Brooks and Droney Make the Difference (Recap of Davidson v. Wofford)

When I last saw Davidson in person, it was a home game at the Belk Arena vs. Drexel on a relatively warm December Sunday afternoon.  In that game, the Wildcats were without their two best all around players, senior forward De'Mon Brooks and senior guard Tom Droney.  Both Brooks and Droney were out due to injuries. The Dragons won 72-58 as the Wildcats struggled on offense, as they shot a horrid three of twenty two from beyond the arc.

Entering Saturday night's game, Davidson had lost five in a row and their record was 4-10.  This is unusual for a Wildcats team that has made the NCAA Tournament each of the past two seasons, along with five of the past eight seasons and has not had a losing season since the 2000-01 season.  McKillop has had six NCAA Tournament teams, three NIT teams and a stunning 249-95 record in Southern Conference play since 1992.

However, losing streaks and early season records can be misleading.   In their last three losses, the Wildcats lost in overtime at #14 North Carolina, lost only by eleven at #10 Wichita State (and they were only down four with four minutes left) and lost to Charleston at home on New Year's Day after leading at halftime (a 19-5 second half run by the Cougars doomed the Wildcats).

Davidson always plays, what Matt Doherty once noted, as a "ridiculously tough non-conference schedule." Along with North Carolina and Wichita State, the Wildcats this season also played at Duke (lost 111-77), at Charlotte (won in overtime 87-78), neutral site games at New Mexico, Virginia, Clemson and Georgia (only win was over Georgia at the Charleston Classic).   McKillop has done this in part due to the Southern Conference's low overall RPI.  By playing a tough non conference schedule, Davidson's RPI will be much higher.  In fact, despite a 4-10 record, Davidson's current RPI, 157, is higher than 10-3 Mississippi State's RPI, 176.

Despite moving from the Southern Conference to the much tougher A-10 next season, McKillop's non conference schedule will be just as tough, as he has schedule Duke, North Carolina and Virginia for the next two season as well.  He noted in article in the the Charlotte Observer that "We’re going to be just as national and just as aggressive and understanding that, yes, the Atlantic 10 is going to be a significant challenge, but we’re still going to be very aggressive and national in scope,"

Playing such a tough non-conference schedule has worked out for Davidson in the past.  In the 2007-08 season, the Wildcats started 4-6 on the season, due to losses early on to nationally ranked teams such as #1 North Carolina, #7 Duke, and at #7 UCLA.  Davidson would respond with a twenty five game winning streak, including going undefeated in regular season and tournament play in the Southern Conference, then three wins in a row in the NCAA Tournament to make the Elite Eight.   The Wildcats were only a Jason Richards missed three at the buzzer from making the Final Four.

Wofford entered Saturday night's game having won three games in a row, including winning their first conference game, a 71-61 win over Samford.  This was also my second Terriers' game of the season, having seen them barely lose to William and Mary 63-60 at the Benjamin Johnson Arena.

As noted in the past eight seasons, Davidson has been the Southern Conference representative five times. Well Wofford is one of the two other schools that have made the NCAA Tournament during that period, having made the NCAA Tournament two years in a row in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Young.  Chattanooga made the NCAA Tournament as the SoCon representative in 2008-09 after Steph Curry and Davidson was upset in the Southern Conference semifinals by the College of Charleston.

The Benjamin Johnson Arena is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues here in South Carolina.  As I noted in my previous article, it's really more a small gym enclosed in a nice Student Center with concessions, a coffee bar and comfortable lounge seating near the coffee bar.  As I got to the entrance to the student center, it noted that it was "Happy Hoops Year", as they had a women's home basketball game earlier in the day.

This was my first time sitting in the West Section of the arena.  On Saturday night, the ticket takers didn't have scanners.  So the ticket takers were taking tickets.  He took mine, then realized I was sitting in the reserved area in the front row.  As I noted to you all in my earlier Wofford article this season, it's worth the extra $2 to pay for the reserved seats that have the seat backs as opposed to the wooden bleachers.  He gave me back my tickets saying that I would need to show my ticket for where I was sitting, which was W5, Row A, Seat 1.

As I walked down the aisle, I realized where I would sitting for the evening, right behind the Wofford bench. I usually don't like to sit right behind a team's bench, because your view can be obstructed by bench players standing at times to support their teams.  But it also does allow you some insight, PA system permitting, to what the coach is saying to his team during timeouts.  Plus it was kind of cool seeing the starting Australian point guard for Wofford come out to "INDIANAAA FAITHFULL" during player introductions.

