Davidson Falls at Towson, 76-58, in W. Basketball Action

Saturday, November 22

Towson, MD

7:30 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Towson

Davidson Falls at Towson, 76-58, in W. Basketball Action

11/22/2008 11:46:04 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

TOWSON, Md. -- Despite a career-high 16 points from shooting guard Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) and placing all nine players in the scorers book, Davidson was not able to overcome a 27.3 percent shooting performance in the first half, dropping a 76-58 road contest to the Towson Tigers at the Towson Center on Saturday evening.

Towson rode the hot-shooting of Shanae Baker-Brice and Simona Petronyte, who combined for 24 first-half points, as the Tigers improved to 2-0. The Wildcats, who played the third of six straight road games to open the season, dropped to 1-2 on the young year.

Lax nailed 4-of-12 shots from the field, including a game-high two three-balls to surpass her pervious high of 11 points scored last year against Furman. The sophomore, who also added a 6-for-7 performance at the charity stripe, added five rebounds and two assists.

The duo of Baker-Brice and Petronyte along with Omara Parker hit double figures for the Tigers, netting 18, 16 and 13 points, respectively.

Baker-Brice and Simona Petronyte provided the offensive spark in the first half as Davidson fell into a 23-point hole at halftime, 45-22. Coupled with the hot shooting of Baker-Brice and Petronyte was Davidson's turnover problems as it coughed the ball up 21 times in the half, and 34 in all for the game.

In addition, the Wildcats also were hurt by having their leading scorer, senior Mercedes Robinson (Baltimore, Md.), play only seven minutes in the first half after getting two quick early fouls. She finished with eight points and three rebounds, after starting the year with back-to-back double doubles.

Baker-Brice netted nine of Towson's first 16 points to help the Tigers jump out to a four-point advantage at 16-12 with 8:52 left on the clock. The guard hit six of her first eight shots, including two three-balls on her way to 14 first-half points.

Later after Towson had pushed its lead out to 14 (28-14), Lax did her best to match Baker-Brice by finishing off a three-point play at the 4:25 mark to cut the Wildcat deficit to 31-21. She net 10 of her 16 points in the first half.

From there, Petronyte caught fire from the left corner, draining all 10 of her first-stanza points from that corner in the last 1:46 to give Towson the 23-point lead at intermission.

Davidson came out a much different team in the new half, picking up the intensity on both ends of the floor. The offense, led by the stout inside play of senior Mandy Halbersleben (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Monica Laune (Ashland, Neb.), got the 'Cats within 12 points (47-35) on a Laune layup with 12:52 remaining in the game. Both Laune and Halbersleben scored 11 of Davidson's first 13 points to start the new half.

Meanwhile on the defensive end, the Wildcats held Towson to just 1-of-14 shooting to open the new stanza as it went almost eight minutes without a field goal.

Towson though, put the game away with a 21-7 run over the next six minutes, opening up its largest lead at 68-42 when Baker-Brice drove into the lane for an uncontested layup with 6:36 left in the game. The Wildcats got no closer than the final score of 76-58.

Davidson won the battle on the boards with a 43-36 advantage, hauling in 14 of those boards on the offensive glass. The 'Cats also forced 14 second half turnovers, and held the Tigers to 34.5 percent shooting after Towson found the bottom of the net 51.5 percent of the time in the first stanza.

The Wildcats will now turn around and head to South Carolina to play the Gamecocks on Monday at 7 p.m.