The Elon University women's basketball team suffered its first setback of the calendar year 2013, a 77-62 defeat at Davidson College on Saturday in the Wildcats’ Belk Arena. Elon led 34-31 at halftime, but blew an intermission lead for the third time on the season.
The game’s first half was a back and forth affair, with the largest lead for either team coming at five points. Elon grabbed their first lead at 2-0 off of a Kelsey Harris jumper, and claimed the lead again a few minutes later. With the score knotted at eight and 14:22 left in the first half, Elon’s Ali Ford hit a three-pointer to make the score 11-8.
Unlike other recent games, Elon was unable to turn a lead into a run. Davidson tied the contest at 15 when Sophia Aleksandravicius knocked down a pair of free throws. The Phoenix quickly responded, however, as Sam Coffer drained a three to give Elon a lead they would hold until the second half.
The half started slowly, with the Phoenix making only one basket, a Ford three, before the first media timeout. Davidson was able to regain the lead off of an Aleksandravicius layup at the 12:03 mark, only to be answered by Ford draining a three.
That lead was short lived, as sophomore forward Hannah Early hit a Wildcat three pointer with 9:01 to go that handed Davidson a 53-50 lead, one the hosts would never relinquish. Davidson pulled away down the stretch to make the lead 15 before the final buzzer.
Ford’s 23 points paced Elon, with Coffer adding 16 of her own. Harris scored eight points; Kelsey Evans scored seven, with Zora Stephenson, Shon Redmond, Jessica Farmer, and Autumn Carter scoring two apiece.
Aleksandravicius had 21 for Davidson, who also got double digits from Laura Murray with 17 and Katrin Chiemeka with 10.
With the loss, Elon dropped to 10-8, 7-2 Southern Conference. Davidson improved to 11-8, 8-1 SoCon.
Elon returns to action Monday, January 28, at 7:00 p.m. against Georgia Southern in Alumni Gym.