Missed opportunities and mistakes. Just like any game, they came back to bite the Elon University men’s basketball team in its loss to Davidson College on Wednesday night, Feb. 27.
But the Phoenix hung in, down five with 50 seconds left and just two points with 18 seconds remaining.
A clutch offensive rebound allowed Davidson to clinch a 69-63 victory over the Phoenix in a packed-out Alumni Gym.
“The great thing about this game is that you’re never really out of it,” said Elon junior guard Jack Isenbarger, who hit two three-pointers in the final 26 seconds of regulation to keep his team in. “We weren’t out of it tonight.”
A record crowd of 1,832 came to watch perhaps the most hyped Elon game this season. It was a matchup of the Southern Conference division champions, the two best teams in the conference and mentor (Davidson’s Bob McKillop) versus student (Elon’s Matt Matheny) as head coaches.
The game lived up to the noise that was made about it. Davidson (22-7 overall, 16-1 SoCon) went ahead 19-10 with 10:45 left in the first half as Wildcats junior guard Chris Czerapowicz was firing on all cylinders, hitting three shots early.
But on the back of three consecutive treys from freshman guard Tanner Samson, Elon (19-10, 12-5) held a 31-28 lead with two minutes remaining in the first half. The Phoenix led 34-29 with time winding down, but Czerapowicz hit a runner with two seconds left to cut the deficit to three at halftime.
The back-and-forth action continued in the second half. Davidson got a lead up to as much as five at 49-44 with 9:39 left, but an 8-0 run got Elon up three with 6:20 remaining.
After Davidson sophomore guard Tyler Kalinoski hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 52, Elon junior forward Lucas Troutman hit a lay-up to return the lead to the Phoenix, who would then proceed to go on a 5:19 field goal drought while the Wildcats hit free throws.
Davidson hit 12-of-16 from the charity stripe in the final five minutes and seemed to be winners with a 64-57 lead with 34.4 seconds remaining.
Then Isenbarger hit a three. After Davidson senior guard JP Kuhlman hit one of two free throws, Isenbarger hit another trey and Davidson’s lead with down to 65-63 with 17.9 seconds left.
“When those threes went in, it kind of gave us some new life,” he said. “But then again, we had opportunities on the free throw box that we missed. That really hurt.”
Davidson junior guard Tom Droney made the first of two free throws, then missed the second. The rebound bounced off a few hands and Kalinoski ended up with it near the Davidson bench and was fouled. He hit the second freebie to put Elon out of it, down four with 12.2 seconds remaining.
“They are a very good foul-shooting team,” Matheny said of Davidson, who hit 19-of-28 from the charity stripe. “They made enough foul shots down the stretch to finish the game. I thought both teams got some looks that we could’ve made. We missed some, but they missed some too. We just need to do a better job defensively down the stretch, get more shots down the stretch to win a close game like that.”
Czerapowicz led all scorers with 20 points and snagged eight rebounds for the Wildcats. Senior forward Jake Cohen had 12 points and five rebounds while playing most of the game in foul trouble, and junior forward De’Mon Brooks had 10 points.
Isenbarger led Elon with 18 points, while Troutman and Samson had 11 points each. Elon junior forward Ryley Beaumont had seven points and eight rebounds, while junior guard Sebastian Koch had nine points and eight boards.
After the game, Troutman, Isenbarger and Matheny focused on how much Elon needed to improve.
“We know now what we need to improve on,” Troutman said. “That’s going to be a big part of our step moving forward and being the best we can be in March is improving our game, improving who we are and how we play, and that’s what we’re going to do now.”
The forward started after missing last Saturday’s loss to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He struggled early, turning the ball over and bobbling passes in the first half. He also took a football-like charge from Kuhlman in the first half and proceeded to throw up in a nearby trashcan.
Troutman said after the game that he felt “better,” and Matheny said he would be ready to go on Saturday.
The head coach also spoke about the immediacy of needing to improve. The Southern Conference Tournament begins March 8.
“We still need to improve,” he said. “One of our goals was to be at our best in March, and March is here. We have one more practice before March gets here, and that will be our total focus, getting better from this experience.”
Isenbarger seemed to have mixed emotions about the loss.
“This loss shows us that we can play with anybody in the league, but at the same time, if we don’t correct the mistakes, we’re going to fall short like that,” he said. “We’re just going to go back, watch the film, get better at that and this will make us hungry and humble to get better and go play again on Saturday.”
The Phoenix hosts the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Saturday night at 7 p.m. It is Elon’s senior night, as guards Aaron Smith, Josh Bonney and John Moody and forward Roger Dugas will be honored.