Feb. 24, 2010

Box Score

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Davenport won their first ever post-season game tonight as they moved into the WHAC Semifinals with an 84-62 victory over Madonna. DU will host Aquinas College, a 70-55 winner over Indiana Tech, on Saturday at 3:00 PM in the Student Center.

Both teams started a little slow from the field and in terms of taking care of the basketball but DU finally found their rhythm and after a Nathan Cox (Flushing, Mich.) bucket 2:11 into the game, the Panthers held a 6-2 lead.

The margin would grow to seven points (14-7) just over five minutes into the half on a 3-pointer by James Nelson (New Haven, Mich.) which was immediately followed by a DU timeout. Davenport then turned up the defense as they went on a 12-4 run that covered almost 10 minutes of game clock.

Heading into the locker room, the 2nd seeded Panthers held a 16 point lead (34-18) after seeing their largest margin of 19 points. DU held Madonna to just 18% shooting in the first half as the Crusaders made only six shots from the field.

After seven straight points to open the second half on baskets by Cox, Mario Scott (Grand Rapids, Mich,) and Mike Tilmon (Detroit, Mich.), the Panthers held their largest lead of the game at 25 points. Madonna did make a good run over the next 10 minutes as they cut it to just 14 on a 3-ball with 10:25 to play.

DU held strong though and slowly began to pull even further away behind the play of James Nelson and Nathan Cox and Lorenzo Ecford (Chicago, Ill.) as the 6'9 post came on strong in the final 6:00 of the game scoring seven straight points for the Panthers to help push the lead back into the mid-20's which DU eventually won 84-62.

Leading the way offensively for Davenport was 1st Team All-WHAC performer Lorenzo Ecford, who finished with 17 points. Also posting double-digits for DU was Nelson with 15 and Cox with 10. The defense did let up a little in the second half as the Panthers allowed 44 points with Madonna finishing the game 37% (22/59) from the floor.

The win lifts DU to 23-8 on the year as they will now host the #3 seed Aquinas on Saturday at 3:00 PM. The game will be broadcast live on the DAN.