Men’s Basketball remains undefeated in SoCon

Davidson basketball stormed back into the national spotlight with an impressive upset victory over #11 Kansas on December 19th. Since then the 'Cats have continued to prove their reputation as one of the toughest mid-major teams in the country. Jake Cohen '13 has led the Wildcats of late, scoring at least 20 points in each of the last five games, including 26 points in an 88-67 victory over Western Carolina in which Cohen tallied his 1000th career point. In the following game, JP Kuhlman '13 reached the same scoring feat with his 1000th point in an 83-79 victory at Appalachian State.

The Wildcats brought a 5-game win streak and a perfect 6-0 conference record into last week's contests against the College of Charleston and The Citadel. Cohen tied his career-high 29 points and added 14 rebounds in an 87-69 mashing of CofC last Thursday. Nik Cochran '13 contributed 16 points, and De'Mon Brooks '14 scored 15 in the victory. Cohen then followed his career performance with an easy 20 points in an 80-51 victory over the Citadel on Saturday. Brooks again scored 15 and grabbed 9 rebounds.

On Thursday night, the Wildcats faced arguably their toughest conference opponent in College of Charleston. The teams traded buckets early, with the Wildcats up 12-11 after six minutes, but from that point on it was all Davidson. Over the next seven minutes, the 'Cats put together a 19-5 run to build a 31-16 lead. The run culminated in a bucket by Frank Ben-Eze '12, whose 6 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocks off the bench generated a flood of cheers from Davidson faithful. A pair of rare 4-point plays by Charleston's Antwaine Wiggins brought the Cougars to within 6 with four minutes to play in the half, but a handful of Cohen foul shots and a triple by Tyler Kalinoski '15 (nine points) gave Davidson a 46-34 lead at the half.    

Halfway through the second half, the Wildcats hit a cold spell, and Charleston again managed to cut the Davidson lead to six at 61-55. But a timely Kalinoski three pointer spawned another Wildcat run, 11-2 over four minutes, that pushed the lead to 72-57 with about five minutes to play. With the lead secured, the Wildcats tacked on a few more with some late threes to reach the final score of 87-69.

While the Charleston game remained competitive at times, the Wildcats' contest with The Citadel was over as soon as it began. Davidson opened Saturday's contest on a 30-2 run over the first twelve minutes. During that span, Cohen scored 9 points, Brooks scored 8, and Kuhlman scored 8 to lead a balanced offensive attack. Defensively, the Wildcats held The Citadel to just 17 percent shooting in the first half, going into the break with a 47-16 lead. The largest Davidson lead of the night came with 15 minutes to play as a Chris Czerapowicz '14 jumper put the 'Cats up 54-20. With the 'Cats cruising to their easiest victory of the season, reserves AJ Atkinson '12, Ali Mackay '14, and Youssef Mejri '15 were each able to tally two points in the last few minutes of the game.

The Wildcats (14-4, 8-0) look to continue their perfect SoCon season on Thursday as they travel to Chattanooga (9-12, 3-5) and Samford (5-13, 2-5) for two Southern Conference road contests. The Wildcats don't return home until a Feb. 4 contest against Chattanooga.