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SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Karli Harris matched her career-high of 26 points and added nine assists and seven steals as she and the Davenport women's basketball team overcame a roaring Northwestern Iowa crowd to knock out the three-time defending national champion Red Raiders 74-68 Monday night to advance to its second NAIA Division II Championship game in three years. The Lady Panthers (34-2) will face Indiana Wesleyan Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcasted live on CBS College Sports.
 
Tiesha Stokes continues to stay hot in the national tournament as the freshman contributed 12 points, nine rebounds and five steals while Kendra Cook and Leah Sevcik both had nine and Kayla Gross eight for the Lady Panthers. DU led by as many as 11 in the second half after a 32-32 score at the break and the team knocked down 18-24 from the line to preserve the win.

Davenport and Northwestern met for the third time in the last six years in the NAIA National Tournament and for the first time in those meetings, the Lady Panthers came out on top. Karli Harris got the scoring started in a big way for DU as she recorded the first 10 Lady Panther points including back to back 3-point plays early. The Red Raiders, who were riding an 18-game winning streak in the national tournament, roared back and held a 27-26 lead with 3:05 to play in the half. Kayla Gross then heated up with back to back three-balls to put DU up five, but NW closed the half scoring five straight of their own for the tie game.

Northwestern continued their surge early in the second half and held a 38-37 lead with 17:55 but it would be their final lead of the game as DU scored the next six points from Harris, Leah Sevcik and Kendra Cook to match their largest margin of the game. Over the next seven minutes, the lead would grow to 11 (59-48) after a pair of Cook free-throws made it 59-48 with 9:23 to play.

With a large crowd in support, the Red Raiders began chipping away at the lead and had it down to just two (65-63) with 2:11 to play. After a DU missed shot, Karli Harris came up with a huge steal and went the length of the floor and converted a three-point play to up the lead back to five and it never got any closer than three the remainder of the game with DU knocking down seven of their eight shots from the charity stripe in the final 1:01.
 
As a team, Davenport shot a total of .369 from the field which was their worst percentage since a 70-66 win over Siena Heights back on January 29. DU forced the Red Raiders into 28 turnovers and outscored NW 31-13 off the miscues.
 
Post-game Quotes

Karli Harris

On staying grounded in a heated game - “If you cannot tell I am pretty competitive but the coaching staff and my teammates do a great job in focusing on the next play and taking the next challenge.”

On the crowd – “You cannot ignore the crowd and it is great to have people out supporting us. It was something we have been working on in practice (the noise), even back in Grand Rapids with crowd noise over the loud speakers.”

Key's to the win – “Hats off to Northwestern – they are a great team and they play in a great conference but to take on a team that has won the last three national championships and to run the court, get the stops on the defensive end, it feels great.”

Mike Williams

On the NW run that cut lead to two – “Our players take care of things. We could not find a way to score against their zone…we went to a box and spread the floor and Karli and our guards took over.”

On the defensive quickness of DU's guards – “The big thing they do is lead the country in FG% and our goal coming into every game, its our goal not to foul and it took about 34 games to just not to foul and they make their money at the free-throw and around the rim and those were two things we tried to take away.”

On forcing 30 turnovers – “It was a different fashion on getting those today where in the past we used a full court pressure but today we got up the lines and were able to get our hands on the ball and get some tips.”

Post-Game Notes

It will be the second time in school history, Davenport plays in the NAIA National Championship…Davenport improves to 13-8 all-time at the NAIA National Tournament…After shooting just 56% and 50% in their first two games from the line, DU has gone 90% and 76% in their last two…

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