GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Coming off an important 87-72 win at crosstown rival, Grand Valley State, on Tuesday night, the Davenport University men's basketball team finally gets to play a home game. For the first time since Dec. 6 against Albion (first GLIAC home game since Dec. 4 against Saginaw Valley State), the Panthers will get to play on their home court. They'll host Purdue Northwest on Thursday night (8 p.m.) and Parkside on Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.).
• Davenport 87, Grand Valley State 72: Marcedus Leech Jr. poured in a career-high 26 points and
Jairus Stevens added his eighth career double-double (first as a Panther) with 20 points and 10 rebounds as Davenport took down Grand Valley State on the road Tuesday night, 87-72. The Panthers enjoyed a lead for nearly 70 percent of the game and led by as many as 20 in the second half before the final margin of 15 points. Davenport (8-6, 4-3 GLIAC) snapped a three-game losing streak as well as a three-game stretch of trailing at halftime. The Panthers also took a lead into halftime in Allendale for the third time in a row and climbed back above the .500 mark in GLIAC play. On the other side, Grand Valley State dropped to 12-4 overall, 6-3 in the league and all four of their losses have come at home. This season marks the first time since 2018-19 that the Lakers have lost more than three games at home in a single campaign. Leech Jr. could do no wrong on Tuesday night as he finished with 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting, including 6-of-11 from behind the arc, to go with three rebounds and just one turnover in 35 minutes played. Stevens scored 20 points for the first time as a Panther and notched his first DU double-double in the process thanks to 10 boards to go with four assists and not a single turnover.
Jakub Dombek led Davenport in rebounds with 11 marking just the second time since the program switched to Division II that multiple Panthers have brought down 10 or more rebounds in a game. The other time came in the 2019-20 season opener against USC Aiken when Chris Pearl (13) and
Tafari Beckford (11) did it.
Jarrin Randall stayed hot with 14 points while
Chris Rollins got back on track after 13 points and six assists, which tied Grand Valley's Jordan Harris for the game high. Randall and Rollins each notched a steal while Dombek blocked four shot attempts, the most of his career. As a team, Davenport crashed the glass with 46 rebounds, which is tied for the most in their Division II era. The Panthers also turned the ball over just nine times, which is tied for their lowest total since the 2019-20 season. Davenport held Grand Valley State to just 37.5 percent shooting (12-of-32) in the second half and outscored the Lakers 14-5 in second-chance points for the game. Outside of Harris, no one reached double-figures in points for the home team until Christian Negron did with a layup at the 4:20 mark of the second half.
• Last Time Out - Purdue Northwest: With the score tied at 91-91 in overtime, 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. 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.
• Last Time Out - Parkside: 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. 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.
• Scouting the Pride: Purdue Northwest has won two games in a row since dropping nine straight prior to that. Those two wins came against Saginaw Valley State (91-82) and Wayne State (93-75), both of which were at home. All five of the Pride's wins have come on their home court as they're 5-4 at home, but 0-9 away from the friendly confines. Purdue Northwest has beat Davenport just once in the all-time series and it came in Grand Rapids just over a year ago, 74-71. The Pride are paced by Mikell Cooper's 15.8 points per game and he's joined in the double-figure scoring department by Anthony Barnard (14.7), Sangolay Njie (10.8), and Anthony Irvin (10.1). Barnard (7.6 RPG) and Njie (7.2) are both bringing down at least seven boards per game while Cooper is responsible for 2.8 assists per outing. Only one of those top four scorers, Irvin, has played in all 18 of the team's games along with Caleb Zurliene (9.7 PPG) and Kai Steinman (7.0 PPG). In these two teams' earlier meeting, Cooper was responsible for 34 points, the only DU opposing player to put up 30 or more this season.
• Scouting the Rangers: Parkside was on a three-game winning streak before falling to Saginaw Valley State on Saturday in Kenosha by a score of 77-73. The Rangers' Tray Croft is third in the GLIAC in scoring with 19.0 points per game and is one of three players averaging double-figures for Parkside along with Jamir Simpson (12.0) and Vinson Sigmon Jr. (10.7). Brandon Hau is averaging 6.4 rebounds per game and Croft is dishing out 3.7 assists per contest. As opposed to Purdue Northwest, Parkside has won four games both at home (4-6) and on the road (4-3). The last time these two teams squared off, Croft was held to just 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting, but Simpson played well with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
LIVE COVERAGE
Thursday, Jan. 27 - 8 PM -
Live Video -
Live Stats
Saturday, Jan. 29 - 3 PM -
Live Video -
Live Stats
Â
