Spring Break
Men's hoops falls to Davenport, Indiana Tech
Matt Laurinec
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Sports
| |
|
Wednesday night, UM-D went up against Davenport (DU). The game started out, as most do for the Wolves, with a quality line-up in the game, UM-D was still forced to adjust on the fly and figure out a way to stop the DU attack.
The relief came from Steve Banks, who had a monster offensive game. Banks had 30 points for the night; 22 from the field, five of six from behind the arc and a perfect three for three from the free-throw line. Unfortunately, that offensive explosion wouldn't be enough to hold DU at bay.
Davenport had four players in double figures for scoring. Nathan Cox led the way for the Panthers with 26 points, coming up just short of teammate Trevor Manning, who put up 19 in the winning effort.
As the first half continued, UM-D was losing not only in the scoring battle, but in the rebounding battle as well. Cox came up huge for DU with 12 boards total in the game. Cox out-rebounded every UM-D player by almost double.
That still didn't discourage the Wolves. They fought hard to keep the game close, but by the end of the first half, DU had a secure 14-point lead and weren't looking to back down.
In the early stages of the second half, UM-D tried to get the ball rolling in their direction, but were thwarted at every turn by the DU defense.
The usual big men for the Wolves were one short for the entire game. Jordan Masters didn't play for UM-D due to personal issues. With Masters out, it left a huge void on the defensive side of the ball for the Wolves.
John Travis worked hard to fill the void, but couldn't do it all on his own. Putting up 14 points total on the day, Travis was perfect from the free-throw line and four for six from the field.
Still, the Wolves were unable to mount any type of comeback to pull close to DU. At the final whistle, UM-D was found on the losing end, 96-76, with only bright hopes of getting a victory against Indiana Tech (IT) on Saturday.
In their final home game of the regular season, UM-D went into the Fieldhouse with hopes of a victory and a bit of ease on the struggle they've had this season.
The star for the game was UM-D's Travis with a double-double for the night. Travis was five for six from the field and five for six from the free throw line. To go along with his great offensive production, Travis pulled in 14 rebounds.
Even with his 15 points, Travis was only the second-highest scorer, two points shy of Anthony Acho, who put up 17 points; six of 16 from the field and four of nine from behind the arc.
Unfortunately, the firepower from IT was too much for the Wolves to handle. At the end of the first, IT was ahead of UM-D, 37-26. As the second half opened up, the Wolves tried to put together another comeback attempt, as they have been doing all season long.
Indiana Tech had four players in double digits and one player in the 20s for points during the game. With so much production coming from different places on the court, IT was able to hit the Wolves from all different angles. Not having Matt Ponik in the line-up for UM-D didn't help the cause either.
Another down-side for UM-D was the absence of Masters, who was still dealing with some personal issues and was unable to make it to the game. This left Travis down low to take on the big men for IT.
When the final home game came to a close, the Wolves were on the losing end once again and fell 76-55. With only one more game left at Aquinas College tomorrow the Wolves look to end their six-game losing streak.
Be the first to comment on this story