Davenport spoils homecoming

BY TIM DEVANEY
Your Sports editor

The men’s basketball team is hoping the third time’s the charm when it comes to solving the Davenport Panthers. 

This season the Golden Eagles have been victim to two buzzer-beating losses to Davenport. And now they’re more eager than ever to steal one win back.

“It’s always tough to beat somebody three times in one season, so it would be a great opportunity,” coach Kim Elders said. “We look forward to the opportunity to have a rematch with them.”

(Matt Kingshott harassed by two Davenport defenders during Saturday's homecomming loss. By Robbie Scudder).

(Matt Kingshott harassed by two Davenport defenders during Saturday's homecoming loss. By Robbie Scudder).

But the Golden Eagles have a long road ahead to earn a rematch, he said.

Cornerstone (9-4) and Davenport (9-4) are now tied for second in the WHAC, but Davenport owns the tie-breaker since it swept the regular season series with Cornerstone. If the standings stay the same, the two teams would play again in the WHAC tournament semi-finals, but both teams would have to win in the quarter-finals to get there.

“Many times over the last few years our backs have been against the wall, and sometimes we respond best when our backs are against the wall,” Elders said.

“Now we’ve omitted an opportunity to get to nationals by a high ranking, so we do have to win the WHAC tournament,” he added.

One of the two losses to Davenport came last Saturday during homecoming, when Davenport’s James Nelson raced to the hoop for a game-winning layup with 16 seconds left to give the Panthers a 61-60 lead.

“First I thought, ‘Slow it down,’ but I heard coach on the sidelines saying, ‘Attack! Attack!’ So I picked the ball up, saw the defender and thought I would either get a layup or get fouled,” Nelson said.

He hit two free throws seconds later to seal the win for Davenport, 63-60.

“Coming in we knew it would be a dog fight,” said Nelson, a redshirt freshman. “It was hit or miss. These are the shots that we dream about taking when we’re young kids.”

That wasn’t the case for Matt Kingshott, who missed a potential game-winning layup with two seconds to go when Dominic Allen zipped a pass to him in the paint out of a timeout.

“I rolled to the hoop. I had a good shot at it, and I took a terrible shot,” said Kingshott, a CU captain. “I should have made it. I had a wide open look and should have made it.”

The Panthers used a 6-0 run over the last minute to pull away from Cornerstone. Kelvin DeVries hit a clutch 3-pointer for the Golden Eagles with 1:11 to play, which gave Cornerstone a 60-57 lead. But that was the last bucket the Golden Eagles would score, as Nelson took over late.

 


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Comments

  • Curtis said:

    This looks more like something that you would see on the Davenport site instead of the Cornerstone site.
    Most of this is mainly saying how good Davenport is.
    Note to writer this is Cornerstone not Davenport!

  • Heather said:

    This article is disgusting. It completely ignores how close the game was and glorifies Davenport. Since this is an article for the Cornerstone Herald, the article should focus more on Cornerstone’s team, not on how Davenport stole the game. And it is completely inappropriate that the article contains quotes from the opposing team. The author clearly needs to remember where his loyalty lies. If he’s going to write like this, he might as well transfer to Davenport.

  • Heather said:

    Thank you. This is the kind of articles I expect to see about the Golden Eagles.

  • Curtis said:

    this is definately a better article
    good job tim

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