Box Score
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - James Humphrey continued his outstanding play as the senior posted 19 points and 9 rebounds to lead the No. 3 Panthers to a 64-45 win over rival Aquinas. The mark puts Humphrey over 1000 career points between Missouri-Kansas City and Davenport as he helped the Panthers improve to 26-3 on the year and 16-1 in WHAC play. DU ends the regular season on Saturday at 3:00 at Cornerstone.
James Humphrey became the fourth member of the 1000 point club as he led Davenport to a season sweep of cross-town rival Aquinas College. The win is the fourth in a row over the Saints as James Nelson and Gabe VanderJagt chipped in with 13 and 12 points respectively.
In a low scoring first half that saw the Panthers shoot a dismal 33% from the field, Davenport still managed to hold a 4-point lead of 25-21. It was a half that saw nine lead changes and one tie but a run of 7-2 that covered the final 3:23 helped DU get on top to stay for the remainder of the game. James Nelson posted 10 of his 13 in the opening half as the senior nailed two 3-pointers and was 4-8 from the field.
Starting the second half with a dunk by James Humphrey and a steal and layup from Lonnie Fairfax propelled the Panthers to a 9-3 run over the first 5:32 to increase the lead to 10 at 34-24. The 3-point shot became a strength for the Panthers for the remainder of the game as they blew it open by nailing long balls on 6 of their next 7 possessions to push the lead to 18 and they never looked back. Nailing three of those shots from long range were junior Gabe VanderJagt who also converted a 3-point play for his 12 points.
The 10 3-pointers set a new school record for a single season as they break the record of 229 set in 2006-07.
Post-Game Quotes - Burt Paddock
On play of seniors on last regular season home game - “I am very excited for them and they made some halftime adjustments and they did a great job of leading us. They came out and played a great second half and very proud for them to win on their senior night.”
On continuing solid play going into Cornerstone - It is important to do what we do…We need to play more minutes of every game of better basketball and I think we did that again tonight. AQ does make things ugly and makes you play different style but we will not be more prepared for more of a half-court type game.”
Post-Game Notes
With 19 points tonight, James Humphrey joined the 1000 career point club and now stands at 1003... Lonnie Fairfax had 2 steals tonight, bringing him within 7 of 3rd most in a season, 11 from 2nd and 23 from 1st... JaVontae Ford moved into 2nd place all-time for points in a season...The game turned in favor of DU thanks to the Panther's second half defense which allowed Aquinas to shoot only 38% from the floor in comparison to the 50% the Saints shot in the first half.
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