DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Ola Atoyebi netted 19 of his career-best 27 points during Elon's 44-point second half outburst, however it was not enough as the Phoenix could not overcome a 46-24 halftime deficit to the Davidson Wildcats in SoCon men's basketball action from Belk Arena on Wednesday night. Elon fell for the fifth consecutive time, dropping its mark to 4-9 overall and 1-4 in SoCon play. Davidson improved to 13-3, 6-0 on the season.
The two squads traded buckets in the game's opening minute before Stephen Curry knocked down a shot from long range for three of his game-high 39 points and Steve Rossiter followed with a lay-up to put Davidson up 7-2 less than two minutes into the contest.
Lay-ups from Atoyebi and
Chris Long pulled Elon back to within a point at the 16:41 mark, but the Wildcats spurted to a 13-2 run to claim a 22-10 lead on a Brendan McKillop trey with 12:50 left in the first half.
Elon closed the gap back to as few as nine points when
Devan Carter put in one of two from the free throw line with 9:24 remaining in the stanza. After that, Davidson raced to a 22-9 run to finish off the first half of play and grab a 46-24 lead at the break.
The fiesty Phoenix showed its heart by battling back in the second 20 minutes. Elon opened the half on a 13-5 run over the first 6:09 of the period to pull within 14 points at 51-37. During the Elon run, Atoyebi scored five points, Long and
Brett James added three each and Carter put in a lay-up.
Threes from McKillop and Bryant Barr on the next two Wildcat attempts from the field quickly ballooned the Davidson edge back to 18 points with 12:42 to play.
Elon scored the game's next five points on two Atoyebi free throws and a
TJ Douglas three to close to within 13 before the Wildcats went on a 9-2 run to build a 66-46 lead on a Curry three with 8:06 remaining.
The Phoenix would get its deficit to no fewer than 14 points for the remainder of the contest.
Atoyebi added eight rebounds and went a career-best 9-of-9 from the charity stripe. James collected a game and season-high 10 rebounds for the Phoenix. James scored seven points to move into 24th place on Elon's all-time scoring chart with 1,089 career markers. Carter finished the game with nine points.
Elon's pressure defense forced Davidson into 16 turnovers, 13 of which were committed in the final 20 minutes of play.
Curry was 11-of-18 from the floor, including six threes, and 11-of-12 from the line. Max Paulhus Gosselin added 10 points for the Wildcats who have now defeated Elon 13 straight times. Andrew Lovedale collected a team-high seven rebounds.
Elon returns home to the "Nest" to take on Triad rival UNC Greensboro in a 7 p.m. contest on Saturday night.
-- ELON --
