Story courtesy of Davidson sports information

Davidson 65, College of Charleston 63

DAVIDSON, N.C. ? After a 13-point, second-half lead evaporated, senior point guard Kenny Grant hit the winning three-pointer with 33.8 seconds to play, giving the host Davidson Wildcats a 65-63 victory over College of Charleston in a game televised by ESPN2 on Saturday afternoon. Davidson finishes the regular season with a record of 17-10 and a 10-5 mark in the Southern Conference, while Charleston falls to that same 17-10 overall record with a 9-6 league mark.

A three-pointer by senior Jason Morton with 10:20 to play in the game gave the Wildcats their largest lead of the game at 13 points, 53-40. But a Drew Hall layup with 9:09 on the clock began an extended 23-7 run over the next 7:12 for the Cougars, capped by a pair of three-pointers by David Lawrence, giving CofC its first lead of the game at 63-60.

Grant was sent to the line to shoot a one-and-one with 1:50 to play, but missed the free throw. Davidson forced a turnover, however, and senior Ian Johnson got a layup to fall through, cutting the deficit to one with 1:05 left.

Lawrence got free on the baseline for the Cougars, but his three-point attempt was off the mark and senior Brendan Winters grabbed the rebound. Needing just a bucket to take the lead, Grant was open at the top of the key from about 22 feet when he let it fly with what turned out to be the game-winning three. The three points were his only points of the game.

There was still plenty of time for Charleston to tie the game or take the lead. Dontaye Draper, who had already hit five three-pointers in the game, couldn’t find the range from downtown with 20 seconds on the clock, and Grant hauled in the rebound and was fouled. But once again, his first free throw of a one-and-one caught iron, giving the Cougars one last shot. Draper again launched a three that hit the front iron, giving Davidson the two-point victory.

The Wildcats shot 46.2 percent (24-of-52) for the game while holding Charleston to just 35.5 percent (22-of-62). Winters led four Davidson players in double figures with 16 points on 6-of-11 from the floor, while Morton came off the bench to score 12 points on 4-of-7 from three-point land. Johnson pitched in 11 and sophomore Thomas Sander added 10. Besides his game-winning trey, Grant dished out nine assists for the third straight contest.

While Draper had a game-high 20 points for Charleston, he was just 7-of-22 from the floor and 5-of-15 from behind the arc. Lawrence added 14 points, hitting 4-of-6 three-pointers, while grabbing nine rebounds. Forward Jermaine Johnson led all players with 11 boards for the Cougars. Overall, CofC held a 40-32 advantage on the glass, becoming the first team to out-rebound the Wildcats since the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 17.

Davidson scored the first points of the game on a layup by Brendan Winters and held the lead for more than the next 37 minutes. Charleston kept the game close for most of the half before the Wildcats rattled off 11 straight points for a 35-22 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the opening stanza. The Cougars finished the half with a five-point spurt, however, to cut the deficit to eight at the intermission, 35-27.

Draper kept Charleston in the game by hitting four three-pointers in the opening half and scoring 14 of the team’s 27 points. But while he was 5-for-10 from the floor, the rest of the Cougars were just 5-of-22 (.227).

For Davidson’s seven seniors ? Eric Blancett, Chris Clunie, Grant, Johnson, Matt McKillop, Morton and Winters ? it was their final game in Belk Arena. Next up for the Wildcats is the Southern Conference  Tournament where they will play in the quarterfinals on Friday and be either the two or three seed, depending on who wins the Georgia Southern-Furman game tomorrow afternoon. A Georgia Southern loss would give Davidson a share of the division title for the fifth straight year and a two seed in the tournament. Charleston is the four seed and will play at 2:30 on Friday against either Furman, Western Carolina or Chattanooga.

Story courtesy of UNC Greensboro sports information

Elon 87, UNC Greensboro 82

GREENSBORO, NC ? Elon used a late 9-2 run to break a 71-71 tie and defeat UNC Greensboro, 87-82, in men’s basketball action at Fleming Gym on Saturday afternoon.

Chris Chalko finished with a team-high 21 points to lead the Phoenix (14-13, 10-4 SoCon), including five three-pointers. Scottie Rice added 18 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line.

Ricky Hickman finished with a career-high 34 points to lead UNCG. His three-pointer with 4:48 left in the half gave him 27 straight games in double digits to set new school record. The junior guard from Kernersville, NC recorded the 10th highest scoring game in UNCG history. He hit seven three-pointers on the afternoon.

Kyle Hines added 18 points and Devon Boddie, UNCG’s lone senior who has spent most of the year as a reserve, chipped in a career-high 10 points in his first start.

If anything, UNCG made one statement on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans are out to be the most dangerous No. 10 seed that any conference tournament has ever seen. UNCG (11-18, 4-10) will face either Western Carolina or Chattanooga in the 7/10 game of the Southern Conference Tournament on Wednesday beginning at approximately 6 pm.

With the win, Elon may still clinch the tournament’s top seed. Should Georgia Southern falter at Furman on Sunday afternoon, the Phoenix would get the top seed and be guaranteed of at least an NIT bid. The winner of the SoCon Tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Should the top seed not win the tournament and not be awarded an at-large to the NCAA Tournament, that team will get an NIT bid under new selection guidelines this season.

The contest was back and forth affair all afternoon with both teams shooting near or above 50 percent from the field for a good portion of the game. If one team was hot, so was the other. If one team went cold, so did the opposition. In the end, Elon shot 55 percent from the field, including 64 percent for the second half, while UNCG shot an even 50 percent from the floor, including 58 percent in the second half.

UNCG made its first four shots from the field to jump out to a quick 12-5 lead. But UNCG went cold, missing eight of their next 10 from the field and the Phoenix battled back. Elon took its first lead, 23-21, just inside of the eight-minute mark when Chalko knocked down a three. He followed that up with three-pointer next trip down the floor to cap off a 12-1 run.

Hines picked up his third foul at 2:09 of the first half and was held to just five points in the first half. Despite that, however, the Spartans trailed by just three, 38-35, at the half.

But UNCG made it a point to establish their big man to start the second half as Hines scored seven points in the first 3:30 of the second half and 11 in the five minutes. He converted one-of-two at the line off the opening possession of the second half and then converted a conventional three-point play two minutes later to give UNCG a 41-40 lead. The seven-point spurt extended his string of double-figure scoring games to 19 in a row.

A controversial call, however, led to both teams losing big guns with their fourth fouls with just over eight minutes to play. Elon’s Jackson Atoybei crashed into Kyle Hines. Official Jerry Heater called a block while Greg Fogelman had a player control foul from up top. The end result was a double foul and the fourth personal on both players.

With Hines on the bench, Elon opened up its largest lead of the afternoon at six, 66-60, before UNCG called a timeout with 6:28 to play and put the big man back into the line-up.

UNCG battled back with an 11-5 spurt. Hines hit two free throws with 3:15 to play to tie the game, 71-71. Chalko followed with a three-pointer from the left wing, however, as Elon regained the lead with 2:37 to go. Phoenix guard Brian Waters hit a jumper in the lane and, although he failed to convert the conventional three-point play, a minute later the margin was back to five and Elon was on its way.