Davidson 49 Elon 68 (Women's)

Davidson's women's team takes the court for warmups here on this Saturday morning as they take on Elon in SoCon quarterfinal action. The Wildcats' last appearance was a 12-point victory over the College of Charleston at Senior night. The Cougars knocked off 4th seeded Georgia Southern this morning to advance to the semifinals against the juggernaut Chattanooga Mocs and Alex Anderson. The winner of Davidson-Elon will play Western Carolina tomorrow afternoon.

The Cougars held the Eagles to 23% shooting in the second half and kept all conference selection Tiffany Brown to 2-12 shooting.

Davidson owns two regular season victories over the Phoenix, the most recent coming as the Wildcats' penultimate game in Belk Arena. In that 68-54 victory, Alex Thompson recorded 18 points and six assists while Mercedes Robinson put up 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Heading into this game, Thompson owns an impressive streak of her own: 35 straight free throws. Stephen Curry hit 41 straight free throws earlier in the season.
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5 minutes to tip
Robinson is honored before the game for being selected All Conference. Davidson's crowd is larger than every school's men's crowd from yesterday besides College of Charleston. On the way in, I saw several younger Davidson fans getting the tailgating going at 10 a.m. in the parking lot.
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18:10 D 0 E 2
Elon gets the scoring going early with a post up and a layup. Paquette's first look went long and Katie Hamilton is already in. Elon with two early fouls away from the ball. Davidson's D has stiffened but the layups aren't falling (3 missed).
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15:55 D 5 E 6
Paquette misses a wide open layup in transition and the Elon pep band pours on the taunts. Shots are beginning to fall for Elon and Davidson looks frustrated. Thompson breaks the slump with a huge three. Would like to see more of those today with Elon staying committed to clogging the paint.
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15:00 D 5 E 9
Elon responds with a three of their own. Davidson has gotten two transition opportunities so far off of long defensive rebounds. Paquette converted on one and missed the other. SID Gavin McFarlin's scouting report listed Elon's troubles with the transition so we'll see if Davidson can continue to get easy opportunities.
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13:46 D 8 E 9
Honna Housley douses a three and Davidson is beginning to stretch the Phoenix defense. Robinson has been long on several paint opportunities, but Davidson's defense is stout. They have forced at least four turnovers so far.
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11:40 D 11 E 11
Housley with her second three and it looks like she is dialed in today. Robinson is still a little off, having thrown the ball away last time.

The Davidson pep band has about twenty members down here in their corner. They have new Cat in the Hat-type striped red and white collar shirts.
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8:57 D 16 E 16
Kelsey Cary with a nice turnaround in the lane, but Elon gets an offensive rebound that was loose for forever and they convert on a three that they never should have had. Housley again for three. She's got nine.
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7:14 D 16 E 19
And the missed layups continue for Davidson. Elon is getting a little more physical so I could conceive of a foul every once in a while, but none are coming. Hemerka and Robinson are still scoreless right now. Elon seems locked in on Davidson's passing and are getting fingertips on every other pass. Housley picked up her second foul so her three-point shooting is sitting on the bench.
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5:19 D 16 E 21
Thompson is so busy trying to swing the ball around that she's pretty much taken herself out of any and every opportunity to score. Hamilton comes in for two straight turnovers and Elon penetrates for another layup. Watts with a 30-second timeout. Thompson and Robinson need to be the scorers right now.
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3:59 D 20 E 21
Housley back in the lineup for a quick steal and score. She's got 11 while no other Wildcat has more than 3.

