Top seed Davidson cruises into final

No. 1 Davidson 82, No. 5 UNC Greensboro 52

Kyle Hines managed to turn the corner on 6-8, 220-pound Thomas Sander and cut toward the basket, lofting a shot toward the rim. There, he was met by 6-8, 215-pound Andrew Lovedale, who slapped Hines' shot off the backboard.

Davidson star Stephen Curry corralled the loose ball and whipped it up the floor to Max Paulhus Gosselin, who threw down a dunk for a 24-point lead and thunderous applause.

That second-half play summed up the 82-52 trouncing that top-seeded Davidson laid on No. 5 UNG Greensboro and its senior standout, Hines, in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament on Sunday at the North Charleston Coliseum.

The 25th-ranked Wildcats (25-6) will take on Elon in the 9 p.m. title game tonight, gunning for their 36th straight win against the SoCon and third straight automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"I'm incredibly proud of our team, and the way we continue to get better and the way we play like a team," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "They have committed themselves to giving a complete effort."

Curry scored 26 points to lead the Wildcats, but the story of the game was the way Davidson shut down Hines, a 6-6, 250-pound senior who averaged 19.5 points during the regular season.

He spent most of this game staring into the armpits of Sander, Lovedale, Meno and 6-7 forward Stephen Rossiter, as Davidson bumped, bodied and double-teamed Hines at every turn. Hines finished with just 10 points, barely extending his streak of double-figure scoring games to 81 straight.

But as Davidson assumed a 40-26 lead in the first half, Hines missed all three of his shots, turned the ball over four times and scored one point.

"They were all over me tonight," said Hines, who was the SoCon player of the year last season. "I could not get the ball in the post, could not get to the angles I usually get. Their post players, they were all being very physical with me. They knocked me off my cuts and made it difficult to get to the positions I wanted to get to."

Sander, who was out with an injury when Hines scored 27 points against Davidson in a 83-78 loss on Feb. 13, deserves much of the credit for that. And when Hines did get the ball down low, Davidson doubled quickly with another big man, holding Hines to just nine shots.

"He's a great player," Sander said of Hines. "The whole team was definitely focused on him. He got a little frustrated early on with a couple of turnovers, but it was a great team effort."

UNCG tried to keep up with decent 3-point shooting (10 of 25), but without an effective Hines, the Spartans soon lost their way.

"Sander did a tremendous job of keeping a body on Kyle and keeping him from getting the ball," said UNCG coach Mike Dement, whose team finished 19-12. "That got us out of character, and we didn't defend as well and let them get their break on.

"They took us out of so many things, and they had more to do with that than we did, I think."

Curry hit 10 of 17 shots and 4 of 8 from 3-point range and played 33 minutes.

3-Point Goals — UNCG 10-25 (Stywall 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Koivisto 3-4, Oleksiak 2-4, Clement 1-2, Toney 4-10, Galic 0-1); Davidson 6-17 (Richards 0-2, Paulhus 0-1, Curry 4-8, Armchambault 1-2, Barr 1-4. Steals — UNCG 2 (Hines, Johnson); Davidson 9 (Sander 3). Blocks — UNCG 5 (Hines 5); Davidson 3 (Lovedale 3). Turnovers — UNCG 6 (Hines 5); Davidson 8 (Curry 3).