GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport women's basketball team captured the 2016 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament championship on Tuesday night with a 78-61 win over visiting Lawrence Tech. The Panthers have won eight tournament titles and seventh in a row. Davenport also won for the 10th straight time heading into the NAIA Division II National Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa. The two teams split during the regular season and Davenport won the regular season by one game over the Blue Devils to have the advantage of home court in the tournament.
The two teams were deadlocked 15-15 after the first quarter. The Panthers jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first six minutes capped off by a
Mallory Sewell jumper in the paint. The Blue Devils then closed out the quarter on a 10-0 run and continued that run into the second quarter. Lawrence Tech led 22-15 two and a half minutes into the second quarter and kept the lead until 2:40 left until half when Davenport tied it up at 28-28 on a triple by
Emily Severn. DU led 32-28 at halftime shooting 35.5 percent in the opening 20 minutes including 6-of-11 from deep. The third quarter was where the championship was won as Davenport outscored the Blue Devils, 26-11, for a 58-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Panthers closed out the third on an 11-1 run as Severn and
Lauren Brower made triples and
Amanda Merz converted a three-point play.
"We had a better start in the second half and started to get a couple of easy scores in transition," said head coach
Robyn Scherr-Wells. "We turned up our defense in the third and made them take more difficult shots."
Lawrence Tech cut the lead down to 14 with 20 seconds left but Davenport held off the Blue Devils and scored 15 points off the bench in the final quarter. Law finished with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go with four assists and three rebounds. Merz had eight assists, seven points and five rebounds. Severn and Sewell each scored 12 points off the bench and combined for 12 rebounds. The Davenport reserves scored 35 of the team's 78 points compared to just 10 for Lawrence Tech.
"I've been so impressed with the play of Merz this season as a freshman stepping into a championship-caliber team and leading us at the point," commented Scherr-Wells. "I've also been so happy to see Alex thrive down the stretch for us. She had a great night and made huge shots. Emily and Mallory are so good off the bench and provide us with scoring and rebounding. I'm proud of how this team has responded after our loss to Madonna. We've won 10 straight and we knew we had to do that to reach our goals. The team has so much confidence that we will get the job done."
