GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Davenport University men's basketball team hosted 2022 NCAA DII Elite Eight participant and undefeated Hillsdale (5-0) on Wednesday night for the 2022-23 home opener. Despite the Chargers opening up a lead as big as 21 (35-14) in the first half, the Panthers were able to pull within three (57-54, 59-56) after halftime, but the visitors ended up pulling away by 10, 68-58, in the end. Next up for DU is a home date with Aquinas on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Davenport (0-3) was led by a quartet of scorers in double-figures including Chaz Birchfield (12 points), Marcedus Leech Jr. (11), Jakub Dombek (11), and Jaylen Hodges (10). Dombek paced the rebounding department with eight while he, Luke Bara and Jordan Sterling each notched three assists. Defensively, Birchfield tallied the Panthers' lone block and four different players earned a steal.

Eight points in, the two teams were tied 4-4 before Hillsdale embarked on a 12-1 run that put it up by 11, 16-5. A quick 6-2 spurt by the home team slimmed the margin to seven, 18-11, but the Chargers responded by scoring 17 of the next 20 points to reach that 21-point advantage. Trailing by 16 out of the intermission, the Panthers flipped a switch in the second half to crawl all the way back within a possession, but the hill was too much to climb.

It was a tale of two halves as Hillsdale outscored Davenport, 39-23, in the first half while shooting 54.8 percent to the Panthers' 30 percent before the home team scored 35 points to the visitors' 29 in the final 20 minutes with a shooting advantage of 53.9 percent to 29 percent. The Chargers have now won 13 of their last 15 games dating back to the end of last season.