HOUGHTON, Mich. - Eighth-seeded Davenport trailed fourth-seeded Saginaw Valley State by nine, 50-41, at halftime on Saturday in the GLIAC Tournament semifinals. Following the intermission, a different team walked out of the locker room, outscored the Cardinals by 27, 57-30, and advanced to Championships Sunday with an 18-point victory, 98-80. Davenport (16-13) will face third-seeded Northern Michigan (18-11), winners of nine straight, for a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Luke Maranka (pictured) played like a man possessed as he finished with his first career double-double thanks to a career-high 28 points, 10 rebounds (tied career high), three blocks, one steal, and no turnovers. Maranka was one of four Panthers to score in double-figures along with
Jarrin Randall (19, 17 in the second half),
Marcedus Leech Jr. (18), and
Chris Rollins (17). Rollins racked up eight assists, one off his career high, to zero turnovers and has accounted for 17 dimes to just two giveaways in the last two games.
As a team, Davenport shot 57.1 percent (36-of-63) from the field to make it three games in a row with a field goal percentage of at least 50, something they hadn't done since the first three games of the season. The Panthers struggled from behind the arc converting just 6-of-23 attempts from deep, but five of those came in the second half (5-of-11) and they out-scored the Cardinals 54-28 in the paint for the day.
For the Cardinals, Darnell Hoskins Jr. tied Maranka for the game high with 28 points, but was held to just four in the second half, and former Panther, Delano Smith, finished with 20. Big man, Tyler Witz, was the final SVSU scorer in double-figures with 13 to go with 11 boards.
Saginaw Valley State led by as many as 16 points in the first half including 24-8, 26-10 and 28-12. Once it was 28-12, Davenport scored nine-straight points to cut the deficit to seven, 28-21. The Cardinals persevered, though, with a 12-4 run that put them back ahead by 15, 40-25, with just over six minutes to play in the period. The Panthers again had an answer, this time with a 12-1 spurt that made it a four-point game, 41-37, just before the two-minute warning. From there until the buzzer, SVSU scored nine points to DU's four to lead by nine at the break.
Out of the stoppage, Davenport's first lead of the game came at the 15:11 mark when Maranka hit the first of his two three-pointers and the score was 55-54. Following four lead changes, the last of which came with a Rollins jumper that made it 62-61 in favor of the good guys, they proceeded to completely take the game over. The Panthers rattled off 14 of the next 18 points to push their advantage to 11, 76-65. From there, the closest the Cardinals could get was six, 78-72 and 80-74, and the Panthers' lead ballooned to as much as 18 at 96-78 and 98-80 when the final buzzer sounded.
In the final 8:02 of the game, DU outscored SVSU by 19, 38-19. Randall's three-straight triples in the second half, his first three of the game, covered just 2:07 of game time and ignited a 15-3 Panther run.
Davenport will ride a season-long six-game winning streak into the finals and see Northern Michigan for a third time this season. The Wildcats took the teams' first two meetings this season including 91-79 in Marquette on Jan. 20 and 81-75 in Grand Rapids on Feb. 12. Northern leads the all-time series by seven, 9-2, and has won the las six meetings between the two squads.
Story by:
Cooper Weidenthaler
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