The game started out with the Terriers jumping out to an 8-4 lead at the under 16 media timeout.  Wofford's leading scorer on the season, the talented Spencer Collins, hit two baskets early on and Lee Skinner added a basket and an assist.  It's at the under 16 media timeout that Wofford holds it's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" promotion, where the cheerleaders handout/throw McDonald's cheeseburgers to fans while Jimmy Buffett's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" plays on the PA system.  This was my third time at a Wofford game and now all three times, I have got a cheeseburger.  Awesome.

During the first four minutes, Brooks only had one touch for the Wildcats and that resulted in a traveling call. Well McKillop must have told his team during the media timeout to feed the big man, because Davidson came out rolling off a 13-0 run on Wofford.  Brooks was unstoppable during this nearly three and a half minute span, scoring nine of the thirteen points.   His jumper put Davidson up 17-8 with a little less than twelve and a half minutes remaining in the first half.

After a media timeout, where Terriers Head Coach Mike Young implored his team to "be aggressive", the rest of the first half saw Davidson and Wofford play evenly as far as points scored.  The Wildcats largest lead over the last twelve plus minutes was ten points.  The Terriers still had no answer to stopping Brooks, who scored another eight points the rest of the half to give him seventeen first half points, along with seven rebounds.  Collins and Skinner did the best they could to keep Wofford in the game, combining for seventeen first half points as Davidson maintained a nine point lead, 37-28 at halftime.

Davidson shot a scorching sixty percent from the field in the first twenty minutes, much of which came from Brooks, who was eight of eleven from the field in the first half.  Wofford only shot thirty nine percent in the first half.

What I always love about mid major schools are the halftime shows they put on.  Usually it's a local boys or girls basketball game.  But Wofford does something different.  At the William and Mary game, it was a step dancing group that played at halftime.   This time it was a local martial arts group, with a bunch of young kids showing off various martial arts techniques and simulated fights.  It made for good theater.

The second half picked up right where the first half led off, with Brooks scoring the first two baskets for Davidson, which extended their lead to eleven, 41-30.  Skinner and Collins continued to do their best to keep Wofford in the game, scoring the team's first three baskets.  Collins three pointer got the lead back down to nine, 44-35 with seventeen and a half minutes left in the game.

But that's as close as the Terriers would get the rest of the game.  Davidson went on a 13-4 run over the span of about four and a half minutes.  Brooks of course was heavily involved, scoring five points, including a three point play and added an assist.  Two Droney free throws put the Wildcats up eighteen, 57-39 with a little less than thirteen minutes left in the game.

During a timeout, Young begged his team to "keep fighting".  The Terriers responded, scoring six straight points to cut the lead to twelve, 57-45.  Skinner scored four of his team high twenty two points in that mini spurt.

But Davidson would not be denied this night.  Droney led the way on another Wildcats' charge, this time a
16-7 spurt, capped by a Brian Sullivan three pointer to put Davidson up 73-52 with a little less than six minutes left in the game.  Droney scored nine points in the run and assisted on another basket.

All that was left was for both teams to clear their benches with about ninety seconds to play.  Davidson would go on and win their first Southern conference game of the season, an impressive 78-63 win.  The Wildcats had finally broken their five game losing streak and in the process, broke Wofford's three game winning streak.

Brooks had a double double with twenty eight points and twelve rebounds, along with four assists and two steals as he shot twelve of sixteen on the game.  Droney added eighteen points, shooting six of seven from the field and a perfect four of four from the line. Tyler Kalinoski added nine points for the Wildcats as Davidson shot sixty one percent from the field on the evening (thirty of forty nine).

Skinner led the Terriers with twenty four points and nine rebounds. Collins added sixteen points for Wofford.  Skinner and Collins combined to shoot fifteen of twenty eight from the field. The rest of the team combined to shoot only eight of twenty seven from the field.

For at least one more evening, Davidson was the big bad team on the SoCon block.  Though it's sad to see a long time Southern Conference staple like the Wildcats leave the conference after this season, one wonders if other schools aren't happy to see Davidson leave the SoCon.

Till then, Davidson stills seems to be the team to beat in the SoCon this year.

