Davidson 73 Furman 51

Coming off a 85-50 stomping of Wofford on Saturday, Davidson travels to Furman tonight to take on the Paladins in this final matchup of the three-game road trip. Furman has struggled mightily this season, posting a 2-14 record overall. Davidson will look to win its 31st of its last 32 conference games.

I will be on hand in Greenville to bring you all the action via the live blog. So keep it tuned here while you listen to John Kilgo out there in the digital world. And after the game, check out my post-game writeup and check out Lauren Biggers' View from Press Row on the new athletics blog of Davidson Athletics.
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18 minutes to tipoff

Aaron Bond has joined Can Civi on the bench in street clothes tonight. I haven't heard anything definitive about Bond, but I do know that he didn't get his normal time at the end of the Wofford game on Saturday. Maybe there's still some lingering affects from his early-season shoulder injury. Furman's Stanley Jones will also be in street clothes tonight as he has been suspended indefinitely. That leaves Opacic as the only Paladin with significant playing experience against Davidson.

Timmons Arena doesn't look too bad. They switched the benches to the other side and they have put the Davidson fans back in the nice seats. They took the stage down on the other side and seats extend from the floor up 25 rows to a black curtain. They also curtained off the extraneous upper bleachers that faced the court at weird angles. So it now looks like a semi-normal basketball facility, albeit with a smaller capacity.

Davidson's collection of bloggers have been put behind the basket on a table with very little protection. I have a feeling that we will get hit with some stray balls and flying bodies.
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"Welcome to tonight's game between Furman and the Wildcats of Davidson University," says the PA announcer.

Wow.
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After the Wildcats broke their last huddle, Curry went over and gave Meno a big hug. I'm sure that he really wants to get back into the starting lineup. Lovedale still starting tonight.
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17:50 D 7 FU 6
MPG opens things with a steal and Steph converts. After a Furman basket, Richards had an untimely turnover leading to 2 more for the Paladins. Davidson attacked the paint on their first half court possession and got easy points and then J-Rich hits a three. Now the defense needs to tighten...FU has scored on every possession.
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15:40 D 14 FU 8
Jason Richards responds to chants of "Lindsey" (his All-American sister) by hitting another three-pointer. Davidson now 5-5 from the field. They miss one but Curry responds with a nice jumper...team is now 6-7 FG.
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15:18 D 14 FU 8
MPG picks up his second foul and he will go to the bench going into the first media timeout. The pace of this game really favors Davidson right now. Furman has gotten a basket or two in transition but Davidson has gotten many. Only one Wildcat FG came after 25 seconds of a possession. That's Davidson's bread and butter...run and shoot, and hit in open space.
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11:43 D 21 FU 10
The high-flying Wildcats continue their offensive slaughter with another Curry three. Everyone in but Richards is a bench player now, and the Wildcats are cooling off a little. FU's Evans is really quick off the dribble. He just made a nice baseline reverse layup past everyone.
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11:00 D 21 FU 13
A turnover from Steph followed by a Connor Nolte leads McKillop to use a 30 second timeout. He's not letting Furman pull back now. He also puts Richards back in after a 20 second stint on the bench. And the Furman students let loose on his sister again. Our offense looks out of sync right now. We need to get Sander more looks inside. He has a way of steadying nervous offensive energy. And McKillop gets some surprising looks in the first half.
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7:56 D 24 FU 16
Richards hits a big three and he and Curry both have nine now. Curry's defense is excellent, but his ball-handling seems a little off right now. The Paladins have cooled off from the field, with several shots rimming out. SoCon opponents have done their homework on Davidson's screen slipping. Lovedale has tried several times and Furman knew it was coming. This score is actually very comforting because Furman is outplaying Davidson right now.
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4:48 D 29 FU 18
Furman is doing everything right now except for offensive rebounding and not lucking out on some bounces at the rim. Davidson is looking progressively sloppy. Sander hasn't gotten anything easy inside and our threes are further off the mark. Archambault breaks the slump with a nice baseline two...he had been blocked in the lane on his last attempt.
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4:18 D 31 FU 18
Meno scores a big two from a nice little J-Rich lob (2 assts on the game). Jackson calls a 30 to try to stop this mini run.
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3:56 D 31 FU 18
Davidson is doing a nice job of not leaving their feet on defensive possessions. Rossiter got a block on that last possession by standing straight with his hands up. Furman is 7-24 from the field and their last few shots have not been pretty. The Wildcats have kept position and have been gobbling up the defensive rebounds and not letting Furman get any second chance opps.
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1:04 D 35 FU 20
Meno is playing better and better. His defense has been very strong tonight and he has not made mistakes on offense while still being aggressive. He might begin starting again soon. It looks like the message is sinking in.
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Halftime D 37 FU 20
Richards feeds Archambault on a backdoor cut to end the half and Will slams Davidson to a 17 point lead.

