Winning Ugly

By: Lauren Biggers
Men's Basketball vs. Elon

"You got any creative ideas for tomorrow’s post?,” Stephen (worth the price of admission) Curry asks, looking up from his private viewing of “The Office” on his Mac at his makeshift desk in the SID office.

It’s Tuesday, the day before the Elon game, and ABC Sports is making a day of interviews with several Wildcats, including a feature on the Curry father-son duo and international players Andrew Lovedale and Boris Meno. Stephen, free of class on Tuesday and Thursday, decides to make a day of it as well.

“Not yet,” I reply. “You gonna do anything creative?”

“I’ll think of something for you,” he promises.

Thirty-six points makes good on that promise, and several of those typical “seriously?” baskets certainly qualify as creative.

Curry finished last night’s 74-64 win with 36 points on 12-of-18 shooting, including three treys and a perfect 9-of-9 night at the line. He once again had his way with those once again pesky Elon Phoenix, but unlike Jan. 9’s near-miss in Elon, SteF-en had his shot from the beginning.

Well, maybe not quite the beginning.

After last night’s game, I managed to make it to my desk with my notes (an accomplishment in and of itself … the copy machine was perfect too, so I went a personal 2-for-2), which tell me that the ‘Cats were 0-for-5 at the first media timeout and trailing 3-2. Not quite what you’d call a “made for TV” start, EH?

From there, Davidson put together a 9-2 run and was up 11-5 at the next media timeout. Curry had all nine.

“I tried to get going early,” Curry said afterwards, suffering through our post-game conversation after being mocked and stranded by senior captains Jason Richards and Thomas Sander. “Last time, they tried to shut me down.”

Last time, they did just that until the ‘Cats got eight points from Curry in under a minute to escape with a 59-57 victory at “The Nest.”

This time was different. Many have qualified this win as “ugly.” In fact, “official stats coordinator” Will Bryan jotted down that very word at one point, and soon after the guys from the TV truck asked if we were keeping stats on air balls.

But you have to be able to win ugly too – “winning in the 50s and 60s” as the talking heads call it, and Davidson showed it can do just that.

In my last post, I asked for a close game. And after the Chattanooga game, I (quickly) rescinded that complaint. This one didn’t seem close - just uncomfortable.

And so it goes. After the next media timeout, Davidson is up 21-9 on 6-for-15 shooting. Stephen Curry’s line? Same.

The ‘Cats got a pair of free throws from LOVE-dale, a three and a pair of freebies from JRich and an and-one play from SteV-en Rossiter to take command.

Late in the game with the final (sort of) in doubt, Thomas secured a rebound to force a jump ball with the possession arrow favoring the ‘Cats. Jason earned three straight trips to the line and sank five straight gimmies to seal it. Curry iced it with another pair.

And the Wildcats won ugly.

“It felt pretty good. It was DEFINITELY (emphasis mine, word preference his) a tough game,” Steph says. “They play us tough. They try to stop Jason in transition. We had to find a way to win.”

Check.