Tribe Outlasts Terriers on a Festive Saturday

When you have two young boys, weekends during the holiday season revolve around Christmas light shows and various other festive events.  Such was the case this weekend for my family.   Friday night was the "Lights Before Christmas" at the Riverbanks Zoo, which showcases nearly a million lights in the zoo setting, plus if you're lucky, you get to see a tiger pace about during the night setting.

Several days ago, I was looking for a college basketball game in the area to watch on Saturday.  It's not quite the same in South Carolina as it was in New York.  In New York, I had several local schools - Hofstra, Stony Brook, St John's, Iona, Manhattan, Wagner and LIU Brooklyn, to name a few, all located within a hour's drive.  Plus, I had a quick train trip to New York City to see many games at Madison Square Garden.

There are a lot of Division I schools in South Carolina - South Carolina, Clemson, College of Charleston, Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, The Citadel, Winthrop, Wofford, USC Upstate, Presbyterian and Furman.   The problem is outside of the University of South Carolina, where I work, the closest school to me is Winthrop, which is over an hour away by car (Presbyterian is a very close second).   In fact, Charlotte and Davidson are closer to me than say Wofford or USC Upstate.

So, unless USC is playing a home game, other Division I Men's Basketball weeknight games in South Carolina are very difficult for me to cover (and that's while I will be covering more USC women's games, plus the fact that they are a good team). If I am going to see a non USC college basketball game, it's going to be on the weekend.

Thus, when the opportunity came up to see William and Mary play at Wofford, I knew my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew would go with me.  The trick was trying to make it into a festive event trip so that my wife and my younger son could go as well.   Sure enough, Hollywild Park, a wildlife park located 25 minutes from Wofford in Inman, South Carolina, is having their annual "Holiday Lights Safari Benefit".  I was able to convince Chelle to bring Jonathan for the ninety minute drive from our house to Spartanburg, where Wofford is located.

Wofford plays in the Southern Conference, a conference that spans five states; North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.  Wofford is one of three colleges from South Carolina in the conference, with the other two being The Citadel and Furman.

The Southern Conference is in a state of flux as four current members will be leaving after this college basketball season; Davidson (A-10), Appalachian State (Sun Belt),  Georgia Southern (Sun Belt) and Elon (CAA).  They will be replaced by East Tennessee State, Mercer and VMI.  The SoCon, as it is affectionately known, already lost the College of Charleston to the CAA this season.

We got to the campus parking lot about thirty minutes before game time.  This was my second time here, having gone to a Davidson-Wofford game last season.  The Johnson Arena is located in the Campus Life Building on the campus of Wofford.  This time, we passed up lunch in the student cafe and headed to our seats in the East section of Johnson Arena.  As I noted in last year's post, there are two wings to Johnson Arena and they are only interconnected by a hallway inside the Campus Life Building.  Thus, if you are on the west wing, you have to walk that hallway to get to the East wing section of the arena.

I had purchased our tickets for the game online only a few hours before we left for Spartanburg.  Having remembered the arena, there is a reserved section with individual seats and the general admission area which is wood bleacher seats.  The nice thing is that the price of a reserved seat is only a couple of dollars more than a general admission seat.  So it is worth the extra two bucks to sit in more comfort, especially when you luck out and have front row seats as we did yesterday.   It also gave us a great view of the school choir that sang a nice rendition of the national anthem before the start of the game.

For Matt and me, it was our second William and Mary game in the span of about ten days.  The Tribe had won at home by thirty points over VMI on Thanksgiving Eve.  And they did it in large part due to their new found inside game, jumping out to a 30-11 lead by working the ball inside to "Beasthoven", senior forward Tim Rusthoven.

After Jaylen Allen gave the Terriers an early 2-0 lead, William and Mary used that aforementioned inside game to score the next four points on a a Kyle Gaillard layup and a Beasthoven jumper.  After each team missed their next three shots, Wofford's Lee Skinner hit a jumper to tie the game at four.

During the first media timeout, Wofford had their usual "Cheeseburger in Paradise" promotion, in which the cheerleaders handout/toss free McDonald's cheeseburgers to the crowd.  Sure enough, Jonathan and I got free cheeseburgers (I got one the last time I was at Wofford).   I think Jonathan was happier with the free fries coupon that came with the cheeseburgers.

