Davidson at Chattanooga

The Davidson Wildcats play at Chattanooga tonight at 7 in one of the season's best early conference matchups. The Wildcats are 2-15 all-time in Chattanooga and the Mocs still want revenge for last year's 80-55 drubbing the SoCon championship game.

The Mocs return two key starters in Keddric Mays and Ricky Hood to a team that somehow stumbled into last year's championship game. Mays leads the team with 15 points a game on 31 minutes. Hood recently made some big shots down the stretch as the Mocs pulled off an impressive four-point victory over mid-major great Oral Roberts.

In the conference, the Mocs only game was a close loss on the road to a peculiar College of Charleston team that doesn't seem to have established an identity yet this season.

With the return of Will Archambault from injury, the Cats should have an advantage in overall personnel. Sander, Meno, and Lovedale have become one of the best frontcourt trios in the conference and the Mocs really don't have any one up front with the power to stop them. They will try to push the floor a little bit with their fast guards and forwards and hope to keep Davidson off balance.

On any given year, that strategy would be very effective. But this Davidson team is most unlike any Wildcat team that the SoCon has seen in many years. You combine toughness and great shooting with speed and aggressiveness in the passing lanes and this team defies pigeonholing. They are just really good.

That being said, however, the Wildcats have always struggled in big games over the Christmas Break. They have been all alone on campus all week and it can be daunting to go up to an enemy court without having been around your friends and with having small fan support when you get there. Hopefully, this group can leave that behind them and pull out a victory. Chattanooga certainly will not hand it to them.

Prediction: Davidson 72 Chattanooga 68