Men's Basketball Hosts Elon Thursday

Davidson Wildcats (15-13, 8-8 SoCon) vs. Elon Phoenix (12-15, 6-10 SoCon)

Date: Feb. 24, 2011 - 7 p.m.
Site: John M. Belk Arena (5,223 capacity) - Davidson, N.C.
Audio: John Kilgo calls the action on the Davidson Radio Network (95.7 FM, 1450 AM, 1350 AM and online at DavidsonWildcats.com)
Video: Live on Davidson All-Access
Web sites: Davidson (DavidsonWildcats.com), Elon (ElonPhoenix.com)

Full game notes

Live Blog

Layup Line
• The Wildcats cap the regular season with two SoCon home games, starting with a 7 p.m. contest against Elon Thursday.
• It's the second meeting between the Wildcats and Phoenix this season as Elon earned a 77-70 victory in the first contest Jan. 20 in Alumni Gym.
• Davidson has won seven of its last eight and is coming off a 71-65 road win at Presbyterian last Saturday. The 'Cats are 7-3 in their last 10 overall.
• Davidson coach Bob McKillop is two wins shy of his 400th career victory.
• Davidson is locked into fourth place in the SoCon South Division and will play the fifth-place team in the North Division in the upcoming SoCon Tournament.
• Elon is currently in fourth in the North and battling UNCG?for that spot. Elon and Davidson played in the first round of last year's SoCon Tourney, and the Phoenix came away with a 66-59 victory.
• This will be the fourth meeting between Bob McKillop and Elon coach Matt Matheny. Matheny, who is in his second year with the Phoenix, was an assistant coach on McKillop's staff for 16 seasons.
• Matheny played football and basketball for the Wildcats and is a 1992 Davidson graduate. Thursday's game will mark his first in Belk Arena since taking over the Phoenix program.
• Elon assistant coaches Tim Sweeney (2 years) and Will Roberson (3 years) were also members of McKillop's staff at Davidson, and Roberson is a 2002 Davidson graduate.
• Elon has won its last two and is coming off a 99-90 home win over UNCG Saturday. The Phoenix are 4-6 in their last 10.
• Chris Long leads the team in scoring and assists, averaging 14.3 points and six helpers. Drew Spradlin averages 13.9 points and 4.4 rebounds.
• This will be Elon's third game in the last 13 days.

Series History
• Davidson leads the all-time series 32-13, but Elon was won the last two meetings, including a 77-70 decision Jan. 20 in Elon.
• The series began with a 25-17 Elon victory Jan. 18, 1916.
• The 'Cats are 16-5 against Elon at home, 7-0 in Belk Arena and 16-4 during Bob McKillop's tenure.
• The teams have not played in Belk Arena since Jan. 14, 2009.
• Drew Spradlin scored 28 points and corralled eight rebounds to lead Elon in the first meeting this season.
• Clint Mann scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Wildcats, and Nik Cochran scored 11. Jake Cohen recorded 10 points and five rebounds, and JP Kuhlman tallied 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
• Spradlin connected on 10-of-16 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point land for the Phoenix and had 18 points in the first half. Chris Long scored 16 points, making 8-of-13 free throws, and Lucas Troutman posted 11 points and five boards.
• The Wildcats led 36-33 at halftime and had a six-point cushion after a pair of Tom Droney free throws midway through the second stanza, which featured five ties and three lead changes. Long and Spradlin hit consecutive triples to erase that deficit and took its first lead since early in the game on a Troutman dunk with 6:49 remaining.
• Cochran answered with a triple, but Brett Ervin put Elon ahead for good with a 3-pointer from the wing with 6:12 to go. Leading 67-65 following the last media timeout, Elon used a 6-2 spurt to put some distance between the teams.
• After Droney hit a free throw to make the margin five points, Davidson got a defensive stop but couldn't score. With Davidson Forced to foul with 34 seconds left, Long hit two free throws to push the lead back to seven.
• A dunk by Mann brought the 'Cats within five again with 22 seconds to go, and Long hit 1-of-2 from the line to give Davidson a last chance. But Cochran missed a triple, and Troutman hit 1-of-2 free throws to finish the scoring.
• Stephen Curry posted 39 points, and the Wildcats made 13-of-21 3-pointers to earn an 83-68 win in the last meeting in Belk Arena.
• It was the 200th win in the facility and the 24th in a row. Curry finished the night shooting 11-of-18 from the field.
• As a team, Davidson shot 61.9 percent from behind the 3-point line, and just under 50 percent overall from the field, while keeping Elon to just four made 3-pointers for the game and 43.3 percent from the field. The Wildcats also held a 25-17 edge in second-chance points.
• Ola Atoyebi led the Phoenix with 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting and a 9-for-9 effort from the free throw line to go along with eight rebounds.

Leftovers from Presbyterian
• Freshmen scored 31 of the 'Cats' 71 points in the game.
• It was Davidson's first meeting with the Blue Hose since 1965.
• Davidson shot over 50 percent from the floor for the second straight game.
• The Wildcats closed the non-conference schedule with a 7-5 record.

Claw Marks
• Davidson went 3-7 in January but is 5-1 in February.
• Davidson has been within six points or less (two possessions) of its opponents in the last five minutes in eight of its 13 losses this season, including four of the last five. The 'Cats have been within three points or less (one possession) in the last five minutes of five of their losses.
• Brendan McKillop has been named one of 66 candidates for the Bob Cousy Award, which recognizes college basketball's top point guard.
• Jake Cohen was named to the MSG?Holiday Festival All-Tournament Team after averaging 15.5 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots in two games.
• Davidson has held its opponents to under 40 percent shooting in eight games and won all eight.
• Davidson began the season by playing 10 of its first 13 games on the road. The 'Cats home opener was the sixth game of the year, the latest during the 22-year tenure of head coach Bob McKillop.
• Davidson won its home opener for the 19th consecutive season.
• The Wildcats opened SoCon play with two games in Charleston for the second-straight campaign.
• Davidson's 83-56 win over Georgia Southern Feb. 16 was its largest margin of victory in a league win since the 'Cats topped the Eagles 99-56 at home Feb. 28, 2009.
• The Wildcats' 80-52 loss at No. 24 Vanderbilt Jan. 2, was their worst loss since a 75-47 setback at then eighth-ranked Duke in 2006.

Milestone Watch
• Brendan McKillop is 218 points away from 1,000 for his career. He also needs 22 3-pointers to pass his older brother, current assistant coach Matt McKillop, to move into third place on the career list at Davidson. The game against Furman Jan. 12, was his 100th career contest.
• Jake Cohen has 74 career blocked shots, placing him in a tie for eighth on Davidson's career list. Frank Ben-Eze needs 19 to crack the top-10.
• Cohen needs 258 points for 1,000, and Kuhlman needs 250.

Youth Movement
• Davidson features 10 underclassmen (four sophomores, six freshman) on its roster.
• The team's lone senior is Brendan McKillop, and two of the juniors are walk-ons (Will Reigel, AJ Atkinson).
• The Wildcats have just 11 total years of Division I experience in their rotation. Only 25 teams in the country have less experience than Davidson.
• Eight of the top nine scorers for the Wildcats are freshmen or sophomores.
• Sophomores have played 48 percent of the team's minutes, while freshman have played 27 percent. The juniors have played 10 percent, and Brendan has played 15 percent.
• One senior, three sophomores and a freshman are slated to start tonight's game.

Get Better Every Day
• One of the Wildcats' philosophies is to get better every day, and Davidson has seen the fruits of that labor at the end of the last few seasons.
• Since the 2003-04 campaign, the Wildcats own a 48-10 record in the month of February.

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