Apparently the Furman students like to do sister research in their spare time. They are now getting on Thomas about Bridget. I'm surprised that they haven't brought up Seth but maybe they figured that wasn't intimidating enough.

So it looks like the Paladins have been to Wofford. Their tennis team is playing on the court tonight. I don't believe this. I'm getting pelted with tennis balls.
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18:00 D 39 FU 22
There's that easy Sander layup that I've been looking for. Davidson is shooting well over 50% from the floor while Furman is under 30%.
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17:51 D 43 FU
Richards and Curry drive unimpeded to the basket and Furman has to call a timeout. Both players have 11 on the game.

I got to meet Mr. DavidsonBasketball Blog at halftime which was great. The Wildcats have a pretty nice turnout from D-town...good mix of students and older fans representing for a weekday night game. The consensus is that we need to play better.
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14:13 D 47 FU 27
Furman's Jordan Miller just picked up his fourth foul. That came out of nowhere. MPG gets his first points with a nice finish at the cup. The fans are now getting on Andrew Lovedale and his habit of grunting on every rebound. I don't know but I think it's pretty cool. Curry is really really off tonight. Shots are way off, he's turned the ball over 4 times and he's giving them the confidence that they are shutting down the best player in the league. At least their fans are happy about it. Thankfully, Furman is pretty offensively inept and some other Wildcats have found easy ways to score.

Sander just missed two free throws to the tune of Bridget. He looks tired from rebounding and his shots are short.
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13:33 D 52 FU 30
KCary observed on the message board that Will Archambault is playing more aggressively. That is very accurate. He just ran an iso play with everyone on the left side of the key and Will driving right. He almost got a three-point play but settled for two free throws. Then, as I type, he does get a two AND1. Archer has 10 points.
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12:30 D 52 FU 32
Davidson moved to a 1-3-1 zone that last possession with Richards in the paint guarding Opacic. The Furman forward has several inches on him but Richards held his ground and Davidson got the stop. On the next possession, Opacic took advantage and drew a foul on Barr. Back to man.
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10:20 D 59 FU 35
Meno with eight points now. He and Archambault have played really well on the offensive end tonight. Curry is back in and looking to shoot. He hits a pull-up that time. I hope he doesn't get "selfish" here in the final ten as he tries to get his scoring total up. He needs to still play within the offense.
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8:20 D 60 FU 37
Free throws are becoming an issue again tonight. Davidson is 7-12 from the line with a bad 1-4 mark from Sander. Rossiter has not played very well tonight either. He just picked up a foul inside and comes out without any points to his name. Furman has also kept with Davidson pretty well on the rebounding end. The Wildcats aren't getting any O rebounds or second chance points.
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7:06 D 62 FU 41
This blog has what I call "the Will factor." After most negative critiques of Davidson, we usually fix them in the next possession. Two possessions after that last post. Two offensive rebounds and two points for Lovedale. Gotta love it. Paladin fans are heading out here in the penultimate media timeout. That's sad.
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5:15 D 64 FU 45
Brendan McKillop comes into the game to chatter of daddy's boy. After two quick fouls, they are now yelling "send in Mom." Davidson has not played well tonight and maybe Furman has reason to jeer us. We aren't playing as well as we should. But gosh, Furman is pretty bad. Outright bad.

Lovedale coming back with some strong play here in the end. Some big rebounds and a two while Sander sits on the bench.
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3:54 D 66 FU 45
Bryant Barr misses on an Archambault-like runner on the baseline...he threw it all the way over the hoop. That's not his shot yet. This Furman fight song is starting to grate on me. I just know that I'll be humming it all the way home tonight.
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25 sec D 73 FU 51
With Civi out tonight, Jason is getting some extended time here at the end along with Brendan. His presence makes Nelms, Rossiter and McKillop look much better. They now have him at seven assists after two nice dishes. McKillop for three and Richards has eight.
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Final D 73 FU 51
The Wildcats' performance could have been crisper tonight. Curry was not on his game tonight but the Wildcats saw some good things from Archambault and Meno and Lovedale. I will get a post-game story up later tonight from the road. Head over to Wildcats' Roar to check out Lauren Biggers' story. Also go to the Davidson Basketball blog to see some pictures and video.