Scoring would become even more a premium over the next ten minutes.  During this time, the Tribe outscored the Terriers 15-6.   Outside of a Marcus Thornton three, William and Mary scored all their points on either layups or free throws, as they continued to work their inside game on Wofford.  With about six and a half minutes left in the first half, the Tribe were up 19-10.

Johnson Arena is not a very large arena.  It's really more a nice, small gym that seats about thirty five hundred.  Yesterday, the announced attendance was a little more than a thousand and it certainly seemed sparse.

However, Johnson Arena holds sound well.  Really well.  And when the Terriers went on 11-2 spurt over the next four minutes, the Wofford fans showed Coach Tony Shaver and the rest of the Tribe of William and Mary just how loud Johnson Arena can be, even with only a thousand fans.  When Terriers' guard, Indiana Faithfull, an Australian senior with a name that the movie "Hoosiers" would love, tied the game with at twenty one with two free throws, the arena had the atmosphere of a sold out, first place on the line conference game.  And the game would enter halftime tied at twenty seven.

What I have always loved about mid major basketball games is often there is unique halftime entertainment. Yesterday was no exception as the crowd was entertained by a middle school stepping team.  They were quite good and received a loud ovation from the fans. 

As I noted earlier, I was here in February as Davidson defeated Wofford.  But in that game, Spencer Collins, a freshman at the time, really impressed me with his play.  He had a career high 24 points in that loss to the Wildcats, going 10 of 19 from the field.  Now a sophomore, Collins is leading his team in scoring, averaging 14.4 points per game.  And Collins came out strong in the second half, hitting a three pointer to give Wofford their first lead since the first minute of the game, 30-27.

But Beasthoven, the Tribe's third leading scorer at 13.7 points per game, would score five straight points for William and Mary.  His three point play put the Tribe back up 37-34. A short time thereafter, Gaillard buried a three pointer to put William and Mary up four, 40-36.

The Tribe went cold though for the next three and a half minutes missing two shots and committing two turnovers.  The Terriers took advantage with a 7-0 mini-spurt, capped by an Allen jumper to give Wofford a 43-40 lead.  Allen would hit another jumper later to maintain the Terriers three point lead, 45-42 with eleven minutes left.

But William and Mary would respond with their own mini-spurt, a 10-3 run, as they continued to work the ball inside.  Terry Tarpey hit one of two free throws to give the Tribe a 52-48 lead with 6:15 left.  William and Mary had chances to extend the lead but the Tribe missed four free throws over the next four and half minutes.  And Wofford took advantage, tying the game at 57 on a Collins three pointer with a minute and a half left in regulation.

But after the Terriers called timeout, the Tribe's Julian Boatner hit a sweet layup to put William and Mary up 59-57 with 1:25 left.  But again, the Tribe missed opportunities at the free throw line to extend the lead.  Gaillard and Boatner each only hit one of two free throws to put William and Mary up four 61-57 with thirty five seconds left.  Faithfull made them pay with a three point play to cut the lead to one, 61-60 with thirty seconds left.

All the missed free throws would seemingly haunt the Tribe after Omar Prewitt lost the ball in the backcourt, giving the Terriers a chance for the last shot and the victory.  But Allen missed an open look jumper with six seconds left and Wofford was forced to foul Gaillard with one second left.  This time, Gaillard hit both free throws and William and Mary escaped with a 63-60 win.

Beasthoven led all scorers with seventeen points and Thornton added fifteen points for the Tribe. William and Mary, who have now won four of their last five games, shot fifty six percent from the field including a blistering 19 of 29 from inside the arc. The Tribe did hurt themselves only shooting 13 of 22 from the free throw line (fifty nine percent).

Collins led the Terriers with fifteen points, but he was only 4 of 16 from the field, though he was 5 of 6 from the line.  Allen added thirteen points and guard Karl Cochran, all six foot one of him, nearly had a double double with eleven points and nine rebounds.  Wofford had fourteen more shots than William and Mary, but made two less field goals and only shot thirty eight percent for the game.  Shooting 14 of 18 from the charity stripe kept the Terriers in the game.

After we left Wofford, we went out to dinner and then went to Hollywild Park to see the light display, as well as watch deer, cows and zebra walk up and put their heads in cars for a slice of bread.  My family and I tried to get a couple of cows and some deer to walk up to our car, but the sheer number of cars there were scaring off the deer. Later we visited "Santa's Village" as Matthew and Jonathan got to play with puppies and baby deer.  

