Sunday, February 26, 2006

Senior Spectacular















Incredible victory for the Wildcats today as they pulled out a 2 point win over the College of Charleston. Down by 1 with under a minute to play, Kenny Grant spotted up from the top of the key and hit a three pointer, his only points of the night. The last time we hit a game-winning shot against the College, it was Jason Morton who had also been scoreless on the night. The Cougars had several chances to win it in the end but several shots hit iron and Davidson breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at my keys to the game, I really felt that Charleston played the game they wanted, but they couldn't make their shots fall. The Cougs outrebounded Davidson and secured 19 offensive rebounds to Davidson's 9. Every board turned into a loose ball, the Cougars method to keep the Wildcats from developing any sort of flow. Fortunately, College of Charleston was inept at hitting close shots and Davidson's cold spurt did not hurt them immensely.

I felt like we played as under control offensively and most of the stat's sheets turnovers could be chalked up to full-court scrambles where anything went. Sometimes I get scared when Jason Morton feels the need to throw up off-balance threes from the sideline, but as long as he continues to hit them, he's the closest thing that we've got to J.J. Redick. And he's taken more pressure off of Brendan Winters, allowing him to play looser.

Boris came out strong in the second half and if we can get Thomas to find a little more touch on his jump hook, then our frontcourt will be untouchable. I was impressed with our aggressiveness on their drives to the hoop as we recorded 6 blocks, a phenomenal number.

Of course, the technical aspects could not overshadow the raw emotion as 7 Seniors played their last game in Belk Arena. Coach McKillop cried as stood with his wife and son at midcourt honoring the player that he'd gotten 4 years to coach into a better player and a better man. Chris Clunie got the first start of his career and Kenny Grant wrote the final chapter as his three-pointer swished through the nets and into history.

Tomorrow we will find out definitively which game seed we will have and I will lay out a full preview of the Conference Tournament.

2 comments:

WB said...

Great picture. Did you take it? By the way, I lifted it (giving you full credit) and posted it on my blog. As I said on my blog, it was just too good to pass up.
http://davidsonbasketball.blogspot.com/2006/02/senior-day.html

Who is the "6th man" in the pic?

WB said...

Also, Will...I put a link to your blog in my sidebar.

WB
Davidson College Basketball Blog