On Jan. 27 the Western Carolina University Catamounts women’s basketball team hosted the Davidson Wildcats.
The game had a special tip-off time at noon to host their annual education day. Over 1,000 area school children were in attendance for the game. The children helped provide an electric fan atmosphere for the game.
The first half brought about stingy defense by both sides with neither team seeming to gain an edge. At the ten-minute mark of the game the score was Davidson 10, WCU 9.
At the end of the first half the score was WCU up 26 to 22. The first half provided exciting action and a close game with the lead never reaching more than five points.
The Catamounts were led in the first half by Justin Taylor and Hana Haden who both recorded six points. The Wildcats were lead by Hannah Early who recorded six points as well.
WCU shot 30.3 percent from the field and hit two three pointers, while Davidson shot 27.3 percent with no three pointers.
The second half began with a strong start for the Catamounts; forward Shauna Terry recorded four points in the first minute of action to put Western Carolina up by 8.
Davidson came charging back on a hot streak of their own to tie the game at 37 points with 14:36 to play in the game.
The game would remain a one possession game for much of the second half and came down to the final minutes of play.
With one minute left in the game the Wildcats were up by 3. The game was sealed when Davidson’s Alex Long put Davidson up 69-65 with a critical free throw at 2.2 seconds left in regulation.
The Lady Catamounts were unable to recover from that lead and would lose by four points.
With the loss WCU falls to 9-11 on the season, with a record of 3-6 in the Southern Conference. The Davidson Wildcats would reach .500 on the season becoming 10-10 on the season with a 7-2 record in the Southern Conference.
WCU had three players score in double figures, Makensey Campbell and Kristen Lyon both had 10 points while Taylor had 12. Campbell also led the team in rebounds with 8. Terry was key in the defense game with 4 steals.
Davidson had four players that scored in double digits with Laura Murray leading the Wildcats with 18 points. Dakota Dukes and Shneeka Center both recorded double-doubles with double digit rebound and scoring totals.
The Catamounts shot 26.5 percent from the field for the game while Davidson shot 39.7 percent. A key statistic for the game is that Davidson made 18-21 free throws while Western Carolina only went 5-9.
Next up for the Lady Catamounts is a 2 game home stand. They play the Furman Paladins on Feb.1 at 2 p.m. and then the Wofford Terriers on Feb.3 at 7 p.m.
