Davidson rains 3-pointers on Fordham in Atlantic 10 victory

If the 3-pointers seemed to be dropping in from everywhere Tuesday for the Davidson Wildcats, it’s because they were.

Davidson hit a season-high 18 shots from beyond the arc in a 79-49 Atlantic 10 victory against Fordham at Belk Arena. In winning their second consecutive lopsided game at home, nine Wildcats made 3-pointers — from redshirt freshman Mike Jones’ five all the way down to sophomore walk-on Drew Dibble’s one.

Wildcats coach Bob McKillop said Fordham — which entered the game leading the A-10 in scoring defense — invited Davidson (12-11, 6-5) to shoot the deep balls. And shoot them the Wildcats did: 39 of their 61 shots from the field came from behind the arc.

“We were fortunate to knock down the 3s,” McKillop said. “What was exhilarating about it was we did drive the ball, but we couldn’t get to the rim because (Fordham defenders) were there. But we jump-stopped. That showed tremendous poise and presence.”

Mike Jones’ 15 points (on 5 of 9 3-point shooting), led the Wildcats. Following in the 3-point parade were guard Kellan Grady with 13 (2 of 4), forward Luka Brajkovic with 12 (2 of 3), guard Carter Collins with nine (3 of 7) and forward Bates Jones with eight (2 of 3).

Freshman Hyunjung Lee, senior Malcolm Wynter and Dibble each made a single 3-pointer.

Then there was junior guard Jon Axel Gudmundsoon, who scored five points on 1 of 5 3-point shooting, and also had 13 assists, nine rebounds and two steals. Gudmundsson had four points, five rebounds, six assists — along with seven turnovers — in a loss against Virginia Commonwealth last Friday.

“I knew from our last game against VCU that we had to move the ball more and that’s the mentality we had,” said Gudmundsson. “We did a lot of cutting and screening. I just passed the ball. I’m a team player. I don’t care who scores, as long as we win the game.”

Said McKillop: “I’ll take five points from him any day of the week when he’s got 13 assists, nine rebounds and two steals. This was his most efficient game as a point guard for Davidson College.”

Davidson’s defense kicked in against Fordham (7-16, 1-10), as well. The Wildcats limited the Rams to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor and 21.2 percent from 3-point range.

“It’s easy to play defense when the other team is picking the ball out of the net,” said Mike Jones.

The Wildcats, who had a season-low four turnovers, also outrebounded Fordham 41-34 and had 25 assists to go with their 27 made baskets.

“Those are off-the-chart numbers,” McKillop said.

The Wildcats have been playing well at home, winning four in a row and blasting Massachusetts by 35 points on Feb. 1. But, including the game at VCU last week, the schedule gets more challenging, with a game at St. Bonaventure coming Friday, along with contests against Rhode Island, Richmond, sixth-ranked Dayton and VCU (again) before the A-10 tournament in March.

McKillop isn’t looking that far ahead.

“I’m more concerned that we grew up tonight,” he said. “That’s the one point I want to make. We grew up tonight.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 10:26 PM.