2nd Half Surge Leads Xavier to 84-60 Win over Davidson

Friday, December 19

Cincinnati, OH

12:00 p.m.

Davidson College

Xavier

With her personal-best six three-pointers vs. Xavier, Ashley Lax has now had seven games with two or more three-balls in a contest this year.

Photo by: Sideline Sports

2nd Half Surge Leads Xavier to 84-60 Win over Davidson

12/19/2008 4:33:02 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Ta'Shia Phillips led four Musketeers in double figures with a double-double, and Xavier used a 16-5 run to start the second half in opening up a 20-point lead that Davidson could not overcome as the Wildcats dropped an 84-60 road decision Friday afternoon in women's basketball action at the Cintas Center.

Xavier, just 1-of-6 from behind the arc in the first half, came out after the intermission and proceeded to drain four of its first six second-half shots from the three-line on its way to scoring 16 of the first 21 points of the half to grab a 50-30 lead with 15:58 to go.

Jerri Taylor led the charge for Xavier to start the half, draining the first and last three-pointers during the spurt on her way to 10 second-half points. She finished the game with 12 points and three assists.

Davidson had cut the eight-point halftime deficit to four on an Alex Thompson (Asheville, N.C.) trey and a bucket in the paint from Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.) to open the new half.

Thompson picked up her first career double-double with 10 points and a career-best 10 assists. She became the first Wildcat to dish out 10 assists in a game since Tia Washington accomplished the feat on Jan. 14, 2006 vs. Georgia Southern.

Xavier continued to pour it on and lead by as many as 36 points in the second half thanks to an 18-of-30 shooting performance in the period that included hitting six shots from behind the arc, and earned the 84-60 win.

Pacing the Wildcats on the afternoon was sophomore Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) with yet another career-high game. The shooting guard finished a personal-best 8-of-20 from the field, including knocking down a career-high six three-pointers on her way to setting a new personal-high with 24 points.

Lax caught fire in the last minute and a half when she scored the Wildcats' final 12 points, nailing four three-balls. Davidson as a team was 9-of-25 from behind the arc, marking the sixth straight game it has knocked down at least seven three-pointers in a game.

Phillips' double-double was the sixth of the year as she lead all scorers with 25 points and helped Xavier to a 45-32 advantage on the glass with a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Wildcats fell to 4-7 overall on the year. Xavier, which had been ranked as high as 21st in the polls before falling out a couple of weeks ago, picked up its seventh win in the past eight games to improve to 9-3 overall.

In the first-ever meeting between the two schools, Xavier used the inside presence of Phillips to grab an early 16-7 lead at the 12:43 mark of the first half. The 6-6 center hit four the Musketeers' first eight shots on her way to netting nine points.

She capped off the scoring by netting Xavier's last six points of the half, including a buzzer-beating layup to give XU a 34-25 advantage at the intermission. Phillips scored 17 first-half points in all, and hauled in nine of her 11 rebounds in the half.

Inbetween, Davidson kept things close behind the sharp-shooting of Lax. The sophomore guard brought the 'Cats to within six (26-20) with 7:03 remaining in the half when she knocked down eight straight points, including draining two long distance three-pointers.

Davidson wraps up its trip to Ohio with a 2 p.m. contest at Cincinnati on Sunday, before then taking a nine-day break for Christmas.

Game Notes: Davidson hit the 20-assist plateau for the second time this year ... Lax has led the team in scoring four times ... Mercedes Robinson saw her streak of scoring in double figures come to an at six games in a row with just three points ... Thompson now has the longest streak of consecutive games in double digits at five ... Freshman Kristen Johnsen scored a season-best eight points off the bench for Davidson ... Xavier held a 34-8 lead in points in the paint thanks Phillips' 25.