It was a very fun, festive Saturday and it was centered around another good college basketball game.  Who says the world doesn't revolve around college basketball?

Davidson Holds Off Wofford...Again

After the Georgia-South Carolina game, I got in my car and made the now familiar drive from the Gamecocks' campus to Huger Street then up to I-26. This time I was not getting off at the always crowded Harbison Boulevard exit. No, I was heading up to Spartanburg to see Wofford host Davidson.

It seems the magical time range for any of my basketball road trips so far is ninety minutes (I can make Charlotte in that time frame with my lead foot) to two and a half hours (Coastal Carolina). The trip from Columbia to Spartanburg is ninety minutes. I was debating whether to stop along the way for dinner or find a place near campus. To what I thought was my eventual chagrin, I chose the latter. Along the way though, I saw the exit for Presbyterian College, one of my eventual Big South Conference destinations.

The exit for Wofford College is Route 221, which brings you directly into the heart of Spartanburg. But as I got close to Wofford, I didn't see much in the way of restaurant choices. So I drove into the main entrance to Wofford and a nice campus safety guard showed me the direct way to get to the main parking lot for Johnson Arena.

To get to Johnson Arena, basically, you have to drive past the main Wofford College entrance and take the second right on Pearl Street. Then as the campus safety guard noted to me, once you see the pink house on the top of the hill, you bear right. Then you follow the winding road down behind a housing development (nice houses by the way), which then takes you down a narrow road that leads to the entrance of the main parking area. There an attendant directs you to park. I wouldn't have found this myself had it not been for the helpful campus security guard.

Once I got out of my car, it was a little after 5:30. I followed some Wofford fans to the entrance of the Campus Life Building where Johnson Arena is located. When you first walk into the Campus Life Building, you are greeted by a small statute of a Terrier. Then you walk into a quiet commons area with a coffee bar on the right hand side. But if you look in the right hand corner, you will see a student cafe. This cafe contains ample seating, flat screen TVs and a mini food court with a Chick Fil-a counter, a deli counter and another "Foods of the World" counter. In front of the entrance to the mini food court was a table with homemade baked desserts, cookies, cakes, cupcakes etc.

After striking up a conversation with the friendly attendant at the Chick Fila station where he made me a fresh grilled chicken sandwich, I grabbed some waffle fries, some desserts and grabbed a sweet tea. I managed to somehow hold onto all four items without a tray, paid the cashier and made my way to a set of tables that was right in front of the flat screen TV showing Northern Iowa and Wichita State (eventually won by the Panthers).

There was a nice mix of students and Wofford fans, many of them older fans. I could see why many people would come out for a nice Saturday night game. My reserved ticket cost twelve dollars, a bleacher seat costs ten dollars. Dinner was seven dollars. Think about it, for twenty bucks per person you can have a decent meal and watch a good basketball game. That's a good deal. Thanks Wofford!

After dinner, I made my way to my seat. There are two wings, the east and west wings, each of which has a separate entrance and outside of one hallway outside the arena, there is no connection to the wings once in the building. Not knowing this, It turns out I went to the wrong wing entrance. But the usher was kind enough to show me how to get there and I eventually made my way to the east wing section where my seat was located.

Now don't take this the wrong way Wofford fans, but when I got to my seat at Johnson Arena, I didn't consider it an arena. It's somewhat a very large gym with mostly wooden bleachers that had three sections of reserved comfortable chair back seating on each side in the front.. There is no club suite seating. The walls are your classic concrete gym walls.

However, there are two standout things you notice about Johnson Arena. First is the striking parquet floor, one of the few of its kind. Second, the gym holds noise well. Really well. In fact, in the second half, when Wofford made a run on Davidson, it started getting really loud and it was not packed (about 1500 was the attendance last night). Turns out, as I drove home, I turned on the post game show from the local Wofford station and they noted that half the students still haven't returned from break. Imagine the arena when Wofford had good teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011. I bet it was the place was rocking.  Plus, the giant "Beware of Dog" sign behind the Wofford basket was a nice touch as well.

A local grade school choir did a wonderful job singing the national anthem. The students also were located in the bleacher level behind me, so when they made their way up to their seats, I made sure to tell the music choir director what a good job they did. It was the start to a very good evening of basketball and promotional events.

As the team introductions were made, I saw that Davidson's fans had basically taken up the entire section behind the Wildcats' bench. Yes, it helps to draw fans when you are 9-1 in conference. But considering Davidson's long storied history, I am not surprised by the large contingent they had for last night's game. I thought for sure that they were going to break out into "Sweet Caroline" late in the second half.

