Davidson 67, The Citadel 63

AP:

DAVIDSON -- Jake Cohen scored 18 points and Brendan McKillop had 17 as Davidson overcame an early 15-point deficit to beat The Citadel 67-63 in overtime on Saturday night.

The Wildcats (11-11, 6-4 Southern Conference) trailed 27-12 with 8:05 left in the first half, then used a 21-6 run, capped by a McKillop 3-pointer, to tie the game at 33 at the break.

The second half went back and forth, with the Bulldogs (10-12, 4-6) leading by six and Davidson by four. A McKillop layup with 58 seconds left was the last score in regulation.

The Observer: Whenever time grew short Saturday, point guard Brendan McKillop was there for Davidson’s Wildcats. For starters, McKillop hit Davidson’s go-ahead basket -- a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in overtime -- in the Wildcats’ 67-63 Southern Conference victory against The Citadel. Ed Conroy: “Brendan McKillop is a heck of a shooter,” Conroy said. “Of his four 3-pointers, three of them were really clutch.” DavidsonWildcats.com: The ‘Cats have won nine of their last 13 games. DavidsonNews.net: Will Archambault, who had a big night last Thursday against College of Charleston, had 8 points and 8 rebounds on Saturday night. His point total brought within 13 points of 1,000 for his 4-year career as a Wildcats. Still: The Wildcats entered the game as the Southern Conference’s home attendance leaders, averaging 3,917 in the 5,223 arena.

Life after Stephen (and Andrew, and Max, and ...)

Jeff Hartsell in Charleston:

But as Davidson comes to McAlister Field House tonight, Citadel coach Ed Conroy expects a team that’s much better adjusted to life without Curry, now playing for pay with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

“From what I’ve seen on tape so far, they are a typical Bob McKillop-coached team,” Conroy said. “They have a lot of talented players. Maybe they haven’t found their perfect chemistry and mix yet, but they will. And they will have a heck of a season, I believe.”

I appreciated this story because it did something a lot of stories so far this year have not. It at least alluded to the reality that the first year of the post-Stephen Curry era for Davidson is also the first year of the post-Andrew Lovedale era and the post-Max Paulhus Gosselin era. I’ll add, too, that this is the second year of the post-Jason Richards era and the post-Thomas Sander era. All these guys for the Davidson College basketball program were historically good.

The Citadel schedule

Conroy: “Starting the Southern Conference schedule off at home with the regular season champs will be exciting for players, fans and the Cadets.”

On last night

Thoughts from Charleston:

*** Been to three games over this last week -- Samford in Davidson, Duke in Durham, The Citadel in Charleston -- and you’re reminded in Southern Conference games that no one in the league can guard Stephen. With the ball in his hands, at this level of play, he can create space for a jumper if he wants to -- whenever he needs to -- and he can get into the lane at will and at worst get to line. He shot 18 free throws last month against Chattanooga. He shot 14 last night.

*** BLOCK by BEN-EZE, Frank.

That’s what the stat book’s play-by-play says happened with 3:11 left in the first half.

No.

That’s not what happened at all.

What happened was Citadel guard Zach Urbanus drove right baseline and put up a shot and Frank volleyball-spiked that shot to the floor.

And that’s not all that happened with Frank last night. He had a dunk. He had a tap dunk after a whistle. He played 13 minutes, he had another block, he had three boards, he altered a Citadel shot in the lane with a hand that was so high above the floor it was almost startling, and certainly not something Davidson folks are accustomed to, and there was this one time when he guarded an inbounds pass in a way that looked like Max, only if Max had oars for arms.

*** Cremins is always calling Davidson the Duke of the Southern Conference, and here we were in Charleston, and I thought about that when Davidson did to The Citadel in the first five minutes of the second half what Duke did to Davidson the other night in Durham.

*** Had a good spot on press row to hear poor official Roger Parramore get ragged on by both coaches.

Here was The Citadel’s Ed Conroy early in the second half yelling at him when a call went against his team early in the second half. The “he” is McKillop.

“Roger!”

“He yells at you and you give him the next three!”

“Roger!”

“You afraid of him?”

Then a little later:

“Roger!”

“You’re scared!”

“Roger!”

“You guys are scared!”

Could’ve been.

Awesome, right?

*** 5,336. At The Citadel. Over break. With no cadets. Last year’s Davidson game here drew 1,204.

*** The contingent of ‘Cat fans, including Meg, Sink, Cobb, Jim and Jip, the Nicholson brothers, the Archambaults, David Rorie, Randy Lawrence, others -- they sang a little piece of Sweet Caroline coming out of the 8-minute media timeout. Nice touch on the road.

*** Nine Davidson players with double-digit minutes.

*** No Observer staffer down here. This will help.

*** From The Citadel game notes: “The Citadel looks to slay the dragon Saturday night in McAlister Field House …”

Tonight in Charleston

Davidson. The Citadel. Charlotte. Charleston.

The Curry brothers

Jeff Hartsell on Stephen and Seth: “I could shoot myself.”

That’s what Winthrop coach Randy Peele said last week about his failure to seriously recruit Seth Curry out of high school.

Peele should put away the rhetorical gun. A lot of sheepish college basketball coaches are feeling the same way about the Curry brothers, Davidson superstar Stephen and Liberty freshman Seth.