Wildcats Fall on the Road to College of Charleston, 84-78

Box Score

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Davidson put five scorers in double figures for the second time this year, but it was not enough to offset College of Charleston's Brooke Kotcella and Eric Williams, who combined for 52 points, and the Wildcats fell on the road, 84-78, in Southern Conference action on Saturday afternoon at Carolina First Arena.

The Cougar duo combined for 34 of their points in the first half when Charleston opened up a 20-point lead, and then the pair proceeded to score the first 14 points for CofC (12-5, 7-2 SoCon) to start the new half. Kotcella had 27 points and Williams had 25, with each hitting 11 field goals and draining a combined eight of the Cougars' 11 three-pointers in the game.

Senior Monica Laune (Ashland, Neb.) led the five Wildcats in double digits with a season-best 19 points off the bench. She hit five of her six field goals from behind the arc, setting a new career-high in treys, while adding six rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.

Also hitting the double-digit mark for Davidson (8-9, 6-3 SoCon) was Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.) with a season-high 17 points, Sophia Aleksandravicius (Pound Ridge, N.Y.), who had her seventh double-double behind 14 points and 10 rebounds, and the backcourt pair of Alex Thompson (Asheville, N.C.) and Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) with 10 points each.

College of Charleston road the hot hands of both Kotcella and Williams to a 49-28 halftime lead in the first period. The Cougars had it all working in the half as it shot to the tune of 55.9 percent and nearly 50 percent from downtown (47.1).

The Cougars opened up a 20-9 lead on Brooke Kotcella's second trey of the game, forcing a Wildcat timeout at the 11:00 minute mark. Kotcella scored 16 points in the first half, teaming with Ericka Williams (18) for 34 of the Cougars' 48 first-half points.

Paquette tried to keep the 'Cats close with nine straight points, but the Cougars continued to find their stroke from behind the arc. They canned three straight shots from downtown to push their lead out to 31-16 and Davidson was forced to burn another timeout with 9:13 left.

The Cougars would go on to hit eight of their 19 first-half field goals from three-land and finished the contest at 11-of-27.

Davidson used an 11-4 run, including back-to-back-to-back three-pointers to cut the deficit down to 35-27 with 5:35 remaining in the half.

CofC though, closed out the half on a 13-2 run and the Wildcats found themselves down 19 at the intermission.

After the lead grew to as much as 21 points four minutes into the start of the second half, Davidson and Aleksandravicius started chipping away. The freshman forward scored 10 of the Wildcats' 12 points in one stretch, including a three-point play that brought the score to 62-48 with 11:06 on the clock.

Later, another and-one play, this time by Thompson, made it 64-53 at the 8:48 mark and it looked like the 'Cats were on the comeback trail. Another Thompson bucket cut the Cougar lead down to single digits (76-68) with 1:36 remaining.

CofC though, hit 6-of-8 free throws in the last minute to hold off the Wildcats, who got to within six, 81-75, after a Lax baseline jumper with 15 seconds left.

Kotcella closed out the Cougar scoring with a layup off a steal to offset Laune's fifth three-pointer of the game for the final of 84-78.

Davidson just missed hitting 50 percent from the field for the game, closing at 49.1 percent after a strong second half shooting performance (51.5 percent). The Wildcats turned it around in the second period and outscored the Cougars, 49-36.

For the sixth straight game, the 'Cats were on top in the rebounding margin, holding a 41-29 edge. They got 18 second-chance points off 14 offensive rebounds.

The Cougars took advantage of Davidson's 23 turnovers, turning them into 27 points. Tonia Gerty pocketed a game-high five steals to go along with 16 points and eight assists.

The Wildcats held the Cougars leading scorer, Jade Hughes (11.6 ppg), to an 0-for-12 showing from the field, including 0-for-7 from behind the three-point line.

Davidson plays the second of three straight road games when it heads to Georgia Southern on Monday for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

Game Notes: This was just Davidson's second road game in the past nine contests ... coach Annette Watts remains four SoCon wins away from reaching 100 for her career ... Aleksandravicius, who is averaging a double-double vs. league opponents, had her fifth against a SoCon-foe this year ... the 49 second-half points by Davidson were the third-most scored this year ... after winning 13 straight in the all-time series, the Wildcats have lost the last four meetings vs. CofC ... Davidson saw its three-game road win streak come to an end ... Paquette clipped the 500-rebound mark for her career with eight boards.

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