes 3-4 2-3 8; Austin Brown 4-6 0-0 8; Matt McDonald 3-5 1-1 7; Reid Sakel 2-9 0-0 6; Ryan Werntz 1-4 2-2 4; Mike Moore 0-5 2-2 2; Dan Gifford 0-0 0-0 0; Brian Oilar 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-60 13-14 70. Southwestern (Tex.)........... 40 33 - 73 DePauw University............. 35 35 - 70 3-point goals-Southwestern (Tex.) 7-22 (Aaron Bowser 3-7; Danny Franklin 2-5; Jamonn Little 1-4; Dan Slezak 1-3; Goran Stojcic 0-1; Mike Powell 0-1; Matt Caplan 0-1), DePauw University 5-25 (Alex Stewart 3-9; Reid Sakel 2-9; Austin Brown 0-1; Ryan Werntz 0-2; Mike Moore 0-3; Brian Oilar 0-1). Fouled out--Southwestern (Tex.)-None, DePauw University-None. Rebounds-Southwestern (Tex.) 33 (Robert Cates 9), DePauw University 40 (Austin Brown 9). Assists-Southwestern (Tex.) 18 (Ty Ragland 9), DePauw University 12 (Mike Moore 7). Total fouls-Southwestern (Tex.) 18, DePauw University 17. A-150 Southwestern's 10th straight win