GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport women's basketball team embarks on their 20th season this Friday when they host Maryville at the DU Student Center for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. The Panthers are beginning a new era under
Travis Schuba and have their top five scorers back from last season. The Panthers will then face Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday also at 1:00 p.m. Both the Saints and Tritons are members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Here's a breakdown by class of your Panthers:
Seniors
● The Panthers return three starters in
Loni Sales,
Toni Grace, and
Kenzie Wilkinson. Grace has been a mainstay in the starting lineup since her freshman year and brings 75 career games of experience into the backcourt. She has scored 1,048 points as a Panther and last season ranked fifth in the GLIAC at 16.7 points per game. She also creates scoring opportunities with her defense and ranked sixth in the league with 1.8 steals per game. Grace makes her free throw chances count as well as she shot 85.9 percent which ranked sixth in the GLIAC and 41st in NCAA Division II. Sales had a solid first year with the program in 2020-21. She averaged 27.8 minutes, 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. She started in 16 games and scored a season-high 22 points in her debut at Northwood on Jan. 8. Wilkinson cracked the starting lineup 14 times last season and saw a slight uptick in playing time. She averaged 5.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, and made 16 triples.
Juniors
● The Panthers return three and welcome in three more for 2021-22.
Emily Lange,
Scout Nelson, and
Ryan Harvey are back while
Mary Liedel,
Carley Loving, and
Ajai Simmons will don the Panther uniform for the first time. Lange averaged 16.9 minutes, 8.9 points, and 4.7 rebounds as a sophomore. She scored a career-high 26 points at Purdue Northwest on Jan. 22. Nelson will run the point and averaged 31.3 minutes, 8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. She has started 47-of-48 games in her career and shoots 42.9 percent from the floor. Harvey was inserted into the starting lineup three of the final four games last season. She scored eight points in the GLIAC Tournament game at Northern Michigan and also had six rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes. It was the first GLIAC Tournament win for the Panthers in the process.
Sophomores
● Claire Borsheim and
Makenna Bryant will look to increase their production and provided much-needed minutes off the bench last season. Borsheim played in 20 games as a freshman and averaged 11.9 minutes, 2.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.6 assists per game. Bryant logged 74 minutes and scored nine points with 10 rebounds during that time.
Freshmen
● The coaching staff is high on a trio of forwards in
Jaci Walker,
Lillee Gustafson, and
Kendal Swartout. They provide height and athleticism to the team and each had very good high school careers. Swartout was named a Top 100 athlete by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association. Gustafson averaged a double-double as a senior at Hartland and was named First Team All-State by the Detroit Free Press. Walker averaged 13.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists at Northridge (Ind.) and was named a Top 60 senior by Hoosier Basketball.
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