GREENCASTLE, Ind. - In what has become an annual battle of Tigers, the ones from Wittenberg couldn't quite keep up in a Friday night road game at DePauw, falling by a score of 83-70. The DePauw Tigers, ranked 24th in the latest d3hoops.com poll, handed Wittenberg its fourth loss of the season and its against a nationally ranked team in the still-young 2003-04 season.

Wittenberg trailed for most of this game, just two days short of one year after the Tigers had surprised 13th ranked DePauw in Springfield, but they did rally to take a one-point lead on three different occasions midway through the second half. After trailing for the first 27 minutes of the game, Wittenberg took its first lead (48-47) on a three-pointer by senior guard Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern). The Tigers claimed a similar advantage three more times before DePauw claimed the lead for good on a Mandy Harrison lay-up at the 9:17 mark. After a DePauw run opened the advantage back out near double digits again, Wittenberg freshman post Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) brought the team back to within three points at 68-65 with 3:58 remaining. But the home team capped the game with a 15-5 run to account for the final 13-point margin.

The visitors got another terrific effort from senior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill), who led all scorers in the game with a career-high 22 points and also topped the team with nine rebounds. Senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) had 13 points and Hittle chipped in with 10 tallies off the bench, her biggest output since the opening game of the season when she had 19.

Key team stats in the game included shooting from the field - with DePauw holding a decisive 52 percent to 42 percent advantage - and shooting from the free throw line - with DePauw holding an even more decisive edge of 26 attempts to 10 for Wittenberg. The visiting Tigers were whistled for eight more fouls in the game and also were outrebounded 39-32.