Box Score | WHAC Tourney Bracket

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport got all they could handle from UM- Dearborn in their first round game of the WHAC Tournament but avoided the Wolves upset bid 81-74. Nathan Cox scored a game high 29 points to help the Panthers as DU will host Indiana Tech on Saturday at 3:00 PM in a semifinal match-up.

Davenport started the game cold from the floor and UM-Dearborn used that to take an early 8-2 lead. The Panthers, after scoring the first basket, missed their next five shots from the floor and four from the free throw line over a six minute span.

Trailing by six, Nathan Cox (Flushing, Mich.) scored Davenport's next 11 points to bring them within three. JaVontae Ford (Grand Rapids, Mich.) then hit back-to-back threes to give the Panthers a 19-16 lead with 7:12 remaining in the first half.

Davenport and UM-Dearborn went back and forth for the rest of the half and went into halftime tied at 27. Nathan Cox scored 15 of his 29 points in the first half to keep the Panthers in the game.

DU opened the second half on an 8-1 run to extend their lead to 35-28 a few minutes into the second and the lead was pushed to 9, Davenport's largest, on a pair of free throws by Ford with 12 minutes left in the game.

UM- Dearborn countered with an 8-0 run to close within one and they eventually tied the game with 10:28 remaining. The Wolves tied the game on a few different occasions over the next several minutes but never took the lead.

Nathan Cox and James Nelson (New Haven, Mich.) hit free throws down the stretch to help increase the margin to seven before an emphatic dunk by James Humphrey (Fort Wayne, Ind.) extended the lead to nine with 21 seconds left. Nathan Cox finished with a new school record in free throws made in a single game after going 14-14 from the charity stripe.

Cox led all scorers with 29 points as he also grabbed 8 rebounds to tie a game high. JaVontae Ford and James Nelson also scored in double-digits for the Panthers with 15 and 13 respectively. Davenport's bench came up big in the Panthers win, outscoring UM-Dearborn's 52-6.

Davenport will take on Indiana Tech on Saturday at 3:00 PM in the semifinals of the WHAC Tournament. Indiana Tech advanced tonight after defeating Madonna 61-58 in Fort Wayne.