Davidson 75, Furman 55
DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Junior Danielle Hemerka (Blackwood, N.J.) registered her third career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, and the Wildcats picked up its sixth straight win of the season with a convincing 75-55 victory over the Furman Paladins on Friday night at Belk Arena in Southern Conference women's basketball action. Davidson improved to 2-0 in the early stages of league play and is off to the program's best start ever at 9-2. Furman fell to 0-1 in league action and 4-5 overall.
Hemerka's double-double was the first for Davidson since senior Brynn Kelly (Spokane, Wash.) had one against Wofford on Feb. 18 of last year. The junior forward matched her career-high in rebounds and recorded eight of her 13 in the first half. Hemerka finished 3-of-6 from the field and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe in pacing Davidson to a 17-for-20 performance for the game. The junior had scored only four points combined her last two games, but scored in double figures for the sixth time this season.
Matching Hemerka in double figures was senior Jessica Mitchell (Wilkesboro, N.C.) and redshirt junior Katie Hamilton (Lilburn, Ga.) with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Mitchell buried two of the 'Cats four three-pointers and dished out a game- and season-high seven assists, while Hamilton was second on the squad with five assists. Davidson as a team dished out 20 assists for the fourth time this year.
The Wildcats led the majority of the game, racing out to a 20-8 lead on a Mitchell jumper with 10:37 to go in the first half. A few minutes later, Mitchell and sophomore Kelly Gassie (Mt, Juliet, Tenn.) dropped in back-to-back threes pushing the lead to 26-10.
Davidson would hold a double-digit led the rest of the half with Furman closing to within 12 on a three-pointer from Chrissy Phelps in the last three seconds for a Wildcat halftime advantage of 40-28. It was the seventh time this season they had hit the 40-point mark in a half.
Furman regrouped at halftime and used a 13-4 run in the early part of the second half, finishing it off with two straight three-pointers by Lee Stephens and Melissa Liebschwager to close the Wildcat advantage to five-points at 46-41 with 12:30 remaining in the contest.
Sophomore Mandy Halbersleben (Maineville, Ohio) then came off the bench and halted the Paladins surge. In a two-minute span, she scored all seven of her points on 3-of-3 shooting, including a free throw, and the 'Cats pushed their lead back out to 15 on Halbersleben's last bucket of the game for a 64-49 advantage with 6:19 to go.
Davidson used a 9-for-10 shooting touch from the charity stripe in the latter stages of the game to cruise to its eighth double-digit win and second straight victory over Furman by the count of 75-55. The Wildcats remained undefeated when winning by 10 or more points at 8-0.
For the game, Davidson hit 45.8 percent of its shoots, while crashing the boards on both the offensive and defensive end for a 38-28 rebounding margin over the Paladins. Fourteen of those 38 rebounds came on the offensive side of the court. Senior Tia Washington (Charlotte, N.C.) matched her career-high with five offensive boards and finished the game with a season-high seven rebounds.
Furman placed one player in double digits as Phelps scored 14 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds. The Paladins were held to under 40.0 percent shooting, closing the contest at 39.1 percent (18-of-46).
Davidson now heads out to the state of Washington for the first-time in program history to play two games in Spokane. The Wildcats will first look to match the school record with their seventh straight win when they play at Eastern Washington on Monday, Dec. 18. Davidson then finishes up its trip with a game against the West Coast Conference Gonzaga Bulldogs on Wednesday, Dec. 20. Tip-off for both games is set for 10 p.m. (EST).
Chattanooga 81, Portland State 61
HONOLULU -- Brooke Hand sank her second 3-pointer of the game to spark a 19-3 run to start the second half and put the Lady Mocs in the driver’s seat to defeat Portland State 81-61 in game one of the Paradise Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Shanara Hollinquest put in a lay-up to cap off the run en route to her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds. For the second time this season, Alex Anderson had a double-double by halftime and ended the game with fifth of the season. She had a game-high 18 points and 13 rebounds with seven offensive boards.
After leading by seven at the break, the Lady Mocs got hot, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers to start the second half and go up by 46-29 with 17:25 to play. PSU’s Jenni Ritter hit a 3-pointer to end a 10-0 run, but the Lady Mocs put together a 9-0 run and stretch its lead to 55-32 on Hollinquest’s layup.
The Lady Mocs (5-4) led by as much as 29 points and tied its season-high with 81 points. UTC was sluggish to start the game shooting just 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) from the floor in the first half, but rebounding was the name of the game with UTC pulling down 26 in the first half to the Vikings’ 14, with 13 offensive rebounds. The Lady Mocs ended the game with a season-high 58 boards.
In the second, UTC shot 45.5 percent in the second half making 15-of-33 from the floor and were 11-of-17 from the free throw line after hitting 83.3 percent in the first half.
Hand closed out the game with 16 points that included three 3-pointers to move her into sole possession of second place on the Lady Mocs all-time charts with 173. She needs 43 to catch Katasha Brown’s Southern Conference record 216.
Jenaya Wade-Fray knocked down three from beyond the arc and was the fourth Chattanooga player in double figures tying her career-high 11 points. Laura Hall dished out five assists and scored six points and Erin Ogan went 3-for-3 on the night with a pair of 3-pointers for eight points and four rebounds.
Portland State falls to 2-7 on the year. The Vikings were led by Kelsey Kahle with 18 points and five rebounds. Jenni Ritter was the only other Portland State player in double-figures with 12 points.
The Lady Mocs will play the winner of the Evansville-Hawaii game Saturday in the Championship game of the Paradise Classic. The game is set to tip off at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Listen to Larry Ward with all the action, live, on the flagship station of the Lady Mocs, WDOD-AM 1310 or online at the official website of UTC athletics, www.gomocs.com.