Thoughts from Saturday's games against WCU

-Davidson women's basketball team is inching closer and closer to joining the elite squads of the Southern Conference. Although Western was playing without their star forward, sharpshooter Lauren Powell put forth another fantastic performance (7-12 FG). Davidson led the Catamounts throughout most of the first half and did not let WCU pull away when they went on a second half run. If Halbersleben's last second shot would have fallen, the Cats would have had five more minutes to pull out a victory and get a huge conference victory against a top team.

-Although she only played limited minutes, Katie Hamilton showed why she was such a dominant SoCon player for her first few years. She plays with great balance and patience, taking good shots when they are there and setting up her teammates perfectly. The Wildcat offense had more flow when she was in the game.

-Davidson guards Kelly Gassie and Alex Thompson were thrown off a little bit by Western's second half press. The Wildcats struggled to score throughout most of the half and a lot of that had to do with the Catamount press throwing off their offensive timing and making them race against the shot clock on every possession.

-Mercedes Robinson is easily the most consistent and talented scorer on Davidson's squad (at least until Hamilton gets back to full strength). Robinson rarely misses close shots and she has an uncanny ability to control the ball in traffic and get off an accurate shot. While I used to think that she was one of those quiet scorers who made double figures without you noticing, I now believe that she is just flat out one of the top players in this program in recent years.

-In the Belk Arena nightcap, Western Carolina laid down the plan for how to beat Davidson in conference play: don't let Davidson beat you from outside, bump the Wildcats to keep them off-rhythm, shoot a high percentage from the field. Unfortunately for Western, the referees decided to call the game close and Davidson set a new season high with 31 free throw attempts.

-Boris Meno had a really nice performance as he came off the bench for the second night in a row. Meno scored nine points and three boards, including an impressive thunder jam on a fastbreak. The forward from Paris seemed to be more intent on limiting his turnovers and converting touches into points or opportunities for his teammates. With Sander reemerging as a potent force inside (he had nine points and 10 boards tonight), Meno has the opportunity to shore up a veteran frontcourt that was exposed in non-conference play.

-For the second straight game, Max Paulhus Gosselin had a huge game full of energy and offensive production. The junior forward scored nine points including an impressive steal and slam with a foul. He had several defensive plays where his presence altered shots threw the Catamounts out of rhythm. I was really happy to see coach put MPG and Will Archambault in the game together at the two and three. As both players have regained some effectiveness with their offensive production, they become less of a confidence liability on both ends of the court.

-Stephen Curry is so good that he can suffer through the worst shooting game that he has had all season and still contribute 19 points. He and Richards combined for a problematic 10 turnovers and 3-18 shooting night from the perimeter. Yet both players got their points elsewhere integrated the rest of the team into the gameplan.