Yesterday afternoon, the College of Charleston knocked off UNC-Greensboro by a large margin as Dontaye Draper went off, hitting 8 three-pointers and finishing with 28 points. The Cougars outmatched the struggling Spartans and put on a second-half offensive barrage to beat the band. OK, I will get off my ol Charleston metaphors of alliteration and get right to the big one.
On Monday, the Wildcats and Cougars will meet for the second time this year in what has become one of the best rivalries in the Southern Conference. At least for Davidson anyway. The Wildcats have won 6 games in a row and have an all-time record of 42-9 against the College of Charleston.
Despite the domination in the win-loss column, the Cougars always seem to make second-half runs to make the games interesting and then Davidson wins in the end. In this February 12 matchup, the Cougars will be playing without the services of Marcus Hammond who is out for several weeks with a serious injury.
Davidson has worn down their recent opponents with their improved guard-play, and it will be interesting to see how Draper and back-up guard Tony White Jr. do against Steph Curry, Jason Richards, and pseudo-guard Max Paulhus Gosselin. If Davidson can continue their hot outside shooting and get some easy looks from Boris Meno and Thomas Sander inside, this game could be another notch in the Wildcats' belt.
However, as the UNC-G game demonstrated, it seems that these Cougars are peaking at the right time in the season. Draper is hitting outside shots and taking the soul from his opponents while the interior defense held all-conference forward Kyle Hines to only 11 points. It took four fouls before Davidson was able to contain him.
It will be interesting to see how this young group responds to playing on the road in front of the season's most hostile crowd (outside of Michigan). If you are surfing the internet on Monday night between 7 and 9, make sure to come to the blog for the most-up-to-date scores and analysis of the big game in progress.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Countdown to Rivalry
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1 comment:
Gene Sapakoff's article seems to be against your and my "hostile-environment" theory of Kresse Arena. I am not sure where he is getting his info, but I guess he needs to catch a game or two.
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