Murray & The ‘Cats Advance to SoCon Finals, 74-67

Sunday, March 9

Asheville, N.C.

2:30 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

16-15

No. 7 Western Carolina (ESPN3)

15-17

Team	1	2	F
WCU	26	41	67
DAVIDSON	37	37	74

Photo by: SoConPhotos.com

Murray & The ‘Cats Advance to SoCon Finals, 74-67

3/9/2014 5:49:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

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ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Laura Murray had her second straight 20-point outing and third-seeded Davidson used a 15-6 run in the final five minutes to erase a two-point deficit and hold off seventh-seeded Western Carolina in the Southern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals with a 74-67 win to advance to the championship game for the second year in a row.

In a rematch of last year's championship game, the Wildcats will seek their first tournament title when they face No. 1 seed Chattanooga Monday at 5 p.m. at U.S. Cellular Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN3 and CSS, while it can be heard on teamline through Davidsonwildcats.com.

"We're excited to be back where we were last year and to have an opportunity to win it all," said Savage. "It's a title game and I think our team is very fired up and we had a hard-fought game today. We had the lead, then we lost the lead, but we finished up strong. It was a team win at the end. We hit some free throws and had some big stops down the stretch."

Up 47-33 after a quick eight consecutive points by Murray for its biggest lead of the game, Davidson saw the Catamounts charge back with a 21-3 run to take a 54-50 lead with 8:49 left.

The Wildcats did not back down, hanging tough as they traded the lead back-and-forth over the next few minutes until a Shneeka Center layup sparked a 10-0 run that was capped off by a pair of Murray free throws for a 69-61 lead with 1:14 remaining. Five more free throws in the closing seconds helped seal the win for the Wildcats.

Murray had herself another outstanding game, going off for 25 points, with 19 of them coming in the second half. The three-time All-SoCon pick scored 12 of those points after Western had taken its four-point lead at 8:49.

With her combined 51 points (26 vs. Samford) the last two days, Murray is just 16 away from breaking the all-time school mark of 1,878 set by Sophia Aleksandravicius. Murray did set the Wildcat single-season record today for points at 600.

"We've had many games like that this season," said Murray. "There was a point where I said, 'I can't let that happen.' We were up by 10 against App State a few weeks ago and they came back and beat us. There were emotions of panic, but also, we've been in that situation and we all needed to calm down."

Dakota Dukes scored 12 of her 18 points in the second half and pulled in eight rebounds. She was 8-for-10 at the charity stripe. Hannah Early chipped in 12 points to give the 'Cats three double-digit scorers.

WCU was paced by Shauna Terry's 19 points, while Justin Taylor came off the bench for 18 points.

Davidson started out hot by hitting eight of its first 12 shots and racing out to a 16-5 lead on a Rachel Piles' jumper in the lane. Later, back-to-back treys from Early pushed the advantage out to 22-11 forcing a WCU timeout. The junior had nine points in the first half and Davidson was 6-for-11 overall on triples in the half.

Western Carolina came back with an 11-3 run to cut the 'Cats' lead to three, 25-22, but a Piles' three-point play sparked a 12-4 run to finish out the half and give Davidson a 37-26 lead at the 20-minute break.

The Wildcats finished the game shooting 44.2 percent, compared to Western's 37.1 clip. They also canned 9-of-20 three-balls. Keeping the Catamounts in the game was their 26 second-chance points on 21 offensive rebounds.

"We've played them (Chattanooga) twice; the first game was closer than the second game," said Savage. "There is no motivation I have to do for my team. We're very excited and we wanted to get another crack at them. We have to bring our A-plus game. It has to be a team effort. Everyone from 1-8 has to step up. They have to play above themselves and we can't have lapses like today. If we have a dry spell like today, we'll get blown out of the gym."

GAME NOTES: Davidson won its eighth straight in the all-time series vs. WCU and 11th in the last 13 meetings overall … head coach Michele Savage is 8-1 vs. the Catamounts … The Wildcats improved to 16-20 all-time in the SoCon Tourney, going 3-7 in semifinal games … Murray has scored in double digits in 30 of the 'Cats' 31 games this year, pushing her career total to 97 … 16 of those double-digit games have been 20-point outings this year, giving her 33 for her career … Early's three triples give her 63 for the season and she is four away from breaking the single-season mark ... the duo of Murray, Early and Dukes have scored in double figures in the same game in 17 of the 31 games.