Davidson Drops Its Season Opener on the Road, 67-60

Friday, November 14

Greenville, S.C.

6:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

0-1

Furman

1-0

Team	1	2	F
Davidson	27	33	60
Furman	26	41	67

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Davidson Drops Its Season Opener on the Road, 67-60

11/14/2014 8:47:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score (html)
DavidsonPhotos.com

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Starting the 2014-15 season on the road, the Davidson women's basketball team dropped its season opener at Furman, 67-60, Friday evening in Timmons Arena.

With the game tied at 52-all with less than four minutes to go, the Wildcats (0-1) saw Furman outscore them 15-8 down the stretch to break up the tie and earn the win.

Four 'Cats reached double-digits in points, led by Hannah Early's 15 to go with nine rebounds. Freshman Mackenzie Latt had an impressive collegiate debut, recording her first career double-double on 11 points and 12 rebounds, while dishing out a team-high five assists, blocking a pair of shots and pocketing two steals.

Dakota Dukes just missed a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while first-year player Saadia Timpton impressed off the bench in her first collegiate game with 10 points, all coming in the second half.

Furman's Brittany Hodges had a double-double with 17 points and a school-record 24 rebounds, half of them on the offensive glass. Whiteny Bunn added 18 points, while Sarah Durdaller chipped in 12 points and nine boards.

Bunn hurt Davidson in the closing minutes, scoring seven points after the game was tied at 52-all. She broke up the tie with back-to-back driving layins and added a free throw a few possessions later to make it 60-54 with 2:25 left.

A pair of free throws by Timpton with 1:04 remaining brought Davidson within four, 62-58, but Furman iced the game by going 5-for-6 at the free throw line.

A pair of runs highlighted the first half. After both teams played to a 6-all tie six minutes in, Furman used an 11-4 run for a 17-10 lead with 9:39 on the clock and Davidson was forced to call a time out.

The Wildcats responded, running off a 15-5 spurt that was capped off by an Early triple from the wing for a 25-22 lead with 4:03 left in the half. Dukes scored six of her eight first-half points during the run, including four in one possession.

The lead was traded back to Furman one more time until Latt hit a bucket inside with 1:21 and Davidson had one last defensive stand before the buzzer sounded for the half with the 'Cats up 27-26.

Davidson shook off a cold shooting first half (31.7 percent) to nail 46.7 percent of its shots in the second period to finish at 38 percent. Furman finished slightly better at 39.1 percent.

The Wildcats held a 48-45 edge on the glass, pulling in 21 offensive rebounds, while scoring 40 points in the point.

Next up, the Wildcats return home for their home opener against Southern California Monday, Nov 17, at 7 p.m. It will be the first time either school has faced each other.

GAME NOTES: The Wildcats fell to 9-27 in season openers during the program's 36 years and 7-16 since the program was restarted in 1992-93 …. This was the 20th time Davidson started the year on the road or at a neutral site … Davidson sits on 399 program wins in its 36-year history … of Davidson 10-player rotation tonight, half of the players were making their Wildcat debuts … the 21 offensive rebounds were the most by the 'Cats since a 20-board outing at Old Dominion in the Women's NIT, March 21, 2013.