NEWS

 

WILMINGTON, Del. – Tomisin Adenupe and Suzi-Rose Deegan paced four Davidson players in double figures with 17 points each as the Wildcats cruised to a 70-51 victory over St. Bonaventure in the opening round of the 2023 Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championships Wednesday inside the Chase Fieldhouse.

The Cats, who improve to 14-15 on the season, advance to Thursday’s second round where they’ll take on sixth-seeded Saint Joseph’s at 7:30 p.m. The Bonnies conclude the campaign 6-26 overall.

Elle Sutphin, an all-conference selection and Issy Morgan added 16 and 12 points, respectively for Davidson, which finished the contest shooting 52 percent from the floor.

Davidson grabbed control early and never looked back racing out to a 15-4 advantage highlighted by seven early points from Deegan.

The Wildcats led 26-12 after the first quarter and later used a 14-2 run to pushed the margin to as many as 20, 52-32, with 4:09 left in the third.

After St. Bonaventure slowly chipped away and eventually cut the deficit to single digits with 5:51 to go, Davidson responded with another 11-1 run to put the game out of reach.

The Bonnies were led by Taylor Napper’s 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Adenupe’s 17 marks a new career high for the sophomore forward. Davidson is now 6-2 this season when four Wildcats reach double-digits in scoring.

Thursday night, the ‘Cats fell short in their attempt to defeat the Saint Joseph’s Hawks. Elle Sutphin led the ‘Cats with 18 points, but the Hawks battled to a 64-53 win. 

The first half of the game was a tale of two quarters. The Hawks started out with a 9-0 lead, and finished the first quarter with a 13-8 lead. 

The ‘Cats came back in the second quarter and outscored the hawks 17-11, going into the half just two points down 24-22.

Coming out of halftime, the Hawks outscored the ‘Cats 23-11 in the third quarter. The Wildcats battled back in the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell short.