City of Basketball Love

Dan Newhart (@danny_newhart)
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Davidson University was established in 1837, La Salle 26 years later in 1863. Despite the universities’ storied histories, their basketball programs met only one time prior to Saturday afternoon’s matchup.

After turning down a chance to move from the SoCon the CAA prior to this season, Davidson instead decided to become a member of La Salle’s conference, the Atlantic 10. That means the teams will certainly be seeing more of one another in the years to come.

Just don’t remind La Salle head coach John Giannini of that.

If Saturday’s game between the Wildcats and Explorers was any indication, however, fans are in for a real treat over the next few years or so. After a neck-and-neck game in which momentum shifts were hard to come by, Davidson was able to pull away in the waning minutes of the game to secure a 77-69 victory over La Salle.

Lead changes (11 in all, as well as seven ties) were the norm in this one, and the teams traded buckets throughout.

After a Cleon Roberts mid-range jumper with a little under four minutes left gave La Salle a 65-64 lead, Davidson’s Tyler Kalinoski immediately responded with a three at the other end. to make it 67-65 Davidson.

Between the 3:18 and 2:23 mark of the second half, two costly turnovers led to two baskets for Davidson, stretching the lead to 71-65. Jordan Price responded with a layup to cut it to 71-67.

After a dunk from Davidson’s Andrew McCauliffe and two free throws from Price, La Salle cut the lead to 73-69 with 1:07 to go. However, the Explorers would be held scoreless for the final minute and change and Davidson proved ultimately to be too much.

Down the stretch, multiple missed box outs and costly turnovers by La Salle led to easy baskets for Davidson.

“There was a number of them,” Giannini said of those miscues. “We have to be better than that.”

Giannini also knew what to expect from the Wildcats coming in. Going into Saturday, Davidson was one of the top scoring teams in the country, averaging just below 78 points per game.

“That was an average game for them,” Giannini said of the Wildcats. “Sometimes they’re better than that and they score in the nineties, and when they’re worse than that you can beat them. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t hold them below what they normally.”

Brian Sullivan torched the Explorers all afternoon. He led all scorers with 28 points, and shot 12-for-17 from the floor, including 4-of-10 (40 percent) from behind the arc. Jordan Braham had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Tyler Kalinoski had 16 points, including two treys of his own.

Price, a redshirt sophomore guard, followed up his strong performance against No. 22 VCU on Wednesday, in which he became the first D1 player this season to have 34 points, 18 rebounds and five assists in a game. Price finished with 22 points and three rebounds in a losing effort on Saturday.

As a team, the Wildcats made 10 threes, which is one of the things that makes them an opponent Giannini does not look forward to facing again.

“We’re one of the best defenses in the country in defending the three point shot,” Giannini said. “We were working, and you see what they did. That’s going through a meat grinder playing them, and that’s out of respect to them.”

The the first rematch between the schools since the Charleston Classic on November 20, 2009, was in many ways different than the first game. In ’09, La Salle dominated throughout; they opened up a 16-point halftime lead, en route to an 84-70 win. Rodney Green led five Explorers the way with 21 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Just a little over five years later, Saturday’s game was much closer, and the Wildcats kept it close throughout. In fact, they held the lead for 23:49, 54.4 percent of the game.

For Giannini, one of the big differences was how well Davidson capitalized on his team’s turnovers. Whenever his team made a mistake, the Wildcats seemed to make them pay. La Salle had 12 turnovers, and Davidson scored 16 points off those turnovers. To Giannini, this was definitely more of a mental loss than a physical.

“It was not talking, taking a break on a couple rebounds, so I think that makes this one a little bit worse,” Giannini said regarding some contributors to the loss.

After Saturday’s loss, La Salle fell to 14-11 overall, 6-6 in the A-10. Next on their schedule is a matchup with Duquesne at home at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Davidson, which sits in third place in its first year as a member of the A-10, won its third straight game overall, and improved to 17-6, 8-4 A-10.

They’ll really need to focus going forward, playing two of their next three games on the road. Dayton sits atop the conference standings with a record of 19-5, 9-3. VCU and Rhode Island are 9-3 in conference play, and UMass comes in at 8-3.