Davidson shakes off bad shooting to beat Saint Joseph’s advance to Atlantic 10 semifinals

Davidson men’s basketball coach Bob McKillop, back in his native New York City, stopped and greeted Wildcats fans on the edge of the court before slowly walking toward his team’s dressing room.

The Wildcats had posted yet another March postseason victory, overcoming an awful first-half shooting performance to beat stubborn No. 10 seed Saint Joseph’s 70-60 on Friday night in the Atlantic 10 Conference quarterfinals in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The No. 2 seed Wildcats have won two of every three games – 46-23 to be exact – in the month of March in the past 16 years under the Queens native.

“We realized the challenge that was in front of us,” he said. “We never got down (mentally) when we got down 9-2. We never played on our heels the entire game. That is a tremendous credit to this group of guys.”

The Wildcats (24-8) will now play Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against No. 6 seed Saint Louis, which beat third-seeded Dayton 64-55.

Sophomore guard Kellan Grady, after a slow start, had 18 points and six rebounds, Jon Axel Gudmundsson had 18 points, 11 rebounds and six assists and Luka Brajkovic added 15 points. Carter Collins came off the bench to score 10.

“We couldn’t throw it in the ocean the first 20 minutes,” said Grady, who missed his first seven shots. “We had confidence at halftime. We just stuck to our principles.”

A Brajkovic dunk early in the second half gave the Wildcats a seven-point edge and his field goal and free throw made the score 38-33 a few minutes later. Grady scored 10 of his team’s 12 points during a stretch midway through the second half as the Wildcats led 50-44.

Jared Bynum – after a Davidson turnover – scored on a layup to give the Hawks a 56-54 lead with 6:15 to go. But Grady tied the score at 56 with 4:30 left. Davidson led 60-56 after a basket by Gudmundsson, but guard Charlie Brown tied the score at 60 with 2:21 left. The 6-foot-4 Gudmundsson followed with a driving basket and his free throw built the lead to three with 2:03 to go. His dunk made it 65-60 with 1:20 left and Davidson rolled to the win.

“Shock,” McKillop said of his dunk.

“I was letting the game come to me,” Gudmundsson said. “I just took it to the rim.”

The Hawks were paced by Brown, who had 10 of his 16 points in the first half. Saint Joseph’s upset Duquesne on Thursday while Davidson had a double bye and had not played since Saturday.

Last March, the Wildcats won this tournament in Washington by beating top seed Rhode Island for the title. The field is wide open this season as No. 1 seed VCU – which figures to get an at-large bid – lost earlier Friday to the Rams, the No. 8 seed this season.

“We have a veteran group of guys this year,” Grady said. “We are prepared to play three games in three days.”