Unbelievable.
That game may go down as the best game of all of Championship Week. It was truly a remarkable game. It would have been tough to beat this game.
Davidson turned the ball over way too may times. They committed fifteen turnovers, which was more than they had combined for in the first two games of the SoCon Tournament. They made just 5 of 21 from three point range, which is one of the ways to beat this Wildcats team.
How did Davidson win this game? They won it because they outrebounded the tired Catamounts. Western Carolina hung tough in the rebounding category, but the Wildcats controlled the category. Clint Mann was huge in this one, scoring ten points, including a monster jam in the second overtime after he replaced Jake Cohen when he fouled out. De'Mon Brooks and JP Kuhlman scored 19, while Cohen scored 17, and Nik Cochran scored 16. Chris Czerapowicz, who had been knocking down so many shots in the first two rounds of the tournament, scored just eight points, and six of those were after regulation.
How did Western Carolina stay in the game? They stayed in the game because they were knocking down huge threes. Keaton Cole, Trey Sumler, and James Sinclair made 9 of their 15 three point attempts. Harouna Mutombo scored 20 points and was everything that the Catamounts needed him to be. Tawaski King scored 20 points and had ten rebounds. King was especially great. He was brilliant in throughout, and just got better the later in the game it got.
When the Catamounts jumped out to a 12 point lead early in the game, I thought that maybe Western could pull it off. When Davidson went on their run, I was prepared to start writing this article. In fact, I started it with about two minutes left. Then, Simclair drained the three with about a minute left to cut it to seven, and I paused, and started to wonder if there was any chance Western Carolina could come back. And come back they did. With tremendous heart and intensity, and urged on by their fans, who were constantly shouting, "We believe!" the Catamounts kept on charging, and Davidson started cracking, turning the ball over consistently. Davidson still had a shot at the end of regulation to win it and missed the shot. They had a shot to win it at the end of overtime, and missed it. Finally, with a two point lead at the end of the second overtime, Davidson rebounded the Catamounts missed wide open three to clinch the victory.
This Davidson team is probably a 13 seed at this point. They are a dangerous team in the tournament. After all, they beat Kansas earlier this year. But I'm beginning to think they can't really go far in the NCAA Tournament. Next year could be a truly magical year for the Wildcats, and they could spend part of the year in the Top 25. But this year's team is too inconsistent inside of games, and just aren't quite good enough to do much damage in the tournament. They will have to match up with the right higher seed to pull it off. Who is that right higher seed? I'll probably spend some time on that later on this week. I will try to find good potential match-ups for Davidson.
The Wildcats are a very good team. They are just a year away. They showed an inability to put Western Carolina away tonight, and that showed that they are really a year away from winning in the NCAA Tournament.
Western Carolina showed incredible heart in this tournament. That is about as close as any team has ever come to winning the SoCon title by winning four games in four days. The Catamounts were tremendous last night. It's hard to believe that is the same team that was tied for last in the North just a couple of weeks ago. What a turnaround in the tournament.
It was an incredible weekend for the SoCon Tournament. Congratulations to Western Carolina on a great season and playing a tremendous game on Monday night and showing they were a solid tournament team! Congratulations to Davidson on winning the SoCon Tournament title and getting to the NCAA Tournament!
I guarantee you one thing- I'll be rooting for Davidson to win as many games as possible in the NCAA Tournament. That would do nothing but help the SoCon in the long run. So good luck to the Cats!
More posts this week, including a predicted bracket of my own on Saturday night and a look at what sort of match-up suits Davidson. So check back....
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