Georgia Southern Drops SoCon Opener at Davidson

DAVIDSON, N.C. – Ashley Melson tallied a career-high 24 points and the Lady Eagles outscored Davidson 38-33 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to rally back from a first half deficit as Georgia Southern dropped its Southern Conference opener, 62-56, at Belk Arena, Thursday night (Nov. 29).

Georgia Southern drops its third consecutive contest as it falls to 2-5 (0-1 SoCon) on the season.  Davidson improves its record to 3-2 (1-0 SoCon) with the win.

Sophomore guard Ashley Melson (Newnan, Ga.) shot 10-of-19 from the field to pace the Lady Eagles, while also tallying seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.  Sophomore forward Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain, Ga.) followed with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting while senior forward Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Mercedes Robinson paced the Wildcats with 15 points and 11 rebounds.  Alex Thomson and Julia Paquette followed with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Davidson scored the first points of the game off the hands of Paquette, which sparked a 13-4 run before the first timeout with 14:24 on the clock.

Georgia Southern’s shots wouldn’t drop as they went 8-of-29 in field goal attempts, while Davidson benefitted from a 41.7 percent outing from the field, hitting 10-of-24 attempts in the first half.

Davidson built up a 29-18 lead going into the break with three players tallying six points each, Mercedes Robinson, Julia Paquette and Danielle Hemerka.  Georgia Southern was paced by Melson with six points.

The Lady Eagles turned things around in the second half, chipping away at the 11-point deficit over the next six minutes.

The Davidson lead was cut down to just three points, 37-34 with 14:34 remaining after the Lady Eagles used a 14-6 run that was capped by Christa Waterman’s (Sugar Hill, Ga.) jumper.

Davidson changed the momentum back in its favor and built up a 13-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining.

Georgia Southern continued to fight and managed to cut the lead down to five points, 61-56, with 36 seconds remaining, but Davidson held on to win its home opener.

Georgia Southern led the Wildcats in points in the paint, 34-32, and scored 10 points off the fast break, compared to Davidson’s five points.  The Lady Eagles won the turnover margin 15-17, but Davidson held a 41-36 advantage in rebounds.

Davidson claimed the lead the entire contest, hitting 16-of-21 attempts from the charity stripe and netting 22-of-51 field goal attempts.

Head coach Rusty Cram and the Lady Eagles will return home to Hanner Fieldhouse after the three-game road spell to face non-conference foe USC Upstate.  The game is slated for Saturday, December 1 at 12 p.m.

Category: Women's Basketball

Published on Thursday, 29 November 2007 00:03