CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Victory is so sweet. The sixth-seeded Elon Phoenix avenged last week’s double-overtime buzzer-beater loss with a 66-59 upset victory against the No. 3 Davidson Wildcats in the opening round of the 2010 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bojangles Coliseum on Friday afternoon. The victory was Elon’s first over Davidson (16-15) since moving to the Southern Conference and first in the last 15 tries. The Phoenix (9-22) moves into the quarterfinals where it will battle Western Carolina, the No. 2 seed in the North Division.
“We’re thrilled to advance in this great tournament,” said first-year Elon head coach and former Davidson assistant Matt Matheny. “For those of you who haven’t seen us play much, I am most pleased and impressed with the way our seniors continued to lead us. We have dubbed them the ‘Slab Four,’ and through a lot of adversity this year, they have remained steadfast. They have led our team from day one. In the past six weeks, we have become warriors. It was a hard-fought, difficult victory, but I relied heavily on these seniors and this victory is particularly sweet for them.”
In what is quickly becoming a hot SoCon rivalry, the game went down to the wire for the second time in the last seven days. After a Terrance Birdette triple gave Elon its largest lead of the game, 51-40, with 11:28 to play, the Wildcats answered with a 13-1 run spanning five minutes to flip the advantage in their favor, 53-52.
While it was eerily similar to Davidson’s late-game comeback in the season’s first meeting, this time the Phoenix turned the tables and an Adam Constantine three-point play capped a quick 6-0 Elon stretch to put the Phoenix back in the driver’s seat.
Chris Long ignited the Elon faithful, feeding Constantine an alley oop pass that gave Elon the 60-55 edge with 3:09 to play. Sharp-shooting SoCon Freshman of the Year JP Kuhlman nailed a dagger from downtown and Steve Rossiter hit 1-of-2 from the line to close the gap to 60-59 at 1:56. The Phoenix defense stepped it up and clutch free throw shooting by Long and Birdette pushed Elon to the next round.
Constantine led all players with 16 points on 6-of-8 from the floor. Long hit three treys in a 15-point performance and with four assists moved into fourth place all-time at Elon with 333. Drew Spradlin added 13 points and a team-high five rebounds. Birdette came off the bench for 11 points, including 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. Elon shot well above it season average (.648) from the line, nailing 14-of-18 (.778) in the contest.
Kuhlman led four Wildcats with 12 points, but managed only 3-of-13 from the floor. Will Archambault put together an 11-point, nine-rebound performance for Davidson and Jake Cohen and Brendan McKillop each added 10 tallies.
Elon held Davidson to only five three-pointers after giving up 16 in last week’s contest. The Wildcats shot only 20.8 percent from long range and 60 percent from the foul line. Davidson held a big advantage on the glass, outrebounding the Phoenix 43-29 and scoring 18 second-chance points. The loss was Davidson’s first-ever in a first-round league tournament game since the SoCon moved to the current format in 1993.
The lead changed hands six times in the opening half. Tied at 23 with 6:42 to play, Elon scored seven straight to take a 30-23 advantage at 3:49. The Phoenix would hold on and take a 34-27 lead into the locker room.
The Phoenix will battle the Catamounts in quarterfinal action on Saturday, March 6 at 2 p.m. Elon and Western Carolina split the season series. The Phoenix won the most recent meeting, 81-76, at Alumni Gym after falling 83-81 at Western in January.
-- ELON --
