Robinson and Lax Drop in Career Highs; 'Cats Fall To St. Joe's 78-68

Saturday, November 29

Nashville, Tenn.

3:00 p.m.

Davidson College

St. Joseph's

Mercedes Robinson earned all-tournament team honors

Robinson and Lax Drop in Career Highs; 'Cats Fall To St. Joe's 78-68

11/29/2008 5:21:24 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Senior forward Mercedes Robinson (Baltimore, Md.) and junior guard Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) hit for career highs of 24 and 19 points, respectively, but the Wildcats were not able to counter the clutch three-point shooting by the St. Joseph's Hawks in falling 78-68 in the consolation game of the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday afternoon.

Robinson provided the 'Cats (1-5) with an inside punch, finishing a season-best 7-of-17 from the field, including two three-pointers, and added eight free throws for her game-high 24 points. She was just two boards off of her third double-double of the season, closing with eight. Behind her 34 points and 14 rebounds combined during the two-game weekend, Robinson was named to the all-tournament team, the second time this year she has garnered all-tournament team honors.

Lax took care of the outside scoring, hitting a career-best seven field goals, three of them from downtown, for her 19 points. Davidson as a team drained a season-high seven three-balls (7-of-14), and shot 40 percent overall behind a season-best 24 made field goals.

The duo did their best to bring the Davidson women's basketball team back from a 44-25 halftime deficit in the second half, scoring a combined 28 of their 43 points in the half.

Robinson started an 8-2 run to open the new half with a bucket inside that brought Davidson within 13 at 46-33. But the Hawks responded with back-to-back clutch threes a few minutes later to push the lead back out to 55-38.

Davidson countered later with seven straight points from Robinson to bring the 'Cats right back to within 12 at 60-48 with 10:15 remaining.

Then after St. Joe's (3-3) pushed the lead back out to 20 again, the Wildcats geared up for one last push, going on a 14-4 spurt in a five-minute stretch, capped off by a Lax jumper, that brought the score to 74-64 with under three minutes left in the game. Lax scored five points in the run.

Another three-pointer by Lax at the 1:57 mark brought the score to 78-68, but Davidson was not able to come up with another bucket in the last two minutes to end the final score right there.

St. Joe's used the hot-shooting hands of Mariame Djouara and Jenna Loschiavo in first half to grab the 19-point halftime lead. The duo combined to hit for 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including draining four of their five shots from behind the arc.

Loschiavo's third three of the half doubled up the Wildcats at 20-10 with 10:06 left in the period. She finished the half with 12 points and score 17 for the game, getting 15 of those points from downtown (5-of-8).

Later, the lead grew to 35-19 when Katie Kuester came off the bench and nailed St. Joe's fifth and sixth three-pointers of the half with back-to-back treys. The Hawks hit 10 treys in all for the game (10-for-21) with Kuester going 3-for-4 from behind the arc.

Joining Loschiavo in double figures was Djouara and Michelle Baker with 18 and 10 points, respectively.

Besides its excellent shooting in the second half (51.9 percent), Davidson also did a nice job of protecting the ball with a season-low 14 turnovers. For the third time in the past four games, and fourth time overall, the Wildcats won the battle on the glass with a 41-34 advantage. Senior Mandy Halbersleben (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the way with a new personal-best 10 boards to go along with her five points.

Davidson returns home for the first time this year as it has its home and conference opener when the Wildcats play host to Furman, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.

Game Notes: Davidson and St. Joe's were playing for the first time ... Davidson is now 14-15 under coach Annette Watts when playing at in-season tournaments ... 16 of the Wildcats' 41 total rebounds were on the offensive end ... Lax has gone 6-for-13 from behind the arc the past two games ... Davidson's 43 second-half points were a season-high and the most since it scored 46 at Wofford on Feb. 23, 2008.