And the Wildcat is going nuts on the cowbell.
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1:00 D 22 E 23
The Wildcats continue to lose the ball on offense and Robinson is still scoreless. The Wildcats are outhustling for rebounds but they cant....Mercedes Robinson for two! Big basket for her.
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Halftime D 22 E 25
Tough half for the Wildcats offensively. Robinson didn't get on the board until the very end and Thompson only hit one shot. We'll see if Housley can continue her hot streak, and if Davidson can create a few more transition opportunities.
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18:35 D 25 E 27
Alex Thompson attempted one shot in the first half. She has already attempted one shot in the second half and now has six points. She's second in scoring right now behind Housley. Keep shooting Thompson.
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16:17 D 25 E 33
The Wildcats need to get Mercedes into a rhythm on the inside because Elon keeps getting on the verge of running away. Robinson continues to get banged around but the fouls are not coming. These rims are really tight. I hope that doesn't affect the men's team in an hour and a half.
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15:06 D 29 E 33
Housley with a nice jumper and then AT gets a steal and finds Robinson on the fast break. The Cats defense is intense but they are getting called for touch fouls away from the basket, breaking up their intensity. Housley with 13 points.
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13:50 D 33 E 34
Kelly Gassie gets on the scoreboard with an impressive drive and reverse layup...Robinson follows it up with a layup in the post and this looks like Wildcat basketball.
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11:34 D 35 E 38
Davidson's rebounding is impressive when you realize that Elon has an average size advantage at every position. But Elon won't away. Tierra Bumbrey has 10 points for the Phoenix, and she is penetrating off the dribble and getting the ball to her taller teammates. This one will go down to the wire.
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9:25 D 37 E 47
Elon hitting shots and Davidson frustrated with Alex Thompson on the bench. This one is getting away. Quick. The Wildcats need to get it together right now.
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7:03 D 39 E 51
That size is the difference right now as Elon gets several big jump ball rebounds on the offensive glass. Kelly Gassie trying to take over off the dribble but throws the ball away when doubled up. Thompson hasn't even looked at the basket in fifteen minutes. Davidson's defense is falling apart as well.
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5:00 D 42 E 56
Davidson has moved to a full court press but Tiffany Davis nails a dagger three-pointer. Another Elon layup...
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1:51 D 44 E 61
And Elon is now throwing up three-pointers at the shot clock buzzer and banking them in. This is sad for the sections full of Wildcat faithful pouring in. It's been a really tough year for these Cats with all of the injuries and this is a tough way to end the careers of Danielle Hemerka, Honna Housley, and Katie Hamilton.

Thompson, Gassie leave it all on the parquet in Wofford

They say that true commitment is built by always playing your hardest, even when no one is watching. On Friday night, the men's basketball team fought hard to a secure a very important Bracketbusters victory in front of a national television audience. On Saturday afternoon, the women's basketball team worked even harder to overcome a double digit deficit to win yet another SoCon battle on the road and pick up a game on Georgia Southern for the all-important third seed in the conference tournament. But only their families, three Davidson students, and a handful of Wofford fans were there to see it.

Davidson overcame a 20% shooting first half and a 10-point halftime deficit to beat Wofford 84-76 in overtime. Several Wildcats put up gaudy stats...Julia Paquette went 8-16 for 23 points, Mercedes Robinson picked up yet ANOTHER double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds and Alex Thompson recorded 18 points, 9 boards and a career-high 6 steals.

But this win wasn't about the stats. It wasn't even about beating a high-profile SoCon opponent on the road (which Wofford certainly isn't). This game was about Davidson continually coming out on top in situations when they should have been defeated. This was about overcoming all of that rationality in your gut that tells you that your doubt in the outcome is well based. The Wildcats kept hoping...on every steal, every jump shot and every rebound, and ultimately came out on top.

With four Wildcat players ultimately fouling out throughout the contest, Davidson coach Annette Watts had to go the end of her bench to find players to keep battling back as time was extended. But ultimately, she needed to look no further than her gutsy backcourt of Kelly Gassie and Alex Thompson.

