600 wins! Davidson coach Bob McKillop reaches milestone with victory over Duquesne.
Bob McKillop’s 600th win didn’t come easily.
After falling behind early, the longtime Davidson coach and his team held host Duquesne to 17% shooting in the second half Tuesday to beat the Dukes 61-48, giving him the milestone victory as a college head coach.
McKillop, 70, has spent his entire 32-year college coaching career at Davidson.
In a rugged defensive battle, Davidson was down 7-0 in the opening 2:11 and trailed 24-12 after Duquesne’s Ryan Murphy hit a 3-point field goal with 7:07 left in the first half.
But the Wildcats (6-4, 2-1 Atlantic 10) went on a 13-2 run and trailed 26-25 at intermission. They also scored the first four points of the second half for a 29-26 lead.
Duquesne (2-3, 1-2) took its last lead at 33-31 with 13:30 left in the game on Michael Hughes’ 3-pointer.
Kellan Grady then connected on a game-tying jump shot for Davidson, and the Wildcats took the lead for good at 35-33 on Hyunjung Lee’s layup. Davidson built the margin to 42-33 with 8:28 remaining and never led by fewer than seven points afterward.
Duquesne struggled against Davidson’s tight defense, making only 4-of-23 field goal attempts in the second half and shooting 28.8 percent (15-of-52) for the game. Davidson shot only 27.3 percent in the first half (9-of-33) but was 14-of-27 in the second half.
“The first 10 minutes, every dribble was an adventure, every pass was an adventure, every catch was an adventure,” said McKillop, whose career record is now 600-368. “But then we settled down.”
McKillop laughed when asked what it meant to become the 40th college basketball coach to reach the 600-victory mark.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know we’re 2-1 in conference now.”
Just noting
▪ Senior guards Carter Collins and Kellan Grady each led Davidson with 13 points. Collins hit 5-of-10 from the floor and had seven rebounds.
▪ Freshman guard Grant Huffman had his biggest game so far with Davidson. He played 19 minutes, scoring seven points, with four rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
▪ Marcus Weathers led Duquesne with 12 points but was 4-of-13 from the floor.
▪ The game was played at Division 3 La Roche University, about 10 miles north of Duquesne’s campus in Pittsburgh, because renovations are under way at the Dukes’ arena.
▪ Davidson resumes play Friday night, hosting Dayton at 9 p.m. (ESPN2).