Saint Mary’s 80, Davidson 68
MORAGA, Calif. ? Davidson guard Stephen Curry tallied 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists, but the Wildcats fell 80-68 in the second round of the NIT at Saint Mary’s Monday night.
Davidson ends the season with a 27-8 record, and the senior class of Can Civi, Andrew Lovedale and Max Paulhus Gosselin finishes their careers with 105 victories, the most in school history. The 2008-09 campaign was the fifth straight season Davidson topped the 20-win mark and the ?Cats’ fifth consecutive postseason appearance.
Patrick Mills led the Gaels (28-6) with 23 points and 10 assists, while Omar Samhan posted 18 points and nine rebounds. Diamon Simpson collected 12 points, a game-high 15 rebounds and four steals, and Wayne Hunter posted 12 points and six rebounds.
Will Archambault had 10 points and five rebounds for Davidson, and Lovedale collected nine points and 10 boards. Steve Rossiter had eight points, five rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Wildcats shot 11-of-24 from 3-point range in the game but hit for just 36.8 percent from the field overall. Meanwhile the Gaels shot 47 percent for the contest and outscored Davidson 40-20 in the paint.
The ?Cats whittled a 13-point Saint Mary’s lead down to seven following a Brendan McKillop 3-pointer with 2:07 to go. Davidson got a defensive stop, and McKillop drew a foul going to the basket. The sophomore missed both free throws, but Davidson got the rebound. Carlin Hughes stole a pass intended for Curry spotted up from 3-point range on the wing, and the ?Cats would get no closer. The Gaels went 5-of-6 from the free-throw line inside the last 46 seconds to seal the win.
Davidson trailed 36-33 at halftime, and a Curry 3-pointer on the first possession of the second half tied the game. After a Curry trey made the margin 49-47 in favor of Saint Mary’s, the Gaels used a 14-5 run to pull ahead 63-52 with 9:31 to go. The ?Cats got the margin down to seven on a Curry jumper with 5:52 remaining, but the Gaels answered by scoring the next six points, to make the margin 73-60 with 4:44 to play.
Richmond 74, College of Charleston 72
RICHMOND, Va. -- Kevin Anderson nailed a jumper with nine seconds remaining to lift the Richmond Spiders to a thrilling 74-72 victory over the College of Charleston Cougars in the quarterfinal round of the College Basketball Invitational before 2,541 at Robbins Center on Monday.
Anderson posted 21 points and five assists for Richmond, which will play in the semifinal round on Wednesday. David Gonzalvez added 15 points for the Spiders, who got 10 points from Ryan Butler.
Charleston managed to whittle a 13-point down to two, but that was as close as the Cougars got. Charleston finished its season at 27-9 while Richmond is now 20-15.
Jermaine Johnson led Charleston with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Dustin Scott scored 14 points and had nine rebounds.
Richmond connected on 56.1 percent of its field goal attempts in the first half and led 39-33 at intermission.
The Spiders shot 51.9 percent over the final 20 minutes, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc, en route to the narrow victory.
Richmond finished the game with 19 assists against only nine turnovers, a key to the win.