Davidson earns NIT berth after losing in conference semifinals, will play Lipscomb
.JPG "Davidson and Jon Axel Gudmundsson, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, are headed to the NIT, where they will open against Lipscomb.")
Davidson may not have made its second consecutive NCAA Tournament, but the Wildcats still have much to play for this season.
After a 67-44 loss to Saint Louis in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 conference tournament, Davidson (24-9) on Sunday earned a No. 4 seed in the National Invitation Tournament, or NIT. The Wildcats last appeared in the NIT in 2016, losing in the first round to Florida State.
Davidson’s first game is against Lipscomb at home on Tuesday, although the time is still undetermined. If the Wildcats win Tuesday, they would then play the winner of UNC-Greensboro and Campbell.
Last season, coach Bob McKillop’s team won three straight A-10 tournament games — including an upset of then-ranked Rhode Island in the title game — to clinch the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA’s. Saint Louis followed a similar script this season, winning four games in four days to steal the automatic bid. Top-seeded VCU, which was upset in the quarterfinals, also received an at-large bid to the big dance.
Davidson has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals of the NIT, and to do so this year, it will take significantly better shooting than the last time the team took the floor. In that semifinal loss to the Billikens, the Wildcats shot just 26 percent from the field. Jon Axel Gudmundssun, the team’s leading scorer and A-10 player of the year, had 15 points of 4-of-10 shooting, and second-leading scorer Kellan Grady went 3-for-17.
This story was originally published March 17, 2019 at 8:53 PM.
