Davidson rolls

by App State
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

DAVIDSON — Maybe Davidson doesn’t need Stephen Curry to score his season average to win games.

Curry was not even the leading scorer in Davidson’s 68-55 victory over the Mountaineers Wednesday night in front of a sellout Belk Arena crowd of 5,838. It was the largest Southern Conference crowd that Belk Arena has ever had.

Jason Richards led the Wildcats with 22 points, while Curry settled for 17, nine below the 26 points he usually scores and 21 less than the 38 he stuck on the Mountaineers in a Davidson win in December.

“I thought we defended really, really well on first-shot opportunities,” Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher said. “It was critical for us to make them take tough first shots, or make their first shot either off-balance or out of their range, or one that they’re not comfortable with, or make other people take shots that they weren’t comfortable with.”

It was the second and sometimes third shots that Fancher had a problem with. Davidson pulled down 16 offensive rebounds, which led to 10 second-chance points.

Appalachian State also turned the ball over 19 times, compared to just six for the Wildcats. Those numbers helped Davidson shoot the ball 26 times more than the Mountaineers, even though the Wildcats hit just 39.7 of their attempts.

“What killed us was their second opportunities,” Fancher said. “We hold them to 39 percent shooting, but they get 26 more shots than you do. I’m not a math major, but that’s going to work on in their favor when it’s all said and done.”

The good news is that Appalachian State (17-12, 12-7 SoCon) already has clinched a first-round bye in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Mountaineers close out the regular season Saturday at the Holmes Center against Western Carolina.

The bad news is that Appalachian State has lost four out of its last five games, though all but one of those were on the road.

“We can’t look past Western,” Mountaineers forward Donte Minter said. “We’ve got to keep our mind on the next game.”

Richards, the Wildcats’ point guard, turned out to be on everybody’s mind Wednesday night.

The senior hit 9-of-17 attempts from the field and dished out an additional six assists. He played the entire game until he was taken out with less than a minute left on Senior Night.

No other Davidson player scored more than six points.

“They’ve got a two-headed monster in Curry and Richards,” Fancher said. “We were well aware of that and we were going to try to mix some defenses up to give them some different looks.”

“Guys have gotten me the ball and I’ve hit some shots,” Richards said. “Steph is still our scorer, so we need to give him some open shots.”

Davidson (22-6, 19-0) can run the table in Southern Conference play with a victory Saturday at Georgia Southern. The Wildcats, who went 18-0 in conference play two years ago and 17-1 last season, have not lost a SoCon game since the Mountaineers handed them an 81-74 loss last season.

The Wildcats have not won 20 conference games in their history, which can change Saturday.

“We’ve never been 19-0 in conference play,” said Davidson coach Bob McKillop. “There’s no team in America with 19 conference wins this year, so I feel very good about that.”

Davidson was able to take double-digit leads, but the Mountaineers were able to shrink those leads back down to under five points on a handful of occasions. Trailing 46-33, the Mountaineers rallied to trail 50-45 following a Davis Bowne inside shot.

It would be the final time the Mountaineers would pull that close to the Wildcats. Davidson, sparked by a 3-pointer from Curry, went on a decisive 14-2 run to claim a 64-47 lead with 5:02 left in the game.

Appalachian State could not recover. The Mountaineers pulled to within 64-53 with 3:23 left, but did not score on their next five possessions.

“They hit 20 percent of their three-point shots and they’re a very good three-point shooting team,” Richards said. “We hit some runs and we hit some big baskets.”

Minter did his part to keep the Mountaineers close by scoring 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting. The Mountaineers hit 21-of-42 from the field, including 11-of-20 from the foul line.

But Appalachian State was hurt by Davidson’s offensive rebounds, which led to 10 points on stickbacks. Thomas Sander, one of three seniors honored, had five offensive rebounds, seven boards overall, and scored six points.

Appalachian State also hurt itself with 19 turnovers. Davidson’s defense even made it difficult for the Mountaineers to inbound the ball on the Appalachian State side of the court.

The extra possessions because of the turnovers and the offensive rebounds allowed Davidson to attempt 26 more shots (27-for-68, 39.7 percent) than the Mountaineers. Curry, who did not attempt a free throw, hit 6-of-20 overall, but also made 5-of-10 from the 3-point line.

“We came in here tonight and shoot 50 percent from the floor and nobody’s done that against Davidson for a long time,” Fancher said. “For us, eliminate half of those turnovers and half of those second opportunities and the game is probably a lot closer. We’ve got to eliminate the things that beat us.”

Davidson 68, Appalachian State 55
Appalachian State (17-12, 12-7)
Clayton 1-1 0-0 2, Minter 7-10 5-7 19, Abraham 6-10 1-1 15, Bermudez 1-3 1-2 4, Brand 2-4 2-2 6, Sims 1-7 0-0 2, Booth 0-1 0-0 0, Butts 0-1 0-0 0, Bowne 2-2 0-1 4, McLaughlin-Williams 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 21-24 9-13 55.
Davidson (22-6, 19-0)
Meno 2-4 0-0 4, Sander 3-7 0-0 6, Richards 9-17 4-4 24, Paulhus Gosselin 1-4 0-0 2, Curry 6-20 0-0 17, Archambault 2-5 0-0 5, Rossiter 2-3 0-0 4, Barr 1-3 0-0 2, Lovedale 1-5 2-2 4. Totals 27-68 6-6 68.
Halftime score—Davidson 34, ASU 25. 3-point goals—ASU 4-14 (Abraham 2-4, Bermudez 1-1, McLaughlin-Williams 1-3, Booth 0-1, Sims 0-5), Davidson 8-23 (Curry 5-10, Richards 2-5, Archambault 1-3, Barr 0-2, Paulhus Gosselin 0-3). Rebounds—ASU 31 (Minter 8), Davidson 33 (Sander 7). Assists—ASU 8 (Brand, Sims 3), Davidson 11 (Richards 6). Turnovers—ASU 19, Davidson 6. Total fouls—ASU 13, Davidson 17. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None. A—5,838.