GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team suffered a 84-56 road loss to Davenport on Thursday night.
PNW saw its two-game win streak snapped as the Pride dropped to 5-14 (2-9 GLIAC) on the season. Davenport remained unbeaten at home while moving to 9-6 (5-3 GLIAC). The Panthers were energized by their first game inside the DU Student Center in nearly two months (Dec. 6).
HEAD COACH BOOMER ROBERTS:
"Davenport outplayed us tonight from the opening tip. We need to find ways to play better on the road, despite not shooting it as well as we're capable of."
How it happened: The Pride never led in the contest as
Sangolay Njie (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) knocked down a pair of threes near the end of the first half to pull within 12 at the break, 42-30. PNW trailed by four on
Anthony Irvin's (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol) layup at the 13:36 mark, but Davenport went on a 20-5 run to pull ahead by as much as 19 in the opening frame.
Caleb Zurliene's (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) layup coming out of the break cut the deficit to 10, but Davenport would use another run over the opening 10 minutes of the second half to put the game out of reach. The Pride made just 3 of 18 shot attempts during that span while the Panthers' Marcedus Leech Jr. scored 14 of his game-high 24 points. Leech finished 6 of 8 from beyond the arc and 9 of 12 overall from the field.
Njie led PNW with 12 points while
Logan Phillips (Chandler, Ariz./Valley Christian) reached double digits with 11.
Jyrus Freels (Evansville, Ind./Francis Joseph Reitz) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. The Pride shot just 31% overall from the field and 18.5% from three-point range, but recorded a solid 15 of 18 (83.3%) effort at the free throw line.
The host Panthers shot at a 45% clip overall on the night and hit 11 of 29 (38%) threes. DU logged a 45-37 edge in rebounding.
UP NEXT
PNW travels to Grand Valley State for Saturday's afternoon matchup in Grand Rapids. The Lakers (12-5, 6-4 GLIAC) dropped their second straight home game Thursday night to Parkside. All five of GVSU's losses have come on its home floor.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Men's Basketball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics & @PNWBasketball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
