Tale of Two Halves, Davidson Drops Season Opener at Georgia Tech, 69-50

Friday, November 9

Atlanta, Ga.

8 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

at Georgia Tech

Julia Paquette was just four points off her career-high as she dropped in a team-best 15 points at Georgia Tech.

Tale of Two Halves, Davidson Drops Season Opener at Georgia Tech, 69-50

11/9/2007 10:48:51 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Despite opening the game shooting 55 percent from the field (11-for-20), the Davidson women's basketball team could not overcome a 25 percent shooting performance in the second half as the Wildcats dropped their season opener at Georgia Tech, 69-50, on Friday night at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Davidson opened the 2007-08 campaign at 0-1, while the Yellow Jackets are 1-0.

Sophomore Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.), in only her second career start, dropped in 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including a 4-for-4 performance in the first half, to lead Davidson in scoring. Freshman Kelsey Cary (Anselmo, Calif.) had a nice collegiate debut with 12 points and seven boards off the bench to give the Wildcats two players in double figures.

Georgia Tech's Chioma Nnamaka dropped in 14 of her game-high 18 points in the first half as the Yellow Jackets raced out to an 11-4 advantage on a three-ball from Nnamaka at the 14:46 mark. Nnamaka nailed a game-best four shots from behind the arc in 32 minutes of action.

Cary would then scored the next eight points to bring Davidson back to within two at 14-12 five minutes later. The freshman, who scored a game-high 18 points in Davidson's exhibition win on Tuesday, finished 4-of-7 from the floor and canned all four of her free throws.

Tech came back with a 30-7 run over a six-minute span that pushed its lead to a first-half high of 17 points, 34-17, before going into halftime up 38-29 after sophomore Alex Thompson (Asheville, N.C.) fired in a three-ball with 48 seconds to go, cutting the lead to nine.

Davidson was then ice-cold from the field in the second stanza, hitting only five field goals, three of them from three-land, as Georgia Tech's defense tightened up.

In the meantime, the Yellow Jackets' offense increased their led by as many as 23 points late in the second period on their way to the 69-50 win.

Thompson and freshman Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) dropped in two three-balls each for Davidson and finished with seven and eight points, respectively. Thompson was perfect from the field and also dished out a team-high four assists.

Jacqua Williams of Georgia Tech scored 11 points, while four others scored at least six in the win.

Davidson gets a seven-day break before playing the first of its two in-season tournaments. The Wildcats will play next Friday, Nov. 16, at UNC Asheville in the Carolina First Classic against the Bulldogs at 8 p.m. Georgia State and Gardner-Webb will play in the first game of the tournament.