Davidson starts strong in Atlantic 10

Davidson’s Wildcats apparently are heeding coach Bob McKillop’s warnings as they’ve opened their first season in the Atlantic 10 with three victories in four games.

Davidson (12-3, 3-1), ranked fifth nationally in scoring (83.7 points per game) and eighth in assists (17.6), also leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7).

“Every possession counts, you can’t get any clearer than that,” McKillop told reporters earlier this week. “How you treat your possessions results is the difference in success or failure. There’s no time to take a possession off, you can’t do it. You’ll pay the price.”

The Wildcats lead the Atlantic 10 in just about every offensive category in addition to scoring, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio, including scoring margin (14.8), free-throw percentage (74.3), field-goal percentage (47.8), 3-point percentage (40.0), rebounding offense (39.3).

Three Wildcats rank in the top seven in the league in assists, including conference leader Jack Gibbs (4.9), Tyler Kalinoski (4.1) and Brian Sullivan (3.5). Jordan Barham is second in field-goal percentage (63.8), Gibbs leads the league in free-throw percentage (91.8) and Sullivan is tops in assist-to-turnover ratio 3.7.

That last statistic – assist-to-turnover margin – is a key indicator of how well a team takes care of the ball and how efficient it is offensively.

“That’s been one our objectives since day one, and it gets more painfully evident as we’ve gone through this A-10 schedule,” McKillop said.

Davidson stays on the road Saturday with a game against Richmond (9-8, 2-2). The Wildcats, who won 71-63 Wednesday at Massachusetts, have already beaten the Spiders once this season, 81-67 at Belk Arena.

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This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Davidson starts strong in Atlantic 10."