Nov. 19, 2004
Davidson at Missouri
Columbia, Mo. - Paige Sports Arena
November 19, 2004
Game Notes
With a Davidson win of 84-81, Missouri falls to 2-1 on the season - Davidson goes 1-0. The Tigers' loss is their first in the new Paige Sports Arena.
The contest was the first between the two schools all-time.
The game began with a shoot-out, as both teams combined for 16 shots from the field in the first five minutes of the game.
At halftime Davidson led 35-27 despite committing 10 turnovers, but outrebounded Mizzou 22-11 and shot 52% from the field (13-25).
Davidson came out strong in the second half widening their lead to 17 after a 7-0 lead ending at the 14:05 mark. Davidson hit five of their first seven shots in the second - the Tigers hit two.
Missouri started on the comeback trail with 11:40 remaining in the game. Jason Conley hit a three-pointer to spur on a 20-4 run over four minutes, 17 seconds, cutting the Tigers' deficit from 17 to 1. Over the run, the Tigers' hit four threes from behind the arc and was led by Kleiza with eight points, Conley added six. Davidson's Logan Kosmalski, the teams' lead rebounder at the time, committed his fourth foul at the 9:03 mark, spurring a bit of foul trouble for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats went on a 12-0 run of their own in the next two minutes to give them a 13-point lead with 4:24 to go in the game.
Again, here came the Tiger return. Adding to the Wildcat foul trouble, Brendan Winters added his fourth foul and during that time the Tigers went on 9-2 run, cutting the lead once again to six.
Thomas Gardner cut the Davidson lead to two with a three-pointer with 23.1 seconds remaining. The Tigers took three shots from behind the arc within the final 15 seconds, but couldn't overcome Davidson's three-point lead.
Missouri Player Notes
Sophomore Linas Kleiza played 19 minutes of the first half and led the Tigers with 11 points and four rebounds at the break. Kleiza scored a personal best 25 points in the game off shooting 7-13 from the field including hitting a career-best of four 3s - his previous best was 19, which he had twice before.
Propelled by two huge dunks in the first half, senior Jason Conley gained a season-high in scoring with 18 points.
Sophomore Spencer Laurie led the team in steals with three, a career-best.
Davidson Team Notes
Davidson hit four of their first six three-point field goal attempts, giving them a 16-14 lead with 11:41 to go in the first.
Halfway through the first half, Davidson was outrebounding the Tigers 11-5.
Davidson Player Notes
Junior guard Matt McKillop hit 4-of-5 from behind the three-point arc within the first 12 minutes of the game to tally 14 points by halftime. McKillop scored a team high 28 on the night off 5 threes. McKillop hit 117 threes in his first two years as a Wildcat.
Another junior guard, Kenny Grant dished out 11 assists on the night, a career high ... Grant's previous high was six assists - he eclipsed the mark with 13:25 to go in the second.
Davidson's bench was a big part of the game, junior forward Ian Johnson scored 16 points as the Wildcat's sixth-man.