The Wildcats came out early scoring the first four points. Spencer Collins though would drill a three pointer, in what would be a reoccurring theme for the Terriers on the night. Through the first six minutes, it was a close affair, with Davidson maintaining an 8-6 lead.

But if you have watched enough of Davidson's basketball games on TV or in person, you can see that is so difficult to stop Bob McKillop's team on offense. The Wildcats' offensive sets are a thing of a beauty, both from a ball movement standpoint and a player movement standpoint. The Wildcats are constantly moving without the ball. This leads to multiple screens, backdoor cuts and a lot of open looks driving the lane. In the second half, with Davidson on my end of the court, it was truly a treat to watch their offensive set from my vantage point.

As a result, Davidson started pulling away from Wofford in the first half. First it was a 9-2 spurt on four consecutive layups, including a three point play by senior forward Jake Cohen. Davidson was up 17-8 and Wofford Coach Mike Young had to call timeout. It was a good timeout which resulted in an offensive set that got Karl Cochran open for a three pointer that he buried to cut the lead to 17-11.

Again Davidson responded with an 8-2 spurt with Tom Droney and Chris Czerpowicz each scoring four points. The Wildcats were now up 25-13 with nine minutes left in the half. It seemed that the Terriers had no answers to stopping Davidson on offense.

However, Wofford kept in the game in large part due to Collins (number 32 pictured here), who by himself would keep the Terriers in the game. Collins scored ten straight points for Wofford on a variety of shots, a three pointer, a layup and a couple of short jumpers. After being fouled in the act of shooting and missing his first attempt, Collins hit the second free throw to end his ten straight point outburst and cut the Davidson lead to ten 31-21.

Davidson's relentless offense would respond with another mini spurt, outscoring Wofford 7-2 over the last five minutes of the half. The Wildcats would enter halftime up 38-23. It was similar to their first matchup I saw when they played back in December at Belk Arena. Davidson was up big early, 31-10, before Wofford used a 12-0 run to cut the lead to nine at the half, 31-22. The Terriers would cut it to four late but the Wildcats would eventually hold onto win 63-56. I wondered if there would be a similar outcome.

Wofford has a lot of unique promotional events during media timeouts. Three stood out. Early in the first half during the first media timeout, they had a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" promotion where the Wofford cheerleaders toss out wrapped McDonald's cheeseburgers in plastic bags. Guess who got one?

In the second half, they had "Steal a Meal". One fan gets a meal - a drink, burger and fries. But another fan gets to try to steal the meal. If they hit the layup, they get the drink. If they hit the free throw, they get the chips.  And if they bury the three pointer, they get the burger. It was a couple and thankfully for the wife, the husband missed all three attempts. I would love to play that game with my son (are you reading this, Wofford? :-) ).

Finally, at halftime, to celebrate the 75th year of the NCAA Tournament, Wofford is putting on a series of "re-creations" of famous plays from the NCAA Tournament. In this case, they tried to "recreate" the famous Christian Laettner game winning shot vs. Kentucky. One fan played Grant Hill with the inbounds pass at one end of the court. Two girls each got an attempt to play Laettner in catching the pass and turning around and hitting the shot. They were not successful in any of the attempts, which shows how difficult that play was to make.

The start of the second half saw Davidson maintain its double digit lead as Cohen scored six points in the first seven minutes of the half. Wofford kept within striking distance due in large part to Cochran and Collins, who scored all but two of the first fifteen Terriers' points in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half.

But after two straight Czerapowicz baskets put Davidson up by thirteen with ten minutes left, it didn't seem like Wofford would be able to get any closer. Enter the Australian sophomore point guard with the striking name of Indiana Faithfull. Faithfull would have a hand in the Terriers' next three baskets by hitting two three pointers and assisting on a Cochran layup. His second three pointer cut the Wildcats' lead to seven, 54-47 with seven a half minutes left.

A little later, Collins would get the Terriers's closer with a three point play to cut Davidson's lead to six, 59-53 with a little less than five minutes. That's when the fans started making some noise and you could tell the potential of how loud Johnson Arena can be with a full, noisy crowd.

