Box Score |
Tournament Central
DAYONTA BEACH, Fla. – Davenport took a five point lead into halftime only to see the host Eagles erase that and hold a late lead but the Panthers came up big down the stretch to post an impressive 81-74 win at No. 16 Embry Riddle. The victory gives the Panthers the Mitsubishi/KIA Shootout title as junior
JaVontae Ford was named the Most Valuable Player. Davenport, which improves to 4-1 on the year, will be back in action one week from Saturday as they open conference play with visiting Marygrove College.
JaVontae Ford earned MVP honors as the red-shirt junior led Davenport with 21 points on 8-15 shooting from the field including two huge shots down the stretch to help bring DU from behind in the closing minutes. He was one of three Panthers' to appear on the All-Tournament Team as he was joined by
Dominez Burnett and
Gabe VanderJagt who combined for 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the seven-point win over the host Eagles.
Offense was the story in the opening half as the Panthers shot almost 47% from the field to take a 5-point lead into the break. The Eagles (2-1) were even hotter shooting the basketball as they posted a 53% mark but DU made two more free-throws and one more long ball for the difference. After a 2-2 tie was broken by a
Dominez Burnett layup, DU led for the remainder of the half as held its largest lead of nine (22-13) on a three-ball from
Derek Brooks with 10:50 to play.
As much as the offenses clicked in the opening half, the game quickly turned into a defensive struggle early in the second. Through the first 10 minutes, the Eagles outscored the Panthers 18-15 to bring the margin to a single bucket and ERAU took their first lead at 62-60 with 8:09 to play. Those final minutes produced three more ties and three lead changes but
JaVontae Ford came up with the heroics as he nailed a deep three-pointer to give the Panthers a 72-71 lead with 2:24 on the clock. After the Eagles tied it back up on a free-throw, the Panthers got a pair of shots from the charity stripe from
Gabe VanderJagt and they held the lead for good over the final 1:12 eventually winning by seven 81-74.
The Panthers were outrebounded by one on the glass 36-35 as
DeArmond Davis led the team with nine and he was followed by eight from
JaVontae Ford. Junior
Sean Hill finished with a team leading five assists and he helped DU post a 31-17 advantage in points off the bench by finishing with eight. The Panthers will now open conference play next Saturday (No. 17) when they welcome Marygrove College to the Student Center for a 3pm contest. The game will be part of the Homecoming Celebration and will follow the women's game that is slated to begin at 1pm.
Post-Game Quotes - Head coach Burt Paddock
"The kids showed incredible poise and mental toughness. There were several points in the 2nd half where we could have hung our heads, but we rallied and several guys made some huge plays, none more important than our two seniors Ryan and Gabe."
"I am excited about the growth we have shown between the IWU loss and here in Florida. We were finally efficient offensively and make the opponent work incredibly hard at the other end which is our calling card and will continue to be"
Post-Game Notes
The non-conference tournament title is the first of the year for the Panthers and fourth over the past two years as DU won all three they played in during the 2011-12 season…Davenport is now 14-9 under
Burt Paddock when playing teams ranked in the NAIA Top-25…Every Panther that played recorded a point tonight
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