By GAVIN M

Alex Thompson guards a Furman opponent Thursday. More photos in a gallery below. (Tim Cowie photo)

Alex Thompson and Sophia Aleksandravicius scored 17 points apiece, but the Davidson women’s basketball team fell 73-67 to Furman in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament at Bojangles Coliseum Thursday evening.

Thompson had five assists, and Aleksandravicius got four rebounds for the Wildcats (14-15). Ashley Lax added three assists and 11 points, nine of them on three-pointers.

Lee Stephens led the Paladins (7-23) with 23 points, including four clutch free throws in the last minute that gave the Paladins a 71-67 lead after coming back from 15 down.

Kendra Berry and Lakyn Ledford each scored nine. Berry also came up with a couple of big shots down the stretch to push 11th-seeded Furman into the quarterfinals on Saturday vs. Appalachian State.

Leading 51-36 after Aleksandravicius hit a pair of free throws with 15:02 remaining, Furman started its comeback. The Paladins rattled off a 16-7 run over the next seven minutes to cut the deficit down to 58-52 after Berry hit a jumper in the lane.

Lax hit her third three-pointer of the game to push the lead to eight, 63-55, but the Paladins ran off a 10-2 run that was capped off by a Stephens’ three-pointer to knot things up at 65-all and 3:01 left.

Sixth-seeded Davidson took its last lead, 67-65, on Aleksandravicius’ jumper at the top of the key with 2:27 left, before Furman closed out the game with an 8-0 run. The Paladins were a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe in that run.

Furman shot 52 percent in the second half and outscored the Wildcats 42-29 in the half.

Davidson came out firing on all cylinders to start the contest, draining six of its first nine shots, including four from behind the arc.

Those four treys came on four consecutive possessions, two of them hit by Lax, and the ‘Cats held a 16-10 lead. They went on to finish the half hitting an even 50 percent on both their field goals (12-24) and three-pointers (5-10).

Davidson finished the game shooting 47.9 percent and 42.1 percent from behind the arc on 8-of-19. The ‘Cats were 13-for-16 from the charity stripe.

Furman’s Stephens did her best to keep her team in it early, canning 14 of the Paladins’ first 16 points by hitting 5-of-6 shots, two of them from downtown, to bring the score to 25-16 with 8:45 left in the half.

Davidson saw its lead trimmed to three, 30-27, with 3:18 remaining, but closed out the half scoring eight of the last 12 overall points for a 38-31 halftime advantage.

Furman turned 19 Wildcat turnovers into 20 points and added 16 points on second-chance opportunities as the Paladins hauled in 16 offensive boards. Davidson dropped in 19 second-chance points and 12 of its 31 rebounds came on the offensive glass.

Joining Thompson and playing in their final career games was Julia Paquette and Monica Laune. Paquette finished her career out with an 8-point, 6-rebound and 2-block performance, while Laune dropped in six points and pocketed a steal in 32 minutes of action.

SOUTHERN CONFERENCE GALLERY
Photos by Tim Cowie. Click any image to start a slideshow.