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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Davenport opened the first half on a 15-2 run and combined it with 24-7 spurt in the second to walk away with a 35-point win over visiting Siena Heights on Wednesday night. The No. 8 Panthers picked up their seventh straight win to improve to 9-1 overall and 5-0 in conference play. DU will head to league newcomer Lawrence Tech on Saturday for a 3:00pm tip with the Blue Devils.

JaVontae Ford scored eight points in each half to finish at his season average of 16 points while he was joined in double-figures by Thomas Drew with 12, DeArmond Davis with 11 and Dawid Czerniawski with a new career high 10 points. The Panthers shot 54.2% from the floor while limiting the Saints to just 30.9% as it marked the third time in the last four contests DU has shot over 50%.

After starting slow in their last two games, DU came out with intensity on Wednesday and scored 15 of the first 17 points to lead 15-2 just 3:39 into the game. DeArmond Davis accounted for four of those points in route to nine points and six rebounds in the opening 20 minutes for the junior. The Saints, under first year head coach Joe Pechota responded with a 20-13 run that brought the deficit to just six at 28-22 with 4:47 to play in the half.

Unfortunately for the Saints, that would be as close as they would get as DU scored nine of the next 13 points to close the first half up 37-26. That margin grew to 28 as Davenport outscored SHU 24-7 over the first 11:03 of the second half. On the ensuing Davenport possession, senior Ryan Dame finished off one of his two dunks in the game on an alley-oop play from one of Sean Hill's game high six assists.

All but two players for DU scored with six posting at least eight points in the team's 21^st straight win at the Student Center. Davenport will head to Southfield on Saturday to take on first year WHAC foe Lawrence Tech. Tip is set for 3:00pm or 20 minutes following the women's contest.

Post-Game Quotes – DeArmond Davis and Dawid Czerniawski

Davis on the intensity and strong start – “Well it started from last game and the last couple practices because coach had mentioned how we haven't been off to a great start and we wanted to change that this game and it started from the first five he put it. We had to set the momentum and had to get the momentum from the tip off."

Czerniawski on defensive intensity to start second half – “Coach came in and basically told us that defense is where it starts. We came out and held them to 3 scores out of 19 possessions. So as a team we just buckled down and did what we had to do."
 
Post-Game Notes

Davenport is now 61-5 all-time in the Student Center and they have only lost two of those in the regular season…The 45 points allowed is the second fewest allowed for DU this season and the fifth time DU had held its opponent under 60 points…The 10 points for Dawid Czerniawski is a new career high for the red-shirt freshman…Every DU player who appeared collected at least one rebound owned a 46-30 advantage on the glass
 
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