Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore. - In their first trip ever to the Pacific Northwest, the No. 4 ranked Lady Panthers overcame a sluggish first half to defeat host Concordia (Ore.) 72-55.  Davenport, now 10-2 on the year, will face Warner Pacific who is receiving votes in the latest NAIA DII Top 25 Poll on Tuesday at 10:00pm EST.

Karlee Despres led the Lady Panthers in scoring with 19 points on 6/15 shooting from the field and a perfect 6/6 from the foul line. She was joined in double digits by Abbey Hengesbach with 16 and Abby Neff and Carrie Grubius who each finished with 12.  Davenport shot 43% from the field while Concordia was 32% and was led in scoring by Malori Dixon who had 17.

The opening half was a sloppy one that saw 32 total turnovers by the two teams and 16 fouls.  Davenport only trailed once and held their largest lead of 12 at 29-17 on a Karlee Despres three ball. The triple finished off a 7-0 run that covered almost 4:00 of game clock.

The host Cavaliers then used a 17-2 spurt to take their only lead of the opening half at 34-31 but the Lady Panthers closed strong by scoring nine of the final 11 points for a 40-36 lead.

Davenport began the second half by turning up the pressure on defense only allowing seven points in the first 11:22 while scoring 18 themselves to open a 58-43 lead.  The margin would grow to as many as 20 at 65-45 on a pair of free throws from Despres as DU outscored the Cavaliers 32-19 in the second half.
Despres also pulled down a game high 12 rebounds and Hengesbach grabbed six.

Post-Game Quotes – Assistant Coach Jonathan Goei

On defensive intensity at start of 2^nd half: “We came out and got after it a little more in the first part and we settled down from the hectic first half.  We started to pressure a little more and got after it defensively.”

On play of senior Karlee Despres: “She was solid and showed she is a leader of this team.  We made some bad decisions throughout the first half and Karlee brought a calmness to the team early in the second. She had 19 and 12 to fill the stat sheet so that was a plus.”

Post - Game Notes

The win is the first ever for Davenport over Concordia from Oregon….Karlee Despres finished with her third double-double of the season and now has scored 15+ points in six games this year…Tuesday night, Davenport will play at Warner Pacific who is receiving votes in the NAIA DII poll

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