Davidson Wildcats find rhythm late, hold off UCF Knights

Davidson’s patience was its own reward in its basketball season opener.

The Wildcats (1-0) dispatched Central Florida 90-85 at Belk Arena on Saturday by finding its rhythm down the stretch, outscoring the Knights 12-8 over the final four minutes at Belk Arena. Despite hitting only 33.3 percent from the floor after intermission, Davidson turned away from jump shots to attack the rim.

“We just needed to slow down a little bit,” said Wildcats guard Jack Gibbs, who led all scorers with 35 points on 12-of-23 shooting. “First game, and we had the jitters, Jake (Belford, who missed most of last season with a knee injury) hadn’t played in a while, we hadn’t played against another team as a unit in a while. You play fast – faster than you want to – but toward the end we realized we needed to slow down and get into our offense.”

That strategy worked for Davidson, which overcame Central Florida’s decisive height advantage in the frontcourt. Justin McBride pulled the Knights (0-1) to within 78-77 with 3 minutes, 57 seconds to play, but the Wildcats reeled off the eight of the next 12 points to seize the momentum. Gibbs scored five points down the stretch on a layup and three free throws to clinch the win. Four Wildcats hit double-digits, with Brian Sullivan and Jordan Barham scoring 15 each and Belford going for 10.

“I told the team I thought our basketball IQ was going to be tested,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. “We’re going to get opportunities with our cutting game and our ability to space the court to get a lot of looks at the basket.”

The Wildcats led 55-45 at the break, but Central Florida went ahead 59-58 on a McBride basket with 13:29 to play. The Knights connected on 40 percent of their second-half shots, but held Davidson in check with 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, 6-9 Shaheed Davis and 6-9 Staphon Blair contesting the paint. They combined for 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

“Saying (Fall) is a big guy is an understatement,” Belford said. “We coach at Davidson the same techniques every day to guard any big man, really, no matter how tall you are.”

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Davidson Wildcats find rhythm late, hold off UCF Knights."