One year ago today Davidson came back from 17 down to beat UNCG and Steph got his then-career high of 41 and Jason’s eye was bleeding and Lindsay and I plus the sixty? seventy? people who’d gathered around the tv (they didn’t use the 900 Room back then) jumped and whooped and screamed like we’d just won the national championship. I was on that high for at least 48 hours.
And yet we had no idea.
A good thing to remember.
The stars were aligned for Davidson to lose tonight. Greensboro had been underperforming... Davidson had been blowing people out... Sander was on the bench. The Spartans scorched the nets shooting 9-12 from three in the first half. Their intensity and home crowd helped ignite a first half blitz that found Greensboro sitting right below their average offensive output of the last week: at halftime. But Davidson won by five. Their defiance of the basketball gods tonight was extraordinary to say the least.
The heart of this team literally came spilling out on the court tonight. Richards' eyebrow was split open in an ugly way, bleeding all over everything... yet he came back to make the game-winning drive and free throw. Max Paulhus Gosselin recovered from endless "air ball" jeering to make the game-saving steal leading to Richards' drive. Andrew Lovedale overcame foul trouble to bring down the rebound with a scream after Greensboro's late attempt to tie the game. Thomas Sander did not let his sidelining keep him from supporting the team... he was the first one on the court at every timeout and was never quiet on the sidelines even when the Wildcats trailed big. And then, of course, there was Stephen Curry.
Davidson's attitude in the second half was definitely one of a team finally kicking it into overdrive. The several hundred fans in attendance got into a shouting match with Spartan supporters while Davidson was not unwilling to show a ton of emotion on the court. This was probably the first time I have seen Davidson win a game and have the team run out to celebrate in a very long time. It felt like a game one more time.
Making their way from the Davidson locker room to the post-game interview in the Fleming Gym media room, Stephen (Are you not entertained?) Curry and MAX Paulhus Gosselin look simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated.
As many words as I will write, SteF-in sums up Davidson's down-to-the-wire 83-78 thriller in one. "WOW," he sighs more than says.
Call me a pessimist, but when the Spartans took a 9-0 lead behind the dominant play of current SoCon Player of the Year Kyle Hines, I wasn't exactly feeling the "wow" factor.
Watching the players and coaches on the bench... they too looked, well, uneasy. For most of the first half, the Davidson contingent, fat and happy (?) and accustomed of late to kicking back and watching, could only sit quietly, nervously, and watch as the UNCG students more than earned their middle block of seats and the pep band played the SportsCenter theme song for what seemed the 10 millionth time.
"We were a little down," Curry said of the locker room mood at halftime. "Coach told us to find a way to win. To chip away little by little."
"To play defense. To stop them from shooting threes in our face. To keep our heads cool," MAX says of the coaching staff's halftime advice. "Chip away, chip away until we get in a position to win. Which we did."
"It wasn't really that bad," Thomas Sander, relegated to street clothes on this evening, said of the team's half-time mentality. "We weren't really down. We made some adjustments. We have a mature team. I feel like we all knew that we were gonna come back."
Mike Reed:
Curry will go over 40 tonight and lead us to a comeback. G's 15-point halftime lead means they will lose by 5 instead of 20.
Chip Clark:
Steph had 41. Cats 83-78. Lazarus is the MVP tonight.
Adam Stockstill:
Amazing comeback by the Cats, I'm speechless, anyone who questioned their heart is an idiot. They had EVERYTHING going against them (including themselves) in the first half and they came back and got it done. Curry doing an MJ impersonation, Richards bleeding as wills them to victory. I know it wasn't what we expected but these things happen, especially on the road during a long conference season. This will help us in the long run, the 30-point blowouts make us complacent after a time. This will prepare us for Chucktown. My hats are off to the Cats.
Stephen Curry on the Davidson Radio Network
"I got real tired, but I heard Mom on the 4th row saying, 'Take deep breaths! Take deep breaths.'"
Eddie Nicholson:
This team has some serious heart.
