Karli Harris ignited a Panther rally at the start of the second half.
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ADRIAN, Mich. –
Karli Harris scored 19 points,
Kendra Cook and
Emily Nielsen both contributed 14 as the three starters ignited a second-half rally and halted Siena Heights' free-throwing barrage to win the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference matchup 70-66 Monday evening.
Davenport (23-1, 15-1 WHAC) entered the locker room trailing for the first time this season by a score of 29-22, but Harris got the Panthers back on track with a 15-point second half performance.
The Panthers closed out the close WHAC contest shooting 34.4 percent from the floor. In addition to her 14-point performance, Cook paced the Panthers on the glass with eight rebounds while Harris led the way with five assists and six steals.
Siena Heights (16-8, 11-5 WHAC) got on the board with a layup 20 seconds into the game and has lost the lead only once after
Emily Nielsen's pair of free throws put the Panthers ahead 5-4 with 17:33 left. The Saints found a big momentum with an 8-2 run. After
Kayla Gross' 3-pointer and
Leah Sevcik's layup cut the Saints lead to 15-12 at the 12:45 mark, the Saints got back into rhythm with a 12-2 run.
Sevcik helped get the Panthers back into the game by scoring the final six points to head into the locker room trailing the Saints 29-22.
As a team, the Panthers shot 25.9 percent from the field. Sevcik paced the Panthers with eight points while Nielsen produced seven. Davenport also had a bit of trouble controlling the basketball in the first half, conceding 14 turnovers.
Davenport came out of intermission with a different attitude. After Nielsen opened the half with a 2-pointer, Harris would score six points to help the Panthers tie the game 30-30, and a layup by Cook at the 17 minute mark put the Panthers ahead of the Saints 32-30.
After Ali Bouman's pair of free throws gave the Panthers the largest lead in the game, 48-38 with 9:53 left, the Saints would begin to take advantage of their visits to the charity stripe, sending in 14 consecutive free throws. The Saints would cut the Panthers lead to 57-53 with 1:59 left. After Cook added two points with a pair of free throws, Sevcik would nail an important 3-point shot to add breathing room to the Panthers lead.
Although the Saints kept making visits to the free throw line, the Panthers were able to manufacture enough points to hold off the Saints comeback.
The Panthers return to the Student Center Wednesday to host WHAC newcomer Lawrence Tech for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.
Post-Game Quotes – Head coach
Mike Williams
On the message to the team at halftime - "Pretty calm, we're playing a very good team. They are very good, defensively, very good. I told them we were panicking on offense and doing things that were out of our realm. I said in the second half just be patient offensively, slow down, don't panic and things will go well."
On Karli Harris' exploding start in the second half - "She made great decisions. That helped because instead of forcing everyone at the rim, she made good decisions. She got the two feet pitch it for shots, and she was selective when she got to the rim and scored. She did a great job.
On the Saints free throw visits - "I'm doing a poor job defensively as a coach, very poor job. Defensively we are not really good and it's not on our players. They want to do well. They are trying really hard to do everything right. I'm not teaching them how to play defense and that's my fault.
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