Davidson ends season on a heartbreaker, sees first-round exit of Atlantic 10 tournament
The final four minutes of regulation in Davidson’s final game of the 2023-24 season saw so much promise — a sophomore in Reed Bailey scoring seven straight points, including a once-thought-to-be-game-sealing dunk; a senior in Grant Huffman getting knocked to the ground via a blow to the head, only to tough out the rest of the game with a swollen face.
The final minutes of the game, though, saw something the Wildcats are tragically familiar with:
Another brutal, heartbreaking loss.
The Wildcats ended their season on Tuesday against Fordham in overtime, 71-63, losing in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The loss puts Davidson at 15-17 on the year — the program’s first losing season since 1992 — and marks the fourth Wildcat game decided in overtime.
Davidson lost 10 games decided by five points or less in its 2023-24 season. And while Tuesday’s final score didn’t fit that description — in large part because Davidson scored only two points in the five-minute overtime after ending regulation tied at 61 — it certainly felt like it.
It didn’t always look like it’d shake out like this. The 13-seeded Davidson, who’d swept the 12-seeded Fordham in the regular season, led 27-19 at halftime and by as many as 13 at one point in Tuesday’s contest. The Wildcats did so thanks to the efforts of Connor Kochera, who recorded 24 points and seven rebounds in 45 minutes played, and senior Grant Huffman, who finished with 12 points, five assists and five rebounds.
But Fordham hung tough down the stretch and started trimming the lead down late, layup by layup, forcing turnover after turnover. The optimal sequence came with 15 seconds left. After Bailey hit one-of-two free throws to put the game at 61-59, Fordham’s Kyle Rose took a broken play, attacked the basket on the left side and finished with a tough right-hand layup to tie the game with two seconds left.
Huffman then received an inbounds pass, and his three-quarter-court heave soared to no avail. Then overtime arrived and Fordham dominated — switching between 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones and man-to-man defenses.
Davidson basketball has been entangled in so much heartbreak this season. Close losses. An early-season injury to David Skogman, the team’s 6-foot-10 leading scorer, a flashpoint that has made the team’s fans wonder time and time again what could’ve been. And that’s just on the men’s side: The women, of course, didn’t even get to see through their pursuit of NCAA dreams after they had to cancel their season due to sustaining six season-ending injuries.
“I say this all the time, sometimes bad luck really is a thing,” color commentator John Giannini said in the waning moments of Davidson’s season.
He was referencing the circumstances of the game for Davidson, yes. But the same could be said about the rest of Davidson’s heartbreakingly close-but-not-quite season, one more promising than history will lead on.
