Davidson’s win streak survives a scare against Fordham
It took them until the last possible moment to wake up, but Davidson, the holder of the nation’s longest win streak, survived a trap game in the Bronx on Saturday against Fordham.
The Rams announced before the game that Chuba Ohams, the leading rebounder in the Atlantic 10, wouldn’t be playing, so it presented an opportunity for Fordham’s bench, ranked 350th in bench minutes, to get some action. In the first half, Davidson couldn’t hit water falling off of a boat, stating the game 4–18 from the field and 0–6 from three in the first fifteen minutes of the game. Fordham also started cold, as in fact, the teams started a combined 6–27 from the field and 0–12 from 3 in the first eight minutes. Davidson is one of the best offensive teams in the country, especially from beyond the arc, so their start to the game was extremely uncharacteristic. As for Fordham, Darius Quisenberry paced their scoring with 18 first-half points, and they led for almost the entirety of the first half. At halftime, the Rams led the Wildcats by 7, and Hyunjung Lee and Foster Loyer had a combined 8 points.
Fordham pushed the lead to 13 with 17 minutes to play, their largest deficit since before Thanksgiving, but Davidson’s bigs began to take over the game from there. While Fordham struggled to find offense from players not named Darius Quisenberry, Davidson abandoned the three-point shot, fed Luka Brajkovic and Sam Mennenga in the post, and got to the foul line. The Wildcats attempted just three threes in the last 17 minutes, while Fordham attempted 12, and Davidson also took 18 free throws in this stretch. Brajkovic finished with 19 second-half points after just 2 in the first half, and while Quisenberry finished with 36, it wasn’t enough.
The Rams couldn’t get the lead back after Davidson took their first lead of the game with 6:25 left, too many empty possessions, and not enough talent on either the perimeter-outside of Quisenberry-or on the inside, where the Rams got bullied in the second half. Eventually, the game finished 69–66 on a controversial no-call on a potential foul on this Darius Quisenberry heave.
Rams coach Kyle Neptune didn’t agree with the masses of people on the internet that said that it should’ve been called a foul. “That's basketball, it is what it is, the refs didn’t call a foul so it’s not a foul.” He doesn’t want to dwell on it, saying that there wasn’t one particular moment where the game was lost.
There are definitely some bright spots for the Rams to take away from this game, holding the number 2 three-point offense in the country to 3–13 from distance is something to take pride in. “We just tried to stay with some of their shooters and play extremely hard,” Neptune said. “It’s been our identity since we got together. I wish I could take credit for it, but it’s just a part of who they are.”
Neptune also spoke highly of Quisenberry, who scored more points than the rest of the team combined. “You put him in any spot and he can make a shot. He’s a born scorer. He’s done this before in his college career so no one is surprised, the least of all him.”
Even Davidson’s legendary coach, Bob McKillop, was impressed by Quisenberry, saying “This guy knows how to score, he’s good”
The Rams bench got tons of run, putting eleven different players on the court, including Freshman Zach Riley, who recently joined the team from New Zealand, in his NCAA debut. Coach Neptune said that there was “a lot of flux on the roster” and that “we figured we’d do it by committee,” due to the absence of star players.
Neptune said that Ohams was day-to-day with an undisclosed knee injury, so it remains to be seen if he will take the court with the now 9–8 Rams on Tuesday against Dayton.
As for Davidson, they extended their win streak, the nation’s longest, to 15 games. McKillop’s takeaway was “We have to learn lessons, and it seems like every game has given us lessons to learn.” They get a chance to apply the new lessons they’ve learned on Wednesday against VCU.
