LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. —
Chris Czerapowicz had 15 points and nine rebounds to lead Davidson past West Virginia 63-60 in a semifinal game Friday at the Old Spice Classic.
De’Mon Brooks added 12 points for Davidson (3-2), which advanced to Sunday night’s championship game.
West Virginia (1-2) got 15 points from Juwan Staten and Gary Browne added 11.
WVU went cold from the floor at the end of the first half after building an eight-point leas and the beginning of the second half, and then couldn’t convert some big throws.
“We take 60 shots, they take 41, we take 17 free throws and they take 22, and we are 8 for 17 and they are 17 for 22, so absolutely (missed free throws) is a factor in the game,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “It pretty much is the game.”
The Mountaineers built a 30-22 lead following a pair of Staten free throws with 3:11 left in the opening half, but from there West Virginia couldn’t find its shooting stroke. WVU was 1-of- for the remainder of the half and then started the second half by missing its first nine shots before Gary Browne ended the drought with a driving layup with 13:01 remaining.
After Staten scored after a steal to get West Virginia within one point with one minute left, Czerapowicz made a 3-pointer on Davidson’s next possession to put the Wildcats up 61-57.
The Mountaineers cut the deficit to 61-60 on Terry Henderson’s long-range jumper with 13.6 seconds left. Nik Cochran made two late free throws for Davidson’s three-point advantage.
Staten’s 3-point try at the buzzer didn’t fall.
Davidson opened the second half with a 9-0 run, including four points by Jake Cohen and Clint Mann’s 3-pointer, to take a 39-32 lead.
After Czerapowicz hit a 3-pointer and added a free throw, Cohen had a basket to make it 49-38 midway through the second half.
Cohen, who fouled out late, had 11 points.
West Virginia center Aaric Murray, who picked up his fourth foul six minutes into the second and fouled out with 1:56 remaining, finished with six points and eight rebounds.
Jabarie Hinds and Staten both had eight points to help West Virginia take a 32-30 halftime lead.
Czerapowicz connected on a 3-pointer during Davidson’s 8-0 run that tied it at 30-all one minute before the break.
“We have yet to grasp the concept that you have to play every play,” said Huggins. “You can’t take plays off. We’ve got some guys who can do some things, but individually we are not very good. But we can be very good collectively – if we will.
“You can’t continually throw the ball two feet from the basket and come up empty, you can’t continually come down in transition and come up empty and we’ve got to do a much better job of rebounding the ball,” said Huggins.
WVU finished the afternoon 4-of-13 from behind the 3-point arc, negating a 35-26 rebounding advantage for the Mountaineers. Deniz Kilicli and Murray grabbed 19 of those, but Murray fouled out with 1:56 left while Kilicli was saddled with foul trouble for most of the game.
“I’m down to three bigs, and we can’t make dumb fouls when we only have three bigs right now,” said Huggins. “You can’t give away fouls and we were kind of handicapped because of it.”
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Davidson edges Mountaineers, 63-60
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