GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Both looking to snap a losing streak, Davenport (10-12, 6-9 GLIAC) welcomes Grand Valley State (14-9, 8-8 GLIAC) on Thursday night inside the DU Student Center in the 13th all-time meeting between the crosstown rivals. The last time these two teams met was in Allendale on Jan. 25 as the Panthers rolled past the Lakers by 15, 87-72.
•   Michigan Tech 84, Davenport 72: Michigan Tech made 14 three-pointers (14-for-32), the most by a Davenport opponent this season, 10 of which came in the second half, and handed Davenport an 84-72 loss on Thursday night.
Marcedus Leech Jr. (pictured) scored a team-high 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep, to go with four assists, two rebounds, one steal, and no turnovers in 36 minutes on the court. Also scoring in double-figures for Davenport were
Chris Rollins with 16,
Jarrin Randall with 12,
Luke Maranka with 10, and
Chaz Birchfield with 10, just two off his career high. In the rebounding department, three different Panthers brought down five of them including Randall, Maranka and Birchfield while Maranka registered the team's lone block and six different players tallied a steal.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair that saw a total of three ties and nine lead changes with Michigan Tech leading by one, 34-33, heading into halftime. Just over five minutes into the second half, the Huskies' advantage was two, 48-46, before they scored 16-straight points to go ahead by 18, 64-46. From there until the final buzzer, Davenport could never get closer than 12, 84-72, and Michigan Tech's lead grew to as many as 23, 75-52.
Michigan Tech's Adam Hobson scored 28 points and went 8-for-15 from three-point land while Trent Bell (24 points and 11 rebounds) and Owen White (12 points and 10 assists) each added a double-double. As a team, the Huskies racked up 27 assists (to just 11 turnovers), which ties Ferris State on Feb. 3 for the most by a Davenport foe this season.
•   Northern Michigan 81, Davenport 75: Davenport trailed Northern Michigan by as many as 21 (52-31) on Senior Day Saturday before coming all the way back to within four, 59-55, with just under 10 minutes to play. However, the Wildcats (12-11, 8-8 GLIAC) didn't let the Panthers (10-12, 6-9 GLIAC) get any closer before holding them off by six, 81-75.
Three of the four Panther seniors scored in double-figures including
Chris Rollins with a team-high 18,
Jarrin Randall with 16,
Jairus Stevens with 16, and
Luke Maranka with 14. The fourth senior,
Samm Jones, made his fifth start of the season with four assists, one rebound and a steal to no turnovers in 18 minutes of action. Stevens and Maranka each notched seven boards, Maranka stuffed a pair of shot attempts and Rollins racked up four steals.
Northern Michigan was red hot in the first half against Davenport's zone defense going 19-of-34 (55.9 percent) from the floor, including 11-of-22 (50 percent) from behind the arc. After the Panthers switched to a man-to-man look at halftime, the Wildcats shot just 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) from the field in the second half, including only 2-of-9 (22.2 percent) from deep. The home team outscored its visitors by 14, 44-30, in the final 20 minutes, but the 21-point margin was too much to overcome.
The Wildcats' Justin Brookens led all scorers with 20 points thanks in part to six makes in 12 attempts from three-point land. Also scoring in double-figures for the green and yellow were Max Bjorklund with 14 and John Kerr with 13. Northern Michigan did turn the ball over 20 times, second only to Albion's 22 on Dec. 6, and Davenport turned them into 28 points. The Panthers also had the advantage points in the paint (30-24) and fast-break points (24-6) while the Wildcats bested them in second-chance points (18-4) and bench points (19-11).
During Davenport's 24-7 second-half run that cut the margin to four, four different Panthers scored including Randall (10), Rollins (8), Stevens (4), and
Marcedus Leech Jr. (2). The Panthers went 10-for-15 from the field in that span and 4-for-7 from long range. Northern Michigan was then able to stem the tide with five-straight points to push its advantage back to five, 60-55.
•   Scouting the Lakers: Grand Valley State is on a four-game losing streak for the first time since the 2018-19 season. The Lakers have fallen below the .500 mark at home at 6-7 as opposed to a 8-2 record on the road. Seven of the Lakers' nine losses have come by eight points or fewer and the Panthers' 15-point victory over them in Allendale on Jan. 25 is one of the two exceptions along with a 78-67 defeat to Parkside two days later. Grand Valley State continues to be led by a trio of scorers averaging double-figures including Jake Van Tubbergen (17.5), Christian Negron (11.7) and Jordan Harris (11.2). Isaac Gassman and Deleon Brown are right on the cusp of that mark with 9.9 and 9.8 points per game, respectively. Van Tubbergen (10.3 rebounds per game) is still the only player in the league averaging a double-double while Harris 4.3 assists per contest are good for fifth in the conference.
•   Last Time They Met - January 25: 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, 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 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. That marked the first time since 2018-19 that Grand Valley Statehad lost more than three games at home in a single campaign. Leech Jr. could do no wrong 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 had brought down 10 or more rebounds in a game. The previous 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.
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