Davidson 53, UNCG 52

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Sophomore Sophia Aleksandravicius had her second straight 20-point game and Kristen Johnsen hit the winning free throw as Davidson held on for a 53-52 road win at UNCG on Tuesday evening in Southern Conference women’s basketball action at Fleming Gym.

Tied at 52-all, Johnsen was fouled on layup attempt with the shot clock running down putting the junior at the line with 44 ticks left. Johnsen hit the first one to give Davidson (8-10, 4-6 SoCon) a one-point lead, but saw the second free throw hit the front iron allowing UNCG to tie it or win it on its possession, which turned out to be three chances.

The Spartans (9-10, 6-5 SoCon) called a timeout to set up a play with 37 seconds. As time clicked down with 28 seconds on the clock, Dayshaun Richbow got off a 15-foot jumper, but missed it and Aleksandravicius hauled in the board. But, UNCG stole the ball away before Davidson crossed halfcourt and quickly drove into the lane where Monique Floyd fired off a shot with eight seconds left, missed it, but still hauled in the offensive rebound with five seconds and called a timeout.

Richbow got one more chance, getting off another jumper with two seconds, but missed it again allowing the Wildcats to escape with the one-point win. Four of Davidson’s 10 league games have been decided by three points or less.

Aleksandravicius finished with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting, while hauling in seven boards as she was the lone Wildcat to score in double figures. It was the 10th game in a row she has scored in double digits and the third time in the last four where she has clipped the 20-point mark.

Janae’ Stevenson registered a double-double (13 points/11 rebounds) for UNCG, while Floyd had 11 points.

Reminiscent of the first meeting between the two teams, it was another back-and-forth affair. There were 12 ties and 13 lead changes this time after seeing 10 ties and 16 lead changes in the last meeting.

Davidson had the largest at 10 points (24-14) in the first half when Chloe Woodington feed Aleksandravicius with a nice lob pass in the paint, but UNCG rattled off an 8-2 run to finished the half and Davidson held a 26-22 halftime lead. Aleksandravicius had half of her 20 points in the first period and pocketed three of the ‘Cats eight steals for the game.

The Wildcat defense held UNCG to 30.5 percent, the seventh opponent it has held to under 35 percent shooting this year.

Davidson wraps up its three-game road trip and plays its last non-conference tilt on Friday, Jan. 28 when it heads to Farmville, Va., to play Longwood at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: Davidson again held an edge in points in the paint, scoring 30 to UNCG’s 20 ... Katrin Chiemeka had a career-high six boards, three of them on the offensive end ... the Wildcats have won three of their last four league games after starting 1-4 ... Ashley Lax moved into 17th all-time in points scored with her eight tonight ... Lax is also just two three-pointers away from moving into third all-time in made treys.