Davidson College
at Ga. Southern
Curry and Davidson Cap Regular Season in Perfect Fashion with 89-69 Win
3/1/2008 9:32:24 PM | Men's Basketball
Joey Beeler
STATESBORO, Ga. - Stephen Curry poured in 35 points and Davidson torched the nets for 72.7 percent in the second half as the Wildcats extended their winning streak to 19 straight and put the finishing touches on a perfect Southern Conference regular season with an 89-69 victory over Georgia Southern Saturday evening at Tanner Fieldhouse.
Along with completing the regular season 23-6 overall and 20-0 in league play, Davidson has won 30 straight conference regular season affairs. It marks the third time (1995-96, 2004-05) under Head Coach Bob McKillop the Wildcats have finished with a flawless SoCon slate.
Curry, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., missed just four of his 17 attempts from the floor and made 7-of-9 from downtown to finish with his eighth 30-point game of 2007-08 and 12th of his career.
Boris Meno also added double figures for the Wildcats with 16 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench, while fellow senior Jason Richards recorded his ninth career double-double with 12 points and 12 assists.
The opening 20 minutes of action featured eight ties and lead changes before Davidson closed on a 11-4 run capped off by Curry's fourth trey of the half with just 38 seconds remaining to head into the break leading, 42-35.
Curry led all scorers in period with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Just like they ended the first stanza, the 'Cats opened the second with a lengthy spurt (13-6) to push the margin to 57-42. Following a Georgia Southern 30-second timeout, the Eagles' cut the deficit to 59-49 on a Dwayne Foreman layup, but that's as close as it would get as Davidson caught fire and put the game out of reach with a 21-3 streak to make it 80-52 with just over seven minutes left.
Foreman and Anthony Marshall led four GSU players in double digits with 15 points, while Julian Allen and Matthew Fields scored 12 and 10, respectively.
Davidson held preseason All-SoCon selection Louis Graham scoreless as the senior fouled out in 11 minutes action in his final game at Tanner Fieldhouse.
Thanks to its hot-shooting final frame, Davidson finished the contest at 55.4 percent (31-56) overall and 47.4 percent (9-19) from behind the three-point arc. Georgia Southern shot 25-of-55 for a final clip of 45.5 percent.
The Wildcats forced 19 miscues turning them into 22 points.
Both teams return to action at next week's SoCon Men's Basketball Tournament March 7-10 in Charleston, S.C., at the North Charleston Coliseum. The top-seeded Wildcats open Saturday's quarterfinal play at 2 p.m. against the winner of the #8/9 opening round contest. Georgia Southern will also receive a first-round bye as the third seed.
GAME NOTES: Curry reached double figures for the 56th consecutive contest… Jason Richards became just the second player in Davidson history to hand out 600 career assists... Davidson is 33-3 in the month of February since 2003-04… The 'Cats have won 19 straight SoCon road games… Their current 19-game winning streak is the longest in the nation.
