Davidson Secures 3rd Seed With Series Sweep of Furman, 71-66
2/25/2007 1:31:55 PM | Women's Basketball
Gavin McFarlin
Recap | Box Score
The victory puts Davidson in a tie for third place with UNC Greensboro in the SoCon standings. The Wildcats win the tiebreaker by virtue of their win over
The Wildcats also picked up its fifth series-sweep of the season against a SoCon opponent, while winning for the eighth time in the past nine games against Furman.
Redshirt junior Katie Hamilton (
Following
Senior point guard Tia Washington (
After both teams used a combined four three-pointers in the first four minutes of the opening half that led to a 10-10 tie, Furman jumped out to a 21-14 advantage on a free throw by Katie Agin after a media timeout at the 11:59 mark.
Davidson used the timeout to regroup and turn up the intensity on both ends of the floor, led by junior Honna Housley (
Meanwhile, the Wildcats' defense was back to its lockdown self. They held the Paladins to two buckets and only seven points over the last 12:48 of the half, to go into halftime up 38-28. Davidson forced 14 of Furman's 25 turnovers in the first half as Housley helped force the miscues with three of 'Cats nine steals in the half.
The Wildcats maintained a double-digit lead the majority of the second half, pushing it out to as many as 16 points on two free throws by
Davidson then had to hold off a furious Furman rally in the last three minutes as the Paladins cut the 16-point Wildcat lead all the way down to seven, 69-62, with 22 seconds on the clock. Kali Holtfreter finished the surge off with a three-point play.
The Wildcats though, kept their composure and sealed the win by closing out the free throw crazed half hitting four of its last six free throw attempts for the 71-66 victory.
Chrissy Phelps scored 14 of her game-high 23 points in the second half to pace Furman. During one stretch of the second period, she scored 10 of Furman's 12 points. Maggie McKemie was the other Paladin to reach double figures, ending with 14 points and a perfect 6-for-6 showing from the charity stripe.
Davidson now will seek its first-ever SoCon Championship title when it heads to the conference tournament next, which runs from Tuesday, Feb. 27 till Sunday, Mar. 3.
