Davidson holds off pesky UNCG with late surge, 75-54

I wanted to get some info up here on the front page from last night’s game and Jim Modlin sent us some things that UNCG sent him, but it was nothing more than box scores and stats.

I decided to go to the UNCG space here on the site(that Don Moore set up) and bring this up. It looks prettty good and tells the story of Davidson, Steph Curry and the Spartans. Here it is:

GREENSBORO, NC – National Player of the Year candidate Stephen Curry scored a game-high 29 points to lead Davidson past UNC Greensboro, 75-54, in front of a sellout crowd of 11,687 at the Greensboro Coliseum on Thursday night.

Ben Stywall had 13 points to lead UNCG on Thursday night.

The win was Davidson’s 43rd straight in Southern Conference regular season play, one shy of the conference record set nearly 50 years ago by West Virginia. The Wildcats moved to 20-3 overall, 13-0 in league play, while UNCG dropped to 3-18, 2-10 despite hanging around for much of the night.

The Spartans trailed by just six with 13 minutes to go, but a 10-2 run by Davidson, including back-to-back three-pointers by Curry and Bryant Barr, pushed it back to 14 with 9:32 to play. UNCG couldn’t get the margin under 10 after that as the Wildcats pulled away for their 12th straight win.

UNCG got 13 points and seven rebounds from junior forward Ben Stywall. Kendall Toney added 12 points and freshman Damian Eargle chipped in with 10 points, seven rebounds and six blocks.

Stephen Rossiter added 14 points and 13 rebounds and Andrew Lovedale chipped in with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats, which won their sixth straight over the Spartans.

UNCG held Davidson to just 38 percent shooting from the floor (27-of-71), but 25 offensive rebounds by the Wildcats and 20 turnovers by the Spartans were the difference. Davidson wound up with a 51-34 advantage on the glass and 27 second-chance points.

Davidson opened the game with no field goals in the first five minutes – getting its first bucket on a three-pointer by Curry at the 15-minute mark. In Davidson missing their first seven shots, UNCG opened up a 7-3 lead.

That sparked the Wildcats to 16 straight points, though, holding the Spartans scoreless for six minutes themselves. UNCG recovered to trail by six, 17-11, with eight minutes to go in the opening half.

Meanwhile, Curry, the nation’s leading scorer was off to a slow start. Averaging 28.9 points per contest entering the night, the native of Charlotte, NC missed four of his first six from the floor and actually missed consecutive free throws during a three-shot trip to the line.

But Curry scored six points in the next four minutes as he started to warm up. UNCG kept its poise and stayed within eight, 28-20, following a Kendall Toney three-pointer. Curry capped off the half, however, with a floater in the lane to give him 18 in the half and the Wildcats a 37-24 lead at the break.

UNCG didn’t go away early in the second half. Daniel Oliver’s runner in transition cut it to 43-35 with 14:08 to play. Oliver knocked down two free throws a minute later to cut it to six.

But a 10-2 spurt by the Wildcats pushed the lead back to 53-39 with 9:32 left following Bryant’s trey. UNCG cut it to 56-46 with 6:54 left on a Pete Brown bucket in the lane. The Wildcats answered, though, with a 15-3 run to put it away – the last nine points coming on a conventional three-point play by Rossiter and treys by Curry and Will Archambault.

UNCG returns to action on Saturday night when it travels to Georgia Southern for a 7:30 pm tip.

AGATE

DAVIDSON 75, UNCG 54

DAVIDSON (20-3, 13-0)

Stephen Curry 10-24 5-8 29; Steve Rossiter 4-6 6-11 14; Andrew Lovedale 6-11 0-0 12; Will Archambault 2-10 0-0 5; Max Paulhus Gosselin 1-3 2-2 4; Bryant Barr 1-5 1-2 4; Frank Ben-Eze 1-1 0-0 2; Ben Allison 1-5 0-0 2; Brendan Mckillop 1-5 0-0 2; Dan Nelms 0-1 1-4 1. Totals 27-71 15-27 75.

UNCG (3-18, 2-10)

Ben Stywall 5-9 3-7 13; Kendall Toney 3-6 4-4 12; Damian Eargle 5-16 0-0 10; Daniel Oliver 2-3 2-3 6; Montel Smith 1-4 3-4 6; Mikko Koivisto 2-7 0-0 5; Pete Brown 1-1 0-0 2; Mike Hardiman 0-0 0-0 0; Sean Spooner 0-2 0-0 0; Elhanan Bone 0-0 0-0 0; Deangelo Jackson 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 19-51 12-18 54.

Davidson…………………. 37 38 – 75
UNCG…………………….. 24 30 – 54

Halftime: Davidson 37-24. 3-point goals–Davidson 6-27 (Stephen Curry 4-12; Will Archambault 1-6; Bryant Barr 1-5; Brendan Mckillop 0-4), UNCG 4-11 (Kendall Toney 2-4; Mikko Koivisto 1-3; Montel Smith 1-3; Daniel Oliver 0-1).
Fouled out–Davidson-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds–Davidson 51 (Steve Rossiter 13), UNCG 34 (Damian Eargle 7; Ben Stywall 7). Assists–Davidson 11 (Stephen Curry 3; Will Archambault 3), UNCG 8 (Kendall Toney 5). Total fouls–Davidson 18, UNCG 20. Technical fouls–Davidson-None, UNCG-None. Att-11687 (sellout)

FREE THROWS: A total of 1,800 tickets were sold on game day at the Coliseum. Fleming Gym’s capacity is 1,831… The crowd of 11,687 was the largest to see a Southern Conference (league) game this season… Eargle’s six blocks were one shy of a school record held by Kyle Hines (three times) and Nathan Popp.