Curry, Richards Lead 'Cats to 92-59 Victory
2/17/2007 10:32:30 AM | Men's Basketball
Joey Beeler
CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Stephen Curry and Jason Richards combined for 46 points and 11 of Davidson's 16 treys, the most by a team ever at the Ramsey Center, as the Wildcats clinched the SoCon South Division regular-season crown with a convincing 92-59 victory at Western Carolina Saturday evening. The win was the seventh straight for the Wildcats and 19th out of their last 20 as they improve to 23-4 overall and 14-1 in the league. WCU falls to 10-17 and 7-9.
A 6-1 shooting guard from Charlotte, N.C., Curry finished with a game-high 25 points and has gone for at least 23 in every game of the Wildcats' current streak. The SoCon's second leading scorer made 6-of-11 from the floor, five triples and missed just one of his nine attempts from the charity stripe. Curry has connected on 94 threes this season and broke Brendan Winters' mark of 89 with his first of the evening 1:18 into the contest.
Richards drilled a career-high six from downtown en route to 21 points. The native of Barrington, Ill., also set up seven buckets putting him just two assists shy of Kenny Grant's single-season record of 208 set a year ago.
Others in double figures for Davidson included Boris Meno, who charted his eighth career double-double with 14 points and 11 boards, while Thomas Sander also finished with 14 of his own.
In the opening period, Davidson shot lights out from downtown connecting on 10-of-20 attempts. Richards went on a 12-0 run of his own with four straight trifectas from the right side to give the Wildcats a 25-15 cushion, forcing Western Carolina to burn a 30 second timeout. Out of the stoppage, Davidson continued to stretched its advantage to as many as 20 (43-23) before heading to the locker room up, 44-27.
The Wildcats made just four buckets from inside the arc in the first 20 minutes, but only took eight to finish the period 50 percent overall.
Davidson opened the second half with a 15-5 run to stretch the lead to 59-32 with 13:48 to go. The Catamounts cut the deficit to 21, but never got closer as the Wildcats led by as many as 40 (89-49) following a Bryant Barr jumper with just under four remaining.
Western Carolina struggled offensively the entire night shooting just 33.9 percent (20-59) from the field and 6-of-25 (24 percent) from three-point range. Nick Aldridge and Brandon Giles were the only Catamounts to hit double digits with 19 and 10 points, respectively.
The Wildcats have now captured eight SoCon division titles under head coach Bob McKillop and five in the last six years.
Davidson begins its final homestand of the campaign with a 7 p.m. tip-off against Wofford Monday at John Belk Arena. The Catamounts will entertain North Division leader Appalachian State Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.
