Purdue Northwest 69, Davenport 66 (Jan. 23)
After missing the last four games due to injury, junior Ellie Toney came out swinging as she scored a career-high 27 points in a 69-66 loss to visiting Purdue Northwest on Thursday night. Toney had a very efficient game shooting the ball going 11-for-17 including 4-for-8 from behind the arc. She also finished with five points and tied for the team high with three assists.
The game featured seven ties and eight lead changes. Neither team led by more than seven points as Purdue Northwest led 34-27 with 1:30 left in the first half and Davenport led 18-11 with 35 seconds to go in the first quarter.
The second quarter belonged to the Pride with a 23-14 advantage to take a 36-32 lead into the halftime locker room. Purdue Northwest hit 50 percent (8-for-16) of their shots in the quarter and were 5-for-6 at the free throw line. Davenport shot 38.5 percent from the floor including 2-for-6 from behind the arc.
The Panthers eventually would come back and tie the game at 46 with 4:49 left in the third quarter and Laynie Meredith hit a pair of free throws. Davenport would go on to score the last five points of the third quarter to take a 53-48 lead and Toney hit an NBA triple to end the quarter.
The Pride led 67-61 with 1:30 to go, but Toney calmly sank a three-pointer at the top of the key to cut the deficit in half. Toney scored again in the paint on the next possession to make it 67-66 with 38 seconds to play. DU played great defense and forced a shot clock violation with four seconds to play. They called a timeout to advance the ball to midcourt, but the Pride had several fouls to give and used one right away. On the inbounds under their own basket, Kayla Covington was called for a shove to free space and Cole nailed a pair of free throws for the 69-66 final score.
Lillee Gustafson led the Panthers with 12 rebounds in her first game back after missing two due to injury. Isabel Lindo added 15 points going 6-for-12 from the floor including 3-for-5 from deep. One telling stat was points off turnovers as the Pride led that category by an 18-5 margin.
Davenport 57, Parkside 51 (Jan. 25)
The Davenport women’s basketball team limited visiting Parkside to their season low of 30 percent shooting (21-of-70) and got their first-ever win over the Rangers in 11 chances with a 57-51 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers got their first win of 2025 and snapped a seven-game losing skid to start the new year. Davenport is currently 4-14 overall and 2-8 in the GLIAC. The Rangers dropped their second game of the week after falling at Grand Valley State on Thursday. UWP is now currently in fourth place in the GLIAC standings (6-4) and are 11-6 overall.
Both teams scored 13 points in the first quarter. The Rangers had their best shooting quarter of the game at 46.2 percent (6-of-13) while the Panthers shot 41.7 percent (5-of-12). The Rangers would take a three-point lead (27-24) into halftime and then the game turned in favor of Davenport. DU outscored Parkside 33-24 in the second half and limited the Rangers to 9-of-41 shooting overall (22 percent) including a paltry 2-of-15 from behind the arc.
The third quarter was the best shooting stanza for the Panthers going 50 percent from the floor at 6-of-12. The Rangers actually led for more time in the contest at 21:28-16:00 and the game featured four ties and seven lead changes. One telling stat was that Davenport, coming in averaging 69 percent at the free throw line, shot 86.4 percent connecting on 19-of-22 from the foul line.
Davenport got a double-double from senior Lillee Gustafson with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. She now has 24 career double-doubles and three this season. Gustafson also has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in three of her last four games. Junior Ellie Toney led DU with 15 points going 5-of-9 from the floor. She also had three blocked shots and two steals. Nevaeh Williams scored in double figures for the eighth time this season with 13 points including 7-of-8 at the free throw stripe. Williams also led the team with three steals and also had three assists.
