SoCon Monster Game of the Week Recap: New Mexico 86, Davidson 81

The game was very exciting, and very competitive all the way. Davidson jumped out to a big early lead, but then seemed to tire out in the second half. The altitude and the time of day may have had a lot to do with that.

There were a lot of fouls called. Some of them seemed a little touchy. Some of them may have been just as much due to the Wildcats getting tired in the second half.

The second thing that turned into a major factor was that the Wildcats got outrebounded 27-7 in the second half. Davidson had won the battle on the boards in the first half. Alex Kirk and his 14 points and seven rebounds was a major factor in the outcome of this game for the Lobos.

The Lobos shot 44 free throws and made 38 of them. Davidson only shot 20 free throws, making fifteen.

Nik Cochran had a terrible showing. He did not score, and came up with just two rebounds and two assists. That's not good. Jake Cohen scored just nine points, and looked out of sorts at times. He made 2 of 12 from the floor and 1 of 7 from three point range. He did have eight rebounds. Cohen needs to get going. He has not looked overly good so far this yer.

Clint Mann did play well. He scored twelve points, but did foul out. Tyler Kalinoski came off the bench and added twelve points.  De'Mon Brooks looked like the SoCon Player of the Year, scoring 22 points. Chris Czerapowicz scored twelve points, making four threes. His outside game really is a huge advantage for this team. He can light it up. What they need is to make sure that they develop the inside game as the year goes on. Davidson shot thirty threes out of their 64 shots. They need to be able to get the ball inside better than that if they are going to win big this year. They can win in the SoCon with their inside game. They can obviously contend with teams like New Mexico. But if Davidson is going to make a run at the Final Four, they're going to need a better inside game.

Not a bad game for Davidson on the whole at all. They showed a lot and impressed everyone who stayed up (or got up) to watch it. This was good for Davidson. But they do have a ways to go. They could certainly play well in Orlando next week.