GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Playing its final games of 2021 before switching back to GLIAC play for good in January, the Davenport University men's basketball team will travel to Illinois for a double dip. The Panthers will face a pair of GLVC foes including McKendree on Saturday at 2 PM ET and the host, Quincy, on Sunday at 4 PM ET as part of the Hawks' Hansen-Spear Funeral Home Classic. DU comes in having won five of its last six games and has gone 4-2 so far in non-conference play.

•  Parkside 67, Davenport 60: With the score tied at 44-44 and just under seven minutes to play, Parkside scored the game's next 10 points to secure its biggest lead of the game, 54-44, and take hold of all of the momentum. From that point until the final buzzer, Davenport could never get closer than five points (58-53 and 63-58) as the Rangers snapped the Panthers' four-game winning streak with a score of 67-60. Thursday, a trio of Panthers scored in double-figures including Chris Rollins (17), Marcedus Leech Jr. (13) and Jakub Dombek (13). Leech Jr. and Dombek each came within one rebound of a double-double, Leech Jr. dished out three assists, Jairus Stevens notched Davenport's lone block, and four different Panthers registered a steal apiece. As the low scoring would suggest, neither team shot particularly well from the field. In fact, both teams shot 37.9 percent from the floor including 25-of-66 for Davenport and 22-of-58 for Parkside. Offensively, the biggest difference came at the free throw line where the Rangers (16-for-23) made 12 more attempts than the Panthers (4-for-6) and Davenport didn't attempt a free throw until the 8:10 mark of the second half. For the night, UWP committed just 10 fouls to DU's 18. Parkside led by as many as nine, 18-9, in the first half and was up eight, 32-24 heading into the locker room. Out of the break, Davenport used an 11-2 run to take its second of three leads in the game, 35-34. Following three more lead changes and three more ties, the final being 44-44, the Rangers utilized that 10-0 spurt and didn't look back.

•  Davenport 93, Purdue Northwest 91 (OT): With the score tied 91-91 in overtime at Purdue Northwest and tasked with going the length of the court in just over 12 seconds, Davenport put the game in the hands of its sixth-year point guard, Chris Rollins. Rollins drove into the lane and nearly turned it over on the way up, but maintained possession and put in the go-ahead layup with just .8 seconds remaining. Playing just their seventh overtime game since joining the GLIAC prior to the 2017-18 season, the Panthers improved to 4-3 in those games and have won four of the last five. Rollins (16 points) was one of six Panthers to score in double-figures along with Jakub Dombek (17), Marcedus Leech Jr. (15), Noble Cooper (14), Jaylen Hodges (12), and Jarrin Randall (10). Luke Maranka brought down nine rebounds while Leech Jr. and Randall each dished out three assists. Defensively, Jairus Stevens and Maranka each notched a block while three different Panthers recorded a steal. Hodges scored his 12 points in just nine minutes and Dombek poured in his 17 with just 20 minutes of playing time. The first 20 minutes saw a total of three ties and eight lead changes before Davenport went into the locker room with a lead, 38-33, for the first time since Nov. 23 against Great Lakes Christian. Out of the break, the Panthers pushed their lead to as many as 11 on three different occasions including 48-37, 53-42 and 65-54. The Pride didn't go away quietly, though, and evened the score up for a fourth time at 78-78 with under a minute to play in regulation. That deadlock came in the midst of an 8-0 run that gave Purdue Northwest a three-point lead, 81-78. Then, with 31 seconds left, Randall hit a jumper to cut the deficit to one, but the Pride's Mikell Cooper (game-high 34 points) converted a pair of free throws to stretch the margin back to three, 83-80. The next time down for Davenport, Rollins rebounded a missed layup by Cooper and hit the game-tying triple from the corner with seven seconds left before the home team missed a jumper in the paint as time expired in regulation.

•  Fresh-Faced Foes: For the third and fourth times this season, Davenport will be facing a Division II opponent for the first time ever joining Upper Iowa on Nov. 19 and Southwest Minnesota State on Nov. 20. The Panthers will look to fare better these two games, though, as the Peacocks and Mustangs had their number that week. These two games, however, won't be Davenport's first against the GLVC as the Panthers faced Rockhurst (77-64 W) in the season opener and William Jewell (75-67 W) the following day. Since joining the ranks of Division II prior to the 2017-18 season, Davenport owns an 8-1 record against the GLVC.

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Saturday, Dec. 18 - 2:00 PM ET - Listen (Rick Berkey) - Live Stats - Live Video
Sunday, Dec. 19 - 4:00 PM ET - Listen (Rick Berkey) - Live Stats - Live Video
 

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