SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Davenport women's basketball team fought to the end on Friday morning in an 80-67 loss in the NAIA National Championship Second Round against Jamestown (N.D.). The 10th-ranked Jimmies had a superb second half after sixth-ranked Davenport took a 30-28 lead into the locker room at halftime. Jamestown shot 54 percent in the second half (20-of-37) including 5-of-9 behind the arc and outscored DU 52-37. Taylor Hammer was the story in this one as the senior from Jamestown averaging 12 points a game this season scored 36 and grabbed 11 rebounds. She was 14-of-18 from the floor and 6-of-7 at the charity stripe.
Davenport held Jamestown's leading scorer Kyra Dewald to just three points (15 PPG this season) on 1-of-9 shooting. McKayla Orr (16) and Bryn Woodside (10) were other Jimmies in double figures. Davenport led 21-14 after a great first quarter and come out making their first three shots. The second quarter saw DU score just nine points and allow the Jimmies to stay around. DU also went the final 7:43 of the quarter without a field goal. Davenport did shoot 47.1 percent in the second half but Jamestown was firing on all cylinders. Points off turnovers was a big stat as Jamestown outscored DU 15-7 and also had 14 fast-break points.
Chri Carter scored a team-high 17 points in her final game as a Panther. She was 7-of-10 from the floor and 1-of-1 at the line. Junior
Emily Severn recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Mallory Sewell,
Hannah Wilkerson and
Jenna Falkenberg also finished with eight points and Falkenberg grabbed nine rebounds.
"I am just very proud of our team and the season we had this year," said head coach
Robyn Scherr-Wells. "We were missing significant playing time of a couple of players due to illness in
Amanda Merz and
Molly Babbs, but we battled so hard today. We got in a little foul trouble in the first half and played a couple different combinations really for the first time this season. Our help defense wasn't very sharp in the second half and we couldn't get loose balls and rebounds which makes it tough to pull out a win. This team overachieved in a lot of ways this season and I'm proud to be their coach."
