BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Olivia Parker scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds but the Gardner-Webb women's basketball team (1-2) lost a nail-biter 68-67 to Davidson (1-2) on Thursday evening in Paul Porter Arena. 

Mackenzie Latt paced the Wildcats in the victory scoring 21 points on 10-14 shooting, hauling down 15 rebounds, dishing out fiving assists, and turning away three shots. 

Gardner-Webb turned the ball over just 13 times on the evening, compared to Davidson's 22, and went 17-27 from the free-throw line, in comparison to the Wildcats, who went 9-16.  

The Wildcats were very efficient on offense assisting on 20 of its 26 field goals, while GWU assisted on just 12 of its 22 field goals. 

Senior Jessica Heilig appeared in her first game of the season for Gardner-Webb after missing the first two games due to injury, scoring five points and hauling down six rebounds. 

Davidson jumped out to an early 12-4 lead with 15:25 left in the first half on a basket by Hannah Early. Gardner-Webb would answer back with a 15-4 run to take a three point lead with 11:15 to go in the opening period. 

The Runnin' Bulldogs would take their biggest lead of the half at 29-25 on a layup by Parker with 5:00 to go. 

Davidson scored the next five points to take a 33-29 lead with 2:06 left in the half, and it would take a 36-34 lead into the halftime intermission.

Gardner-Webb would start out the second half on a 9-0 run, which was capped by a Mayhana Dunovant three-pointer with 18:26 to go in the game to give the Runnin' Bulldogs its largest lead seven points 43-36. 

Davidson would take a 47-46 lead, on a three-pointer by Hannah Early with 15:46 to go in regulation. 

The Runnin' Bulldogs would lead by four, 56-52 at the under 12 media timeout, but Davidson would answer with its own 10-0 run to take its largest lead of the second half, six points, 62-56. 

Davidson would continue to hold its lead until the 3:38 mark when Parker hit two free-throws to give GWU a 66-64 lead. 

Latt scored on two straight possessions with under two minutes, as the Wildcats would lead by two, 68-66 with 1:09 to go. 

Gardner-Webb would have a chance to tie the game at 68 in the final minute. Brown went to the free-throw line where she went 1-2 with 44 seconds left to cut the Davidson lead to 68-67. 

The Runnin' Bulldogs, still trailing by one, played great defense forcing a turnover by the Wildcats with just six seconds to play. 

Gardner-webb drew up a play during the timeout for Heilig down on the block, where she got fouled and headed to the free-throw line for two shots.

Heilig could not hit either free-throw and the Runnin' Bulldogs would fall  by one, 68-67. 

Gardner-Webb returns to action on Saturday for its third game in five days, when it hosts N.C. Central at 3:00 p.m. in Paul Porter Arena. All fans that bring a canned good, will receive free entry into Saturday's game.