Wofford had two chances to cut the lead even closer. But their two leading scorers, Cochran and Collins each committed a critical turnover. And when Jake Cohen buried a NBA three pointer to put Davidson up 64-53 with 1:10 left, that was the ball game. The Wildcats would eventually win 68-57.

Davidson had a very balanced attack with four scorers in double figures. Cohen led the Wildcats with fifteen points, eight rebounds, three steals and three blocks. Czerapowicz also had fifteen points and six rebounds. De'Mon Brooks and Droney each had thirteen points. Davidson shot forty eight percent from the field and an impressive twenty four of twenty seven from the charity stripe. Davidson is now 15-7 overall and 10-1 in conference.

Collins led all scorers with twenty four points on ten of nineteen from the field. Cochran added fourteen points. And Faithfull, who played all forty minutes of the game, had eight points, nine assists and six rebounds. A truly solid all around performance for the Australian. Wofford is 8-15 overall and now 2-8 in conference.

As I left Wofford walking through the commons area, reveling in the good time I had last evening, I saw the coffee bar was still open. It was tempting, but I figured I would visit that the next time. The next time I am at Wofford, I hope to have my color analyst, aka my seven year old son Matthew with me. The thought of sitting with him in the commons after the game, going over the contest and watching another basketball game sounds really appealing. That is something that should be shared.

Still, I really enjoyed myself last night. Thanks Wofford for a fun experience.

Doubleheader Game 2 - A Fun Night at Davidson - Recap of Wofford vs. Davidson

I have had great admiration over the years for Davidson.  First, the Wildcats Coach is Bob McKillop, who happens to be a Hofstra graduate.  When I was growing up on Long Island, McKillop was the coach of Long Island Lutheran, a major power in New York high school basketball.
 
McKillop took over as head coach of Davidson in 1989.  He has taken the Wildcats to six NCAA Tournaments, including three tournament appearances in a row from 2006 through 2008, which was the year that Davidson made the Elite Eight and was a Stephen Curry three away from beating Kansas and going to the Final Four. The Wildcats were back in the NCAA Tournament in 2012 barely losing to Louisville in the second round.

I was fortunate enough to have gone to the NCAA Regional in Raleigh in 2008.   It was truly a magical experience to watch Stephen Curry and Davidson rally to beat Gonzaga in the first round.  Then in the second round game, once again Curry and the Wildcats rallied to take down the Georgetown Hoyas in front of a very pro Davidson crowd made up of mostly North Carolina fans (North Carolina lost to Georgetown in the NCAA Tournament the year before).

So during yesterday’s Charlotte vs. Central Michigan game, Matt Cayuela told me he was going to see Davidson host Wofford at 7:00 PM.    It turns out that Davidson is about thirty minutes from Charlotte.  Since I am still by myself in South Carolina until my house closes, I had no plans.  So Matt and I got into our separate cars and went to Davidson.

Davidson is your truly classic college town, a small town with a main street with the school as the main focus.  Matt suggested a place recommended by Trip Advisor called the Brick House Tavern.  The Brick House Tavern is a very large restaurant/ bar/brewery that's a short walk from Main Street.  It looks like it was once a large warehouse.

The hostess noted that there were two seats at the bar.   My seat was right behind a tap.  The female bartender said I was hiding.  I noted that being near the tap is one of my favorite places.

Both of us had a Blue Ridge Burger, which had bleu cheese.  I had mine with bacon and a side of mashed potatoes.  Matt had his with Mac and cheese, which would have impressed my seven year old son.  We each had a restaurant brewed beer, which was quite good. I recommend The Brick House Tavern highly.

We decided to walk from the Brick House parking lot to Belk Arena.  The walk briefly brought us onto Main Street into the main section of town.  Then we made a left and we were at Belk Arena in about ten minutes.

Matt had already had a ticket through a Living Social deal.  My deal was awaiting me at the ticket line.  An older gentleman asked if I needed one ticket.  He had bought a two for one ticket deal.  My cost for the seat, $9.00.  I thanked the very kind man who I ended up sitting next to during the game. Matt ended up sitting next to me since there were a decent number of available seats for the game.

Belk Arena seats a little over 5,000.  When you enter the arena there is a main concourse with concessions as well as a downstairs with concessions and bathrooms.  To make sure I would be able to drive home after a long day, I got myself a coke (there was only one size) and Matt got a drink as well. We went back up stairs to our padded seats.

