GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The end is drawing near for the 2024-25 seniors who were celebrated during Saturday's pre-game festivities at the DU Student Center. The Panthers will see
Lillee Gustafson,
Jaci Walker, and
Kendal Swartout move on next year. Here is a brief write-up for each of them before getting into today's game details against Wayne State.
Lillee has been named Second Team All-GLIAC over the past two seasons and also was on the GLIAC All-Defensive Team in 2022-23. She has played and started in 105 career games, which is fourth all-time at DU. In addition, Lillee ranks fourth in total rebounds with 867, sixth with 86 blocked shots, seventh with 2,882 minutes, and 14
th in points with 1,043. She became just the 16
th player at DU to hit the 1,000-point mark earlier this season. Gustafson had the best rebounding game by a Panther with 19 boards against Parkside on January 29, 2022. She also tied for sixth most points in a game with 35 versus Saint Leo on December 17, 2022.
Walker has laced them up for the past four seasons at Davenport and has 102 games including 42 starts under her belt. Jaci is a two-time member of the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence team and was named CSC Academic All-District in 2023-24. Walker has scored 478 points in her career and had a career-high of 21 points at Malone on Nov. 23 of this season. She is having the best shooting season of her career at 39.4 percent and shoots 76 percent at the free throw line.
Kendal is a two-time member of the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence team with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above. She has been limited over the past two years due to injury, but has played in 61 career games over the last four seasons. Kendal has logged 409 minutes and scored 84 points while grabbing 49 rebounds. She is a perfect 13-of-13 from the free throw line in her career and 11 of her field goals have been three-pointers.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Davenport finished the game shooting 28.3 percent (15-53) and it was their second-lowest percentage this season.
- Davenport also shot 53.8 percent at the free throw line (14-26).
- Wayne State shot 41.2 percent overall (28-68) and finished 15-of-19 at the free throw line.
- Shea Tripp led all scorers with 16 points for WSU and also led her team with nine rebounds.
- Alyssa Leister added 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting for the Warriors.
- Three players led the Panthers with scoring with eight points (Ellie Toney, Nevaeh Williams, and Isabel Lindo).
- Gustafson led the team with nine rebounds and chipped in six points in 19-plus minutes.
- Swartout who has been out due to injury most of the season suited up one more time and scored the game's first basket for DU.
- The game featured three lead changed and two ties.
- Wayne State led for 37:56 of game time compared to 29 seconds for DU.
- The Warriors controlled the paint outscoring DU 42-14 in the contest.
