Davidson Wildcats trounce Nevada behind Kellan Grady’s 24 points
Kellan Grady and what he calls his “very motivated” Davidson Wildcats teammates jumped on Nevada early and rolled to a 91-71 victory Tuesday at Belk Arena.
The Wildcats (2-2) got a season-high 24 points from Grady, 19 points and 11 rebounds from sophomore forward Luka Brajkovic and 18 points from senior guard Jon Axel Gudmundsson. It was the second consecutive victory for Davidson, which opened the season with losses against Auburn and Charlotte.
“We’re very motivated right now,” said Grady, a junior guard. “Given the way we’ve started our season, we have some momentum now. We’re happy where we are now. But we’re hungry.”
After the Wolf Pack (2-3) took an early 9-5 lead, Davidson went on a 16-2 run and led by as many as 12 points in the first half. The Wildcats got that lead thanks to defense and 3-point shooting, forcing the Wolf Pack into 12 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes, including seven during one nine-possession stretch.
The best illustration of that was a blocked shot by Davidson guard Luke Frampton on Nevada’s Jalen Harris. After Frampton pinned the ball against the backboard, he ran back down the floor, took a pass from Gudmundsson and nailed a 3-pointer. The Wildcats finished the half shooting 7-of-15 from 3-point range.
Davidson coach Bob McKillop was pleased with how his team shared the ball, ending the game with 19 assists.
“We talk about the ball being a spotlight,” McKillop said. “When you hold the spotlight, it burns your hands. When you throw the spotlight around, your hands don’t get burned and everyone is in the spotlight. That was very evident tonight.”
Nevada overcame all those first-half turnovers by shooting 13-of-24 from the field and outrebounding Davidson 17-12. The Wolf Pack turned the ball over 21 times total.
And one
The Wildcats again made an effort to get Brajkovic involved early. But unlike Saturday’s game against UNC Wilmington (when he scored 17 points in the first half), Brajkovic was off he mark in the first half against the Wolf Pack, making 3 of 7 shots. He still had nine points and five rebounds in the first half.
“Luka can guard himself, but no one can guard him,” Grady said. “When he misses oftentimes it’s because he didn’t make the right move. We want to get him the ball as often as we can because he really is unstoppable when he gets it.”
Personal foul
Although the Wolf Pack started two players 6-foot-8 or taller (Robby Robinson and Johncarlos Reyes), it didn’t have a blocked shot against a Davidson team that had just one starter as tall as 6-10 (Brajkovic).
ICYMI
Coach Steve Alford is in his first year at Nevada after being fired at UCLA. One of Alford’s assistants is Craig Neal a former Georgia Tech player who, like Alford, is a former New Mexico head coach.) This year’s Nevada team isn’t as strong as the one from last year that held a top-10 national ranking and made the NCAA tournament in back-to-back years behind the efforts of twins Cody and Caleb Martin, who now play for the Charlotte Hornets.
Making sense of the numbers
56.0: Percent shooting by Nevada, a slightly better figure than Davidson’s 55.0 percent.
21: Turnovers by Nevada, leading to 34 Wildcats points.
19-8: Davidson’s assist-turnover ratio.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 9:02 PM.