Davidson went to a full-court press in the second half to keep Wofford off-balance, and the Cats' came up with several steals, despite allowing some easy Terrier shots. At one point, Wofford scored on four straight possessions late in the game. At another point, they drew fouls on Davidson for six or seven consecutive possessions. The Wildcats were nearly down and out at the end of regulation as Wofford was at the line with a three-point lead and just 40 seconds remaining. After the Terriers missed the free throw and got their own rebound. Things were even hairier. But Davidson forced a turnover, Paquette cut the lead to one. Wofford only got one point from the line on their next possession and Mercedes Robinson rebounded her own miss in traffic and put-back the game-tying basket with 3 seconds left in regulation.

After two more Wildcats fouled out in overtime, Thompson and Gassie took over on both ends of the floor. On one end Thompson is getting a rebound, then she sets up Julia Paquette for a basket. Then Gassie gets a huge steal and a fast break, misses her layup, gets a defensive rebound after another foul on Davidson, rebounds a miss by Kelsey Cary on the other end and gets the ball right back to her. After yet another Gassie defensive rebound, Thompson came open at the top of the key and hit the dagger three-pointer to put Wofford down for good. Thompson iced the game with her 9th and 10th straight free throws. Her 10-10 mark from the line ties a Davidson record for 100% free throw shooting with a minimum of 10 attempts.

The two Wildcat guards were breathing hard by the end, but it was their determination and savvy that pulled the rest of the team through when most of their veteran teammates could only watch and cheer.

This game could very well go down as one of the most exhilirating and hard-fought Davidson Wildcat games this year that no one ever saw. There are no SportsCenter highlights or parties on campus to welcome the team home. In fact, they are staying down in Spartanburg in prep for their road game at Furman on Monday. They will try to keep going about their business and working, step by step, towards a strong showing in the SoCon tournament.

But I don't have to look ahead quite yet. I get to reflect that today's game was one of the most special and gutsy performances that I have seen in a very long time.

Blogs killed the radio star

I experienced yet another perspective on Davidson Athletics on Tuesday night, when Wildcat radio man Derek Smith asked me to fill in for Tia Washington and do color for the radio broadcast of the Women’s basketball team’s game against Furman. The most color commentary that I have ever done came in my own living room bantering with my Dad as we watched a game with the sound turned down. Derek said that was all I needed to do on the radio, as long as I didn’t say anything too far out there. Not a bad deal.

As it turned out, I had a lot of fun. While I was expecting to be very nervous by those pregnant pauses that meant that I was supposed to have something witty and insightful to say, I found that there was so much going on in the game that Derek didn’t pause enough for me to get everything in. I do admit that there were a few moments where Derek’s up-tempo play-by-play lulled me into silence that I had to wake myself up and remember to say something. (You can hear the entire broadcast here).

So what actually happened in the game? Well Davidson overcame a 16-8 deficit to open up a 22-16 lead midway through the first half. During that stretch, they dominated the Paladins on the boards and mixed a potent three-point shooting attack with great entry passes that ended in open layups. The Wildcats were used to Furman’s 2-3 zone as they had faced something similar just a few games earlier at Elon.

Although Davidson had way too many ball-handling turnovers and went through an offensive slump to start the second half, they held on for the double-digit victory thanks to some strong play from Mercedes Robinson and Ashley Lax. Robinson put together another double-double by scoring 16 and rebounding 10, while Lax came off the bench to score a career high of 11 points.

I learned throughout the game of the constant torment of the color-man: you often don’t get the chance to say what you want and you never have much to say when you are put on the spot. I probably sounded like a broken record as I talked about the “great passes and good looks” that resulted in made baskets. I hope I wasn’t too ridiculously obvious with my commentary. Some of the best moments of the night included joking with Derek about the ease of some Wildcat baskets while he chided me for making it sound easier than it really was for a man like himself.

Overall, I really enjoyed breaking down Davidson’s play on the fly and organizing some thoughts for the world to hear. It definitely beats having to organize thoughts with these stupid commas and periods and reasonably short sentences. Maybe I should start on an audio blog where I want be judged for prattling on. Hmm, there’s a thought.

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.