Wildcats Win Thriller at Mount Saint Mary’s, 83-82

Tuesday, November 12

Emmitsburg, Md.

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

2-0

Mount Saint Mary's

0-2

Team	1	2	F
Davidson	42	41	83
Mount St. Mary's	42	40	82

Lillian McCabe hit the game-winner to send the Wildcats to the win on the road.

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Wildcats Win Thriller at Mount Saint Mary’s, 83-82

11/12/2013 9:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score (html)
DavidsonPhotos.com

EMMITSBURG, Md. – Hannah Early scored 17 of her game-high tying 22 points in the second half and Lillian McCabe hit the game-winning free throw with six seconds remaining as Davidson won a down-to-the-wire finish at Mount Saint Mary's, 83-82, Tuesday night at Knott Arena in women's basketball.

Tied at 82-all, McCabe pulled in a rebound off a wide-open missed layup by Sydney Henderson with seven ticks left and was fouled immediately. She then went down and calmly hit the front-end of a one-and-one, before missing the second and the Mount called a timeout with 6.7 ticks on the clock. McCabe finished a personal-best 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Out of the timeout, Mount Saint Mary's Ashley Christie raced down the court, trying to hit the winning layup, but Davidson's defense forced an off-balance shot and Dakota Dukes pulled in her 10th and final rebound for the win.

Just a few minutes earlier, Christie had given the Mountaineers' a brief 80-78 led on back-to-back triples from long range. Dukes, who was in foul trouble in the first half, kept the Wildcats right in it by scoring six straight points, including swishing home a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining to tie it up at 82-all.

For the second game in a row, Davidson had a pair of 20-point scorers with Laura Murray joining Early with an even 20 points. She also added season highs of six assists and five steals.

Dukes had her first career double-double with 12 points to go along with her 10 rebounds, while Shneeka Center gave the Wildcats four double-figure scorers for the second straight game with 13 points off the bench.

The Mountaineers were led by Henderson's 22 points, followed by Kayla Grossett with 12. Jessie Kaufman and Christie each chipped in 10 points apiece.

Henderson had given Mount Saint Mary's a 66-61 lead with 7:55 remaining on a layup. Early then took over for the next three minutes, canning four three-pointers for the Wildcats, with her final triple giving them a 75-72 edge with four minutes on the clock.

The game would then go back-and-forth with two more ties until the final seconds.

The first half featured 30 combined free throws with Davidson going 13-for-18 as it raced out to a 19-10 lead that later was pushed to 38-29 on Rachel Piles' third free throw of the half.

The Mountaineers were 10-for-12, including hitting four in the closing minutes, as they shook off their early shooting slump to score 13 of the last 22 points and send both teams into the break tied at 42-all. Jacqueline Brewer's three-ball with under 10 seconds knotted things up.

Overall, 44 combined free throws were shot as Davidson went 20-for-28. The Wildcats shot 48 percent for the game, while the Mount hit 52.5 percent, including draining 62.1 percent of their shots in the second half.

Davidson returns home for its home opener against state-border rival Winthrop Friday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Tonight's matchup was the first between both schools all-time … Davidson scored 24 points off of 18 Mountaineer turnovers ... the 2-0 start to open the year is the first since 2006-07 team won their first two games against UNC Asheville and East Tenn. State … the Wildcats played their second of six roads in the first seven games overall to open the year … Murray moved into fifth place all-time in scoring with 1,305 points.