Davenport Wins WHAC Tournament Title - Mar 7, 2016
The Davenport men's basketball team made it a clean sweep in the WHAC this season by capturing the tournament championship on Monday night with a 79-69 win over Cornerstone at the DU Student Center. Nine days ago, the Golden Eagles came into the Panthers' home and came away with a victory. That loss sat in the player's minds as this third match-up of the season got closer. The stage was set for senior Dominez Burnett (6'5''-F-92) to eclipse the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference all-time scoring mark held by Jared Crandell of Cornerstone from 1992-96. The first half started off slowly in the scoring column for Burnett, but he did a fantastic job of disturbing the ball with four assists and no turnovers. The Flint native scored five points on 2-of-5 shooting putting him 11 shy of the record entering the break. Junior Nick Gamble (6'0''-PG) continues to show maturation at point guard and finished with 18 points (one shy of his career high). He went 6-of-9 from the floor including 3-of-3 from behind the arc. Gamble also grabbed five boards and dished out three assists. He had just one turnover in 32 minutes as the Panthers did well with just nine turnovers compared to 15 for Cornerstone. The Panthers led for 31:24 of 40 minutes and never trailed after the 3:04 mark of the first half. There were five ties and eight lead changes in the first half alone. Cornerstone led 35-32 after a Michael Mclaughlin (5'10''-PG) layup at the 3:04 mark. Davenport then scored eight of the next nine points as Jason Jordan (6'3''-G) tied it with a triple followed by a pair of Gamble free throws and then a Kevin Rich (6'6''-F) three-pointer with 54 ticks left in the half. Davenport spurted out of the locker room in the second half scoring the first five points and prompting a Golden Eagle timeout. The advantage grew to 56-46 with 12:16 remaining as Burnett split at the free throw line. Cornerstone cut the lead into single digits for the next few minutes before Burnett's fast-break layup got the lead back to 62-52 with 8:42 to go. Gamble's layup in traffic with 6:30 left gave DU its biggest lead of the game at 66-53. Burnett got a steal and hit a tough triple on the wing with 4:07 to play for his 13th points of the contest. The record breaking shot occurred with 2:20 left on the clock as he buried a three-pointer near the DU bench for his 16th points. He later made four free throws to finish with 20 and a new record total of 2,777 points. "Dominez has been someone who thrives in the limelight and knows when his team needs a big shot," said head coach Burt Paddock . "I've never been around a player that can do so many great things. Tonight he couldn't find his shot in the first half but still had four assists and a couple of rebounds. I'm glad he could break the record at home in front of the Panther fans and in such a big game for our program. I'm also grateful that Jared Crandell was here and got recognition for a record that stood for 20 years." The storyline in the second half was the defensive prowess by Davenport. Coming into the game, they were allowing the second fewest points per game in NAIA Division II and they showed why in the final 20 minutes against a Golden Eagle team that averages 84.5 points per game. Cornerstone shot just 33.3 percent (11-of-33) and were 2-of-11 behind the arc. "I thought we did well the entire game on defense but they hit some tough shots in the first half," commented Paddock. "Our intensity was high and we tried to speed up the game and make them uncomfortable. They have great balance on offense and while we didn't keep everyone in check, we stopped the perimeter shot pretty well." Cory Cox, who had 25 points and six triples in the last meeting, shot 3-of-9 and 2-of-6 behind the arc. Kyle Steigenga (6'6''-F) posted a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Lanning led the Golden Eagles with 17 points after scoring eight in the last matchup. "This is such a special time for Davenport men's basketball and I'm glad that we finished the job tonight and won both the regular season and tournament," said Paddock. "We will await our selection into the NAIA Division II Tournament on Wednesday and there is no other team I'd rather be traveling with to Missouri than this group."
Paddock
