Men's Basketball 3/9/2008 8:00:00 PM UNCGSpartans.com

25th-ranked Davidson ends UNCG's hopes for SoCon title with 82-52 win

Box Score

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC Sophomore guard Stephen Curry scored 26 points, including the 1500th of his college career, as top-seeded Davidson knocked UNC Greensboro out of the Southern Conference Tournament with an 82-52 semifinal round win Sunday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.

UNCG's Kyle Hines finished his career with his streak of games scoring in double-figures intact. On one of the tougher days of his illustrious career, the senior from Sicklerville, NJ finished with 10 points to extend his nation's longest streak to 81 straight games. Curry has the second longest streak currently at 58 straight games.

Hines finishes his collegiate career with 2,187 points, 1,047 rebounds and 349 blocks all UNCG records. He is one of 97 players in college basketball history to record 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds and one of just six to also have 300 career blocks joining Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Pervis Ellison and Derrick Coleman.

“It was definitely not the storybook ending, but I am proud of my accomplishments,” said Hines. “I did not attain the ultimate goal of a Southern Conference Championship. But all-in-all, I think I had a pretty good career. I have no regrets, I left it all out on the floor.”

Kendall Toney led UNCG (19-12) with 12 points on four three-pointers. UNCG struggled offensively all day as the Spartans had 10 three-point field goals and just six two-point field goals.

Davidson (25-6) also got 11 points and six assists from Jason Richards and 12 points from Boris Meno on a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor. The Wildcats have the longest winning streak of the nation at 20 in a row and have not lost since a December 21 setback at North Carolina State.

“I thought Davidson played really hard, perhaps harder than they played us in the two games in the regular season,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “I thought (Thomas) Sander did a tremendous job of putting a body on Kyle and keeping from getting the ball, which got us out of character. They did everything they are capable of doing. They took us out of so many things.”

Davidson, ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press poll this week, opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first half. Curry's third three-pointer of the game gave the Wildcats a 26-15 lead with 9:36 left in the half. It gave Curry 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting to open the game.

Davidson clearly had every intention of taking Hines away as much as possible. Of UNCG's seven field goals in the first 13 minutes of the game, six of them were from behind the three-point arc. Every time UNCG's all-time leading scorer touched the ball, the Wildcats had two or three defenders collapsing on him. He had just one field goal attempt in the final 13 minutes of the first half as the Wildcats took a 40-26 lead into the locker room.

“Their post players Sander, Meno, (Andrew) Lovedale and (Stephen) Rossiter were all very physical with me,” said Hines, “trying to knock me off my cuts and keeping me from the getting position I wanted to get.”

“He's a great player and teams focus on him,” said Sander. “We did a great job of focusing on him. I felt like he got a little frustrated early on. It was a great team effort and anytime you hold (Hines) to 10 points, you are going to be pretty successful.”

In that first half, Davidson outscored the Spartans, 24-2, in the paint. UNCG was just 2-of-8 inside the arc.

Hines finally got his first field goal at 14:22 of the second half nearly 14 minutes between field goal attempts but UNCG was still in a 15-point hole, 50-35. Shortly thereafter, the Wildcats blew the game wide open with a 19-7 run.

AGATE

DAVIDSON 82, UNCG 52

UNCG (19-12, 12-8 SoCon)

Kendall Toney 4-11 0-0 12; Kyle Hines 3-9 4-6 10; Mikko Koivisto 3-5 0-0 9; Kevin Oleksiak 2-6 2-2 8; Landon Clement 2-3 0-2 5; Ben Stywall 1-4 2-2 4; Dwayne Johnson 1-5 2-2 4; Pete Brown 0-1 0-0 0; Davor Galic 0-1 0-0 0; Daniel Oliver 0-0 0-0 0; Darrius Sellers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-45 10-14 52.

DAVIDSON (25-6, 20-0 SoCon)

Stephen Curry 10-17 2-2 26; Boris Meno 6-6 0-0 12; Jason Richards 4-11 3-4 11; Andrew Lovedale 3-4 1-1 7; Thomas Sander 3-5 0-0 6; Will Archambault 2-4 0-0 5; Ma Paulhus Gosselin 2-4 0-0 4; Brendan Mckillop 1-1 2-2 4; Stephen Rossiter 2-3 0-0 4; Bryant Barr 1-5 0-0 3; Dan Nelms 0-1 0-0 0; Can Civi 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-61 8-9 82.

Halftime: Davidson 40-26. 3-point goals--UNCG 10-25 (Kendall Toney 4-10; Mikko Koivisto 3-4; Kevin Oleksiak 2-4; Landon Clement 1-2; Davor Galic 0-1; Dwayne Johnson 0-2; Ben Stywall 0-2), Davidson 6-17 (Stephen Curry 4-8; Will Archambault 1-2; Bryant Barr 1-4; Ma Paulhus Gosselin 0-1; Jason Richards 0-2). Fouled out--UNCG-None, Davidson-None. Rebounds--UNCG 21 (Kyle Hines 7), Davidson 38 (Stephen Rossiter 7). Assists--UNCG 12 (Dwayne Johnson 4), Davidson 15 (Jason Richards 6). Total fouls--UNCG 16, Davidson 13. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, Davidson-None.

FREE THROWS: In UNCG's win over Appalachian State on Saturday, Kendall Toney went over the century mark for career three-pointers. That gave the Spartans three players with 100 or more three-pointers in a career for the first time in school history. Kevin Oleksiak and Mikko Koivisto are the other two... The evening started out well in the Dement household. Mike Dement's wife, Rhonda Rompola, led her SMU Mustangs into the NCAA Tournament about 30 minutes before UNCG's game tipped off. SMU topped 24th-ranked UTEP, 73-57, to win the Conference USA crown. The Spartan coach took a quick second to send a text message down to his wife in Orlando, FL... Mikko Koivisto will take into next season a 24-game streak of having at least one three-pointer in a game, the fourth longest in school history... UNCG is now 0-19 all-time against AP ranked teams.