Wildcats’ Aldridge shoots career high in 78-70 win over Richmond
On a rare off night from its leading man, Davidson leaned on its other two stalwarts to earn a hard-fought Atlantic 10 victory.
Peyton Aldridge scored a career-high 34 points as the Wildcats defeated Richmond 78-70 on Monday night at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va. The game had been rescheduled from Saturday because of the weekend snowstorm that dumped 12 inches on the city.
While Jack Gibbs, the nation's third-leading scorer, scuffled to 11 points on 3 of 17 shooting, Aldridge and Brian Sullivan picked up the slack. Aldridge went 11 of 15 from the field, while Sullivan's outside shooting fueled the decisive run for Davidson (12-6, 4-3).
Richmond (10-8, 2-4) took the lead for the first time on a T.J. Cline layup midway through the second half, and the Spiders pushed their lead to five points before Sullivan sank a 3-pointer for his first points of the night. Aldridge scored the next four points to put the Wildcats back on top, and another Sullivan triple gave them the lead for good..
Three who mattered
Peyton Aldridge: The sophomore scored six points with the Wildcats protecting their late lead and pulled down seven rebounds.
Brian Sullivan: After a scoreless first half, he scored all 11 of his points during Davidson's decisive run.
Terry Allen: Richmond's leading scorer bounced back from a slow start to finish with 23 points and eight rebounds.
Observations
▪ Richmond did not make a 3-pointer for the first time since a 2004 loss to Virginia Commonwealth, going 0 for 15 from beyond the arc.
▪ Davidson's Jordan Barham earned “most efficient player” honors, scoring 10 points in seven minutes.
▪ Gibbs went nearly 20 minutes of game time without scoring before converting a layup at the 15-minute mark of the second half.
Worth mentioning
▪ The Wildcats faced their second Trey Davis in a week's time. The Massachusetts Trey Davis scored 30 points in a Davidson win Jan. 16; the Wildcats held the Richmond version to two points.
▪ The biggest cheer before the Spiders' short-lived lead came when Richmond senior Matt Miller buried a half-court shot in a halftime promotion, securing a free pizza for every fan in attendance.
They said it
▪ “If you would have said Gibbs scored the way he did, I would have thought we had won, without a doubt in my mind.” – Spiders’ T.J. Cline.
▪ “We got in two accidents today. We had one on the way here to our shootaround and one on the way home from our shootaround. So I got a chance to see the neighborhood around here, and I want to buy a house.” – Davidson coach Bob McKillop on the post-storm road conditions.
This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Wildcats’ Aldridge shoots career high in 78-70 win over Richmond."