Murray Drops In 26, Davidson Cruises in Home-Opener, 69-47

Friday, November 19

Davidson, N.C

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College

1-2

William & Mary

0-2

William & Mary

Davidson

Murray Drops In 26, Davidson Cruises in Home-Opener, 69-47

11/19/2010 11:02:54 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Gavin McFarlin -- Assistant SID

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Freshman Laura Murray (Harrisburg, Pa.) dropped in a season and game-high 26 points and Sophia Aleksandravicius (Pound Ridge, N.Y.) recorded her 12th career double-double as the duo led Davidson to a 69-47 home-opening win over William & Mary on Friday night at John M. Belk Arena in women's basketball.

In addition to earning their first win of the season, the Wildcats (1-2) also gave head coach Michele Savage her first career coaching win.

Murray, who registered 18 second-half points as the 'Cats went off for 48 in the period, helped Davidson open up a 20-point lead, 34-14, in the second half on a layup with 15:42 on the clock, forcing the Tribe to burn a 30-second timeout.
She went onto score six of the 'Cats next 10 points and the lead was pushed to 26 (44-18) after she converted on a three-point play with 11:37 left.

The freshman hit 8-of-13 shots overall, with three of those buckets coming from behind the arc, and went 7-for-11 from the charity stripe.

The 'Cats later pushed their lead out to 28 (48-20) on a Jasmine Calin (Miami, Fla.) layup with 8:41 remaining in the game and would go on to lead by as many as 14 the rest of the way.

Forward Aleksandravicius took care of the inside scoring, netting 14 points to go along with her game-best 13 rebounds, which were three off her career-high. The sophomore also swatted away five shots, one off the school record.

Also reaching the double-figure mark for the third straight game was Kristen Johnsen (Wayne, Pa.) with 14 points, all of them coming in the second half as she finished perfect on the night. She hit all four of her field goals and sank all six free throws. In the last two games now, Johnsen is 8-of-8 from the field and 10-for-10 from the free throw line.

William & Mary (0-2) put a pair of scorers in double figures, led by Taysha Paye's 19 points, 18 of them coming in the second period.

The Wildcat defense shut down the Tribe, holding them to 25.4 percent shooting for the game, including just 11 percent in the first half when the Tribe scored just 10 points.

Both team struggled out of the gate as the Wildcats were held without a bucket for the first seven-and-half minutes until Murray canned a three-ball that sparked a 9-0 run to give Davidson a 9-6 lead.

After a Mathieu Kaitlyn jumper for William & Mary at the 9:35 mark made it 9-8, Davidson clamped down on defense, holding the Tribe scoreless over the next five and half minutes in opeing up a 19-8 lead. Davidson went into halftime up 21-10.

Davidson takes to the road, traveling down to Rock Hill, S.C. to play Winthrop on Monday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Davidson's win this evening was its first in the all-time series (1-4) ... th Wildcats avenaged a loss to the Tribe last year when they blew a 23-point lead in falling 74-63 ... the 'Cats were 14-of-24 in the second period for a season-best 58.3 percent shooting in a half ... Calin finished with five points, six boards and four assists ... Aleksandravicius has hit the double-figure mark in five her last six games dating back to last season ... Davidson is 14-16 all-time in home-openers.