Sizzling First Half Carries Davidson to 72-69 Win

Saturday, February 20

Davidson, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Coll. of Charleston

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Sizzling First Half Carries Davidson to 72-69 Win

2/20/2010 10:34:20 PM | Women's Basketball

Gavin McFarlin -- Assistant SID

Box Score
Highlights

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Davidson lit up the nets to the tune of 70.8 percent in the first half and held off a late College of Charleston rally in the second half to score a 72-69 win in women's basketball action on Saturday evening during the Wildcats' WBCA PinkZone Game at John M. Belk Arena.

Davidson (13-13, 11-7 SoCon) drained 17 of its 24 attempts in the first half and was even better from behind the arc, canning nine three-pointers in 11 tries as it jumped out to a 16-point halftime lead. The 'Cats hit 10-of-19 three-pointers overall, a season-best, while finishing at an even 50 percent (25-50) from the floor.

Three Wildcats scored in double figures for the game, led by junior Ashley Lax's (Little Rock, Ark.) 15 first half points.

Fresh off becoming the program's 13th player to clip the 1,000-point mark last time out, senior Alex Thompson (Asheville, N.C.) had 13 points, eight boards, four assists and three steals. She was honored prior to the start of the game with a 1,000-point ball by Athletics Director Jim Murphy.

Fellow senior Julia Paquette (Stockbridge, Ga.) rounded out the trio with 12 points.

Deidra Jones had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Cougars (19-9, 13-6 SoCon), while Tonia Gerty dropped in 18 points.

It was all Davidson in the first half as the Wildcats could not miss. The 'Cats started out of the gates draining 11-of-13 shots, including hitting six of their first seven treys to open up a 29-20 lead, forcing CofC to burn its second timeout of the half at the 10:26 mark.

Shortly thereafter, Davidson pushed the lead out to 35-20 on Lax's second three-pointer of the half, and fourth straight for the Wildcats, forcing yet another Cougar timeout at the 7:52 mark. Lax would finish the half 4-of-4 from behind the three-line and 5-of-7 overall from the floor for all 15 of her points.

The lead grew to 19 after a pair of Kristen Johnsen (Wayne, Pa.) free throws and Davidson went into halftime up 46-30. Johnsen had six points in the half, while Thompson teamed with Lax for a perfect half from three-land with a 3-for-3 showing on her way to nine points.

Davidson maintained a double-figure lead through the first nine minutes of the second half, getting another three-ball, this time from freshman Sophia Aleksandravicius (Pound Ridge, N.Y.), to make the score 50-35.

College of Charleston, after cutting the deficit to nine at 10:41, started to put one last rally together. The Cougars started to charge back after Barbara Sitton (Richmond, Va.) hit a driving layup for a 58-45 score at the 9:21 mark, by going on a 12-1 run over the next four minutes to cut the 'Cats' lead down to two points at 59-57 after a Indya Mudd layup.

Davidson capitalized on all three of their next possessions though, to maintain at least a four-point lead, but CofC made it a one-point affair on a Deidra Jones free throw with 2:02 left.

The lead was cut down to one point two more times in the last 56 seconds, but a pair of Thompson free throws with six seconds left sealed the win.

Helping the Cougars late charge was their offensive rebounding as they hauled in 11 offensive boards in the second half, and 16 overall, to take a 39-33 edge on the boards for the evening. They had 12 second-chance points and 36 points in the paint.

Davidson showed its unselfishness by assisting on 17 of their 25 total field goals, led by Sitton's game-high five assists.

The Wildcats will next play host to Georgia Southern on Monday evening at 7 p.m.