SPORTS

DAVIDSON, N.C.  — Senior Justine Lyon scored a game-high 19 points and Davidson came back in the second half in pulling out a tightly-contested 60-57 win on Senior Day against Saint Louis Saturday afternoon in Atlantic 10 play inside John M. Belk Arena.

Davidson improved to 16-11 overall and reached double digits in league wins at 10-4, while snapping the Billikens’ three-game winning streak to send them to 13-14 overall and 8-6 in the A-10.

Lyon hit 6-of-14 shots, including a three-pointer, and swished home a season-best 6-of-8 free throws. She also pulled in nine rebounds for the second straight game and tied her season best with four steals.

The ‘Cats sealed up the win by swishing home four straight free throws in the last eight seconds, two each by Cassidy Gould and senior Kianna Speight.

Saint Louis had hit a three-pointer with six seconds left to make it 58-57. Then on the inbounds pass by the Wildcats, Lyon saved the ball from going out of bounds and Speight was there to haul it in before she was fouled with one-tenth of a second left.

Gould scored a career-high 16 points and Sarah Donovan had 11 to go with eight rebounds. Seniors Speight (6 points, four rebounds, three steals) and Kyla Roland (five rebounds, two blocks and two steals) had strong games as well.

The Billikens were led by Jordyn Frantz, who hit the three-pointer to cut the ‘Cats lead to one, with 18 points. All five of her field goals were from three-point range as SLU went 10-for-20 as a team. Myia Clark had 11 points and Brooke Flowers pulled in 17 rebounds.

A 19-1 run that spanned from the 5:43 mark of the third quarter to the 7:19 mark in the fourth quarter helped the Wildcats overcome an eight-point deficit. Highlighting the third quarter was a 9-1 run in the final five minutes that was capped off by a Lyon buzzer-beater to make it 45-44.

The advantage would grow to 10 at 54-44 in the fourth, as the ‘Cats opened on a 10-0 run with 7:19 remaining.

Saint Louis’ Kerri McMahan (11 points) scored nine straight points later and the lead was trimmed down to three at 56-53 with 3:54 to go. A free throw with 42 ticks left made it 56-54.

On Davidson’s next possession, Donovan grabbed an offensive rebound off her own miss, setting up Gould who was fouled with eight seconds left. She and Speight would take care of the rest in helping Davidson earn the win.

Saint Louis had leads of 13-8 and 31-25 in the first two quarters, hitting 7-of-11 three-pointers combined in both quarters.

For the game, Davidson scored 19 points off of Billiken turnovers and went 12-of-15 overall from the free-throw line after going just 8-for-21 in its previous game at Dayton. Saint Louis held a 43-38 edge in rebounding.

Davidson has one more home game Wednesday, Feb. 27, against Rhode Island at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES: This was the seventh meeting all-time between both team’s women’s basketball programs since the Wildcats joined the A-10 … the Wildcats improved to 2-5 in the series and snapped a five-game skid vs. the Billikens … Davidson won its ninth home game … Davidson set a new single season record for made three-pointers, hitting six for the game to push the total to 185 in a season, topping the previous high of 180 set in 2007-08 … for the eighth time, the Wildcats hit the double-digit mark in steals with 11 … Lyon, Speight and Roland were each honored prior to the start of the game as part of the Senior Day ceremony … its the second year in a row the ‘Cats have won on Senior Day.