Saturday, March 03, 2007

Davidson 72 College of Charleston 65

Final
Good times never felt so good! Davidson hit the clutch shots at the end and that was all she wrote for the Cougars. Boris Meno put the exclamation mark on the affair with a big dunk. It's on to the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row. Story to follow...
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2:23
If you are reading this and are not watching the game, you better start now. I won't be pusting again until after this one is over. Here we go....
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3:40
Another CofC turnover and we get the media timeout. Davidson has 3 timeouts remaining while the Cougars only have 1. The Wildcats put together a nice little run right there. I shouldn't have been, but I admittedly was surprised at their poise while staring down the barrel of CofC's gun.
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3:58
Big plays for Davidson. Boris with an and-1 and then MPG got a block leading to a runout layup finish by Thomas Sander. Jason set up the layup nicely with a superb pass. The Cougars will need to recover on this next possession.
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4:27
Stephen Curry hits another big shot and he now has 29. Two things will happen right now, CofC's fatigue will catch up with them, or their experience in close big games will give them a shot in the arm. We shall see.
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6:43
The Cougars really seem to want this game more than Davidson right now. Stephen is tired and the Wildcats can't find any easy points. It's like Davidson didn't think that Charleston would show up. They certainly did, and we don't seem to have been prepared.
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10:47
And the band plays Sweet Caroline in an attempt to bring some pep back to these fans. Steph's three helped a little bit, but this place can get scary loud when the Cougars are on a roll. I get nervous just sitting down here; I can't imagine what the players feel.
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12:06
This game is about to get out of hand, and not in our favor. College of Charleston has made a really nice run and Davidson doesn't have an answer to the paint slashing. None of the Wildcats' frontcourt can buy a basket, and it looks the crowd is really getting to them.
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12:30
J-rich just picked up his third foul on a questionable charging call. The Cougars are finding some good shots in the paint and they have the Coliseum rocking right now. It is really loud.
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15:16
Stephen Curry is a playing a little bit out of control right now. Coach McKillop talks about him walking the fine line between having freedom and staying within the system, and he is definitely outside of the system. With Curry's last missed layup, Coach sat him on the bench. The offense is still Jason Richards'. It needs to run through him.
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18:26
Davidson starts out really strong on some big steals and a Boris three-pointer. We are going to have to try to forget Stephen Curry's missed dunk. That was a little bit of embarrassing.
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Halftime
On the last play of the first, Stephen drove to the lane and looks like he might have tweaked his ankle. He ran into the lockerroom with a bit of a limp, that could be dangerous news for the Wildcats. Curry scored 15 points in the first half.

Overall, Davidson finished the half well considering that Jason Richards was sitting on the bench with 2 fouls. Let's hope that this game is somewhat comparable to yesterday in that regard. When Curry reentered the lineup in the second half in Friday's game, he sparked a Wildcat run that lead to an insurmountable lead.

Apart from a few lapses where Tony White Jr. was left open, the Wildcats played very good defense overall. Draper was held to five total points.
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1:13
And there's the makeup call on MPG. Wow, that didn't take long.
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1:27
Stephen Curry is coming back with a vengeance. He just made a nice move into the paint and hit a shot. Boris hit Stephen and a foul was called on CofC. The Cougars are calling for some blood right now.
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3:53
Tony White Jr. is the leading scorer in this game with three three-pointers. The Wildcats are doubling the ball and CofC is finding the open man. They have stepped their game up and are playing smart basketball. This is not the team that was always chasing after loose balls like in previous games.

Davidson's offense is really scared right now. I wish we could see Jason back for just a few more possessions. If CofC pulls away before half, this could be bad.
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4:28
Davidson seems to have all but abandoned their interior game. Thomas has not gotten any good looks underneath and our defense is pressing as a result of this offensive slump. CofC just scored four big points in the paint. We need Jason Richards back in this game to bring us together. He's got two fouls right now.
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7:05
Davidson has made some big defensive stops in the last three possessions and the Cougar crowd has gone quiet. Stephen and Draper have only combined for nine points so far. Their shots have been just a tad off in the last few minutes.
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8:40
Davidson has not been able to get any good inside looks after Thomas Sander's first turnaround. Sander is back in for Lovedale right now and we'll see if they try to go back to the block. Davidson is shooting a lot of threes right now. Arch just hit two in a row, which is nice. But when they don't fall, it gets you nervous.
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11:22
These refs are letting them play right now. Andrew just made a nice strip on Jackson in the paint and the Cougar fans were mad.

Steph has hit his first three-pointer so let's hope that his nerves will subside just a little bit. Davidson really hasn't played in this type of environment this year outside of Michigan, Charlotte and ASU. We lost two out of three of those.
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13:15
Tony White Jr. hits a three. And Archambault is into the game as well as Lovedale. Let's see who will guard Draper this next trip. It's the Archer. Now it's Steph, that was a good switchoff.
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15:52
MPG is playing tough right now. He is keeping loose balls alive and just took a charge. Davidson needs to finish on offense. They are missing some simple shots. CofC is definitely motivated. I don't know if they can keep up this pace all day. However, this is not a regular game; TV timeouts are a little bit longer and that break will definitely help the Cougars get some energy back. They are going to need it if they keep playing at this clip.
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16:00
CofC will need to find more offense outside of Draper. Davidson's interior d has been tough. This Cougar crowd can get pretty loud. The Wildcats can't let them hang around. As I type JJ hits two.
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17:50
MPG hits a three and Draper counters. Sander in the paint again. This is going fast so far. Draper again
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19:20
Davidson wins the tip and Sander opens the scoring. Davidson will take that short jumper all day.
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We have an excellent crowd here today. Davidson is keeping up their side of things with plenty of noise. They have filled five lower sections and two upper sections and they are pumped up!

Pat Forde is in the building from ESPN.com. This is going to be a doozy.

4 comments:

DrFrankLives said...

What is wrong with Richards? Is he sick or something?

DrFrankLives said...

Why is the number one seed having to play on the number 3 seed's home court?

When do WE get to host this thing?

Anonymous said...

WOW! Amazing game! I was yelling at the TV a lot. Let's go dancing.
MFlake

WB said...

Great job again, Will!!!