Thompson Clips 1,000 Career Points; ‘Cats Drop Final Road Game, 65-54

Monday, February 15

Chattanooga, Tenn.

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Chattanooga

Alex Thompson now has 1,003 career points.

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Thompson Clips 1,000 Career Points; ‘Cats Drop Final Road Game, 65-54

2/15/2010 9:49:47 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin -- Assistant SID

Box Score

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Senior Alex Thompson (Asheville, N.C.) became the 13th Wildcat in program history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for a career, finishing with a team-best tying 16 points, but Davidson dropped its final road game of the season, 65-54, at Chattanooga on Monday evening in women's basketball at McKenzie Arena.

Davidson finished out 6-8 on the road for the season as its overall record fell to 12-13, and its league mark to 10-7. Chattanooga continued to stay in first place with a 15-3 SoCon record and 20-7 overall.

Thompson netted nine of her 16 points in the second half when she and the Wildcats nearly came back from a 20-point deficit. Joining her in the double-digit scoring column was freshman Sophia Aleksandravicius (Pound Ridge, N.Y.) with her 11th double-double of the season with 16 points and a game-high tying 13 rebounds, while Ashley Lax (Little Rock, Ark.) hit for an even 10 points.

UTC's Shanara Hollinquest paced all scorers with 19 points and added 13 rebounds for her second double-double vs. Davidson this year, and Jenaya Wade-Fray had 17 points. Coming off the bench was Kylie Lambert with 10 points, all in the first half.

After Aleksandravicius had her second 7-0 run of the game at the start of the second half to bring Davidson within 14 at 38-24, the Mocs pushed the lead out to 20 with 14:16 remaining.

Davidson then mounted a charge that saw it outscore UTC, 24-11, over the next 11 minutes to cut the deficit all the way down to seven points, 55-48, after a pair of Barbara Sitton (Richmond, Va.) free throws at the 3:08 mark. Sitton had a nice all-around game with nine points, seven of them coming during the scoring burst, six rebounds, three assists and a couple of steals.

Twice the Wildcats cut the deficit to seven points over the next few minutes, including when Thompson netted her 1,000th point on the first of two free throws to bring the score to 57-50 at 1:53.

After two more Thompson free throws made the score 61-54 with under a minute to go, the Mocs hit 4-of-6 free throws in the closing seconds to seal the 11-point win.

Davidson outscored UTC 37-32 in the second half after falling behind 33-17 after the first stanza, and held the Mocs to 32.3 percent shooting, which is what they shot for the game.

The first half saw neither team shoot particularly well as Davidson finished at just 20.8 percent and Chattanooga was slightly better at 32.4 percent. Davidson was hurt late in the half when it scored just five points in the final 10 minutes of the first stanza.

The Mocs' Wade-Fray and the Wildcats' Aleksandravicius did the majority of the scoring early. Wade-Fray dropped in 10 points with her ninth and 10th points coming on a jumper at the 8:34 mark to give UTC a 16-12 lead. Wade Fray finished the half with 13 points, nine of them from behind the three-line.

Aleksandravicius rattled off seven straight points in one span for Davidson to keep the 'Cats close early, while Thompson joined her with seven first-half points.

After both teams traded three-balls, with Thompson's trey bringing the score to 25-17 with 3:07 left in the half, the Mocs went on an 8-0 run to close out the half for a 33-17 halftime advantage.

The Wildcats will now close out the season with a three-game homestand, starting this weekend, Feb. 20, with a 7 p.m. contest against College of Charleston. The game will also be Davidson's WBCA “PineZone” Game for breast cancer awareness.

Game Notes: Tonight Davidson wrapped up a stretch where it played eight of its nine games from Jan. 16-Feb. 15 on the road ... Thompson is the 7th Wildcat under head coach Annette Watts to score 1,000 career points ... it was the 10th time this year Davidson held an opponent to under 35 percent shooting ... Aleksandravicius had her third game of the season with five blocks in a contest ... the Wildcats' six road wins were all against league foes this year.