SPORTS

 

DAYTON, Ohio  — Davidson saw its run in the Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship come to an end, falling in the closing seconds to No. 2 seed VCU, 58-52, Friday afternoon inside UD Arena on the campus of Dayton.

The Wildcats’ season ends with a 16-15 record, while the Rams (19-11) move onto the semifinals to face the winner of No. 3 Fordham and No. 6 Duquesne.

Much like the regular season meeting, the game went down to the wire only to see VCU pull away again. Davidson, which came back from a 48-39 deficit in the fourth quarter, went ahead 52-51 on six straight points by Suzi-Rose Deegan and 1:18 to go.

VCU answered with a layup on its next possession with 53 ticks remaining. The Wildcats then had three chances, including two three-point attempts, to take back the lead on its next possession, but were not able to convert.

The Rams hit two free throws to make it 55-52 with 21 seconds left. Davidson then called a timeout and tried to tie it with a three, but saw the shot go off the mark and VCU closed out the win by hitting three more free throws.

Deegan led all scorers with 19 points, 15 coming in the second half, and added seven rebounds. Katie Turner went 5-of-10 from the field, including 3-for-6 on treys for 13 points.

Sarah Konstans came off the bench for five points and eight rebounds, as Davidson held a 43-35 advantage on the glass with 17 offensive rebounds.

VCU was paced by Danielle Hammond’s 17 points and eight rebounds. Taya Robinson scored 13 points and Tera Reed came off the bench to net 10.

Turner and Deegan helped the Wildcats erase a 25-23 deficit at the half with eight combined points to start the third quarter for leads of 30-25 and 33-29. VCU closed the quarter though on a 9-4 run to take a 43-39 lead and then opened the fourth quarter with five consecutive points to go up 48-39 with 9:03 on the clock.

Neither team shot well in the first half as they combined for just 17-of-58 shooting, with Davidson going 9-for-31. The Wildcats opened the game with a 7-2 lead, but were held to two points the rest of the quarter and VCU grabbed a 13-9 lead.

The second quarter saw the Rams go up 19-13 with 7:38 to go before Davidson slowly chipped away and tied things up at 23-all on a corner three-pointer from Chloe Welch with 22 ticks remaining. VCU would counter with a layup before halftime for a two-point lead.

GAME NOTES: This was ninth meeting all-time between both team’s women’s basketball programs …. The Wildcats dropped to 2-7 in the series, having now lost the past three games … Davidson fell to 2-6 in the A-10 Championship, … Turner’s three triples gave her 66 on the season, good for a spot in the top-10 single season record books … she has 199 for her career, fourth-most all-time … Turner moved into 17th all-time in scoring with 1,054 points.