In Belk Arena, what you first notice are the banners in the rafters.  One of the things you see among those banners is the 2008 Elite Eight banner.  But it’s not the only Elite Eight banner. There are two from 1968 and 1969 when Lefty Driesell coached the Wildcats (he also coached Davidson to a Sweet Sixteen in 1966).

The next thing you notice is that the students sit in one of two places, behind the opponent basket and behind the opponent bench.  Matt noticed that it was like a high school dance.  The male students sat behind the opponent’s bench while mostly female students sat behind the basket.

Before the game started, Matt pointed out to me that Wofford has a player from Australia named Indiana Faithfull. Faithfull plays twenty minutes per game.  Davidson also has several foreign players including starting forward Chris Czerapowicz from Sweden, Ali Mackay, a forward from Scotland, Nick Cochran, the starting point guard from Canada and seldom used Youssef Mejri, a forward from Tunisia.

It was the first Southern Conference game of the season for Wofford, who along with Davidson are the two schools that have represented the conference in the NCAA Tournament six of the past seven seasons (Wofford made the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011).  Davidson had won their first conference game at Chattanooga on December 1st.  Wofford had come into the game having won two games in a row over Winthrop and Gardner Webb.   Davidson was coming off a tough home loss to North Carolina rival Charlotte.

The Wildcats came out firing away from beyond the arc as they hit their first six three point attempts.  Tyler Kalinoski made three of those shots from beyond the arc.  The score was already 18-4 Davidson not even seven minutes into the game.

Davidson’s first points that weren’t a shot from beyond the arc came on a De’Mon Brooks layup and one.  Thus Davidson’s first points came from three point plays, six three pointers and an old fashioned three point play.   Brooks then scored again on a layup and one, but missed the free throw.   After nine minutes, the Wildcats were up 23-6.

During one of the media timeouts, Davidson had one of those kids’ games where they dribble a ball, get dressed in basketball gear and then race to shoot a layup.  A blond haired girl impressively won the contest, and then just walked off the court without celebrating, as if it was nothing big.  It reminded me of Reggie Miller running off the court after beating the Knicks.  It was pretty cool.

Davidson’s lead swelled to twenty one, 31-10 with three and half minutes left in the first half after two Jake Cohen free throws.  The fans were very much enjoying the Wildcats’ impressive play.  It looked like it was going to be a blow out.

But as previously noted, Wofford is a team with a lot of success the past three seasons (last season, the Terriers won 19 games and made the CBI Tournament). They responded by outscoring Davidson 12-0 over the final three and half minutes.   Faithfull had three assists and a layup during the run.  Two of his assists setup three pointers by Taylor Wagener.   Davidson entered the half now only up nine points, 31-22.

After halftime, which featured a fourth grade AAU basketball game, Faithfull hit a jumper to cut the Davidson lead to seven, 31-24?   But the Wildcats responded with a 14-6 spurt over the next eight minutes. Brooks got another old fashioned three point play to put Davidson up 45-30 with twelve and a half minutes left.

But, as feisty Terriers are known to do, again Wofford refused to give up.  The Terriers outscored the Wildcats 20-8 over nearly an eight minute span.  Again, it was Wagener and Faithfull  in the middle of the run.  Wagener had eight points and an assist while Faithfull had two assists.  Karl Cochran’s three made it 53-50 with a little less than five minutes left.

But Wofford would not get any closer.  Jake Cohen hit a jumper then followed with a layup to put Davidson up seven, 57-50.  That would be the margin of victory as the Wildcats held off the Terriers 63-56.

For Davidson, Nik Cochran led the Wildcats and all scorers with fifteen points, including ten of eleven from the free throw line.  Kalinoski was the only other Wildcats player in double figures scoring with eleven points. Four players, Cohen, Brooks, Czerapowicz and Tom Droney each had eight points.  After hitting their first six three point attempts, the Wildcats went one of fourteen from beyond the arc the rest of the way.

Wagener had fourteen points to lead the Terriers. Faithfull added eleven points and five assists.  Wofford shot only thirty five percent from the field.

After the game, Matt and I walked our way back to The Brickhouse parking lot.  We said goodbye since both of us had long drives home.   I enjoyed hanging out with Matt and was glad he told me about the Davidson game.  I plan to be back at Davidson next Saturday when they host UNC Wilmington.

Depending on my plans, I plan to be back at the Brick House Tavern again next Saturday.  A good burger, a beer and basketball.   All good things start with the letter B.