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FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Karli Harris picked the right week to get hot as for the second straight game she reached the 20-point barrier and added 12 assists to complete her third double-double to lead the Davenport women's basketball team to its seventh straight Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference regular-season championship with a 102-64 win at Indiana Tech Saturday afternoon.
 
Harris wasn't the only Panther (27-2, 20-2 WHAC) to guide them to a title as all five starters broke double figures in the contest. Kendra Cook had a big first half performance and finished the day with 18 points and was two rebounds shy from a double-double, Kayla Gross added 14 points while Emily Nielsen and Leah Sevcik produced 12 and 11 points, respectively.
 
While the Panthers have clinched the conference championship, they will share it with Concordia, which beat Lawrence Tech 72-60 in the afternoon to finish the WHAC season with a 20-2 record also. The Panthers however own the tiebreaker on the highest seed to the WHAC tournament based on the highest percentage in NAIA games played. The Panthers went undefeated 8-0 against non-conference NAIA opponents, the Cardinals lost three contests. The Panthers first-round opponent will be announced by the conference office later tonight.
 
Davenport got off to a solid start at the first half, both offensively and defensively. The Panthers would force six turnovers, and Kendra Cook, Kayla Gross and Emily Nielsen would build a 13-3 lead at the 16:22 mark. But the tides would turn as Davenport went the rest of the half committing 15 turnovers. After Leah Sevcik's two-pointer at 6:41 gave the Panthers a 21 point lead, the largest in the half, the Panthers mistakes gave the Warriors a sign of life as they rallied to bring the Panthers lead to 43-33 at halftime.
 
Despite the late half struggles offensively, the Panthers did produce a 47 shooting percentage with Cook and Nielsen leading the pack with eight points each.
 
The Panthers would come back from intermission and return to the way they played at the beginning of the first half. The starting five blew the game wide open with a 9-0 run nearly three minutes into the period. Alex Law would nail a 3-pointer for the Panthers 100^th point as well as the largest lead in the game of 42.

Post-Game Quotes – Assistant Coach Jori Monnich
 
On the first half – “We had quite a few turnovers, 25 (during the game), which is not acceptable. I think a lot of times, they try to go out there and we try to think too fast. Obviously we were off-balanced a lot of times catching the pass. Moving too quickly, thinking too quickly; we just have to regain focus going into the conference tournament.”
 
On the second half – “A lot of times Mike will go into the locker room, re-strategize and have some ideas for the ladies, but he knew going in we didn't need to fix anything but focus. He went in, gave him his thoughts and say 'new half, go get them and fix it.'”
 
On heading into the WHAC Tournament – “It's exciting. It's always exciting going into the conference tournament. Everybody knows that we have to play well. We won the conference and now we want to go get that conference tournament to get a good start at nationals. It's going to be a full week of practicing.”
 
Post-Game Notes
It is the first time this season that all five Davenport starters achieved double figures…Davenport improves its all-time record against Indiana Tech to 20-1 and has won 18 straight…The last time Harris achieved 10 or more points and assists in a game was against Indiana Tech at the Student Center in January...After recording 12 assists, Karli Harris has recorded 178 this season and has passed Kristi Boehm's single-season record of 168.
 
 
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