Hamilton Tops 1,000 Points, Freshmen Duo Pace Davidson Women to 86-39 Win
1/20/2007 12:28:03 PM | Women's Basketball
Sports Information - Gavin McFarlin
DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Redshirt junior Katie Hamilton (Lilburn, Ga.) became the 10th player in program history to score 1,000 points for her career, while the freshmen duo of Alexandra Thompson (UNC Asheville, N.C.) and Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.) hit for career highs of 13 and 19 points, respectively, leading the Davidson women's basketball team to an 86-39 win over Wofford in Southern Conference action on Saturday evening at Belk Arena. Davidson moved its win streak to three straight, improving to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in league play. Wofford dropped to an even 9-9 overall and 3-5 in SoCon action.
The 47-point win is the 5th largest in program history and the largest SoCon win ever for Davidson. It is also the 4th largest win since the resurrection of the program in 1992-93.
Against Wofford, Davidson has now won 10 straight and moved to 10-2 during head coach Annette Watts' six years. In addition, the 39 points allowed tonight were the least amount given up all year by Davidson.
Hamilton needed just five points to score 1,000 for her career and she wasted no time in getting her points. The junior got the scoring started with back-to-back three-pointers to start the contest, and the Wildcats raced out to a 20-10 advantage through the first eight and a half minutes of play. The 'Cats hit eight of their first 12 shots and finished the half nailing an even 50 percent (15-of-30) for a 41-20 lead after one stanza. They finished the game shooting 50.8 percent (32-of-63) from the field, including 51.5 percent in the second half.
Besides becoming the 10th player in program history, Hamilton is the second player ever to score 1,000 points for a career in only three years. Jennifer O'Brien was the first to do the task as she scored a school-best 1,510 points for her career. With 20 more points, Hamilton will move in to 9th place. The junior guard finished the contest with nine points, getting all nine from behind the arc on 3-of-4 shots and Davidson as a team was 7-of-11 from downtown.
Thompson, Paquette and the bench took care of the rest for Davidson in the second half in maintaining at least a 21-point advantage the rest of the game for the 86-39 win. The bench scored 35 of the Wildcats' 45 total points in the stanza and finished the contest with 47 to Wofford's 13. Thompson and Paquette combined to score 27 of the bench's 35 second half points on 9-of-11 shooting and an 8-for-8 performance from the charity stripe.
For the game, Paquette hit a career-best 9-of-11 shots from the field and sank one free throw for her 19 points. She hit six of Davidson's last eight buckets, getting all of them in the paint to lead the Wildcats to a 46-22 advantage down low.
Thompson did most of her damage at the free throw line, draining a career-best 8-for-8 from the charity stripe and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the field, including a three-pointer, on her way to a career-high 13 points. Davidson as a team netted 15-of-18 shots from the 15-foot line.
The two 40-point halves for Davidson were the 11th and 12th times this season the Wildcats have accomplished the feat. The 'Cats ran its record to 4-0 when scoring 80 or more points, while the 86 total points were the second-most scored by Davidson this season.
The Wildcats also showed their unselfishness as for the 6th time this year it dished out over 20 assists, closing out the game with 23. Senior Jessica Mitchell (Wilkesboro, N.C.) had a game-high five, while two others chipped in with four each.
Wofford was led by Liz Miller's 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting, including 6-for-9 for the free throw line. Wofford hit only 31.1 percent of its shots and was held to 14 total field goals for the game.
Davidson looks to make it four straight when it hosts Appalachian State on Monday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. The Wildcats were swept last season in the two-game series, but have won three of the past five games.
