There's a little magic left in Davidson yet. Maybe not enough Wednesday night, when the Wildcats lost by 12 at Duke, but enough to wonder about.
Enough to wonder about how far Stephen Curry can carry this team. Enough to wonder about what Davidson can do in March.
After falling a 3-pointer short of the Final Four a year ago, the Wildcats opened the season ranked in the top 25 but have lost to all three ranked opponents they have faced -- Oklahoma by four, Purdue by 18 and 79-67 to Duke.
You could look at that and figure, considering the three seniors lost off last year's roster, that even Curry may not be enough to take the Wildcats on another run. Then again, you could look at Wednesday night and wonder.
Davidson was down by 26 early in the second half, which is usually when Duke tightens its grip, but the Wildcats instead narrowed the lead to eight points in the final minutes. And it wasn't Curry doing all the damage, either.
He did score 14 of Davidson's 30 points during that stretch, but it was the rest of the team that carried Davidson back into the game. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was particularly impressed with center Andrew Lovedale, who had more blocks himself (four) than Duke (three).
"He has a very good supporting cast," Duke forward Lance Thomas said. "His guys aren't afraid to take big shots and are confident with themselves and know Stephen will get them the ball.
"He distributed the ball, and everybody else helped him out. Once he got going, that gave a boost to their team. We just had to make sure we won the game."
Duke took care of that, although it required two late free throws from Thomas, who is notoriously inconsistent on the line.
Curry, on the other hand, was meticulously consistent.
He finished with 29 points, six assists and eight rebounds. By his standards, that verges on an off night (because of seven turnovers and a 1-for-8 effort from 3-point range), but that's his scoring average for the season.
Duke used six defenders on Curry in the first half, big and small alike, switching on even the softest of screens. That helped hold Curry without a shot for the first eight minutes and without a point until six minutes remained in the first half.
In the loss to Purdue last month, Davidson was completely outgunned -- the Wildcats were down 21-0 to start the game -- and Davidson coach Bob McKillop joked that he looked at the scoreboard Wednesday when it was 5-0 Duke and saw 21-0.
But McKillop acknowledged all three losses as part of his team's learning process, with hopes he'll see the same results he saw from a handful of big losses last season.
"We played Purdue, and some of the slapping they did to us -- they took us in an alley and slapped us -- lingered tonight," McKillop said. "It surfaced in the first half and the early stages of the second half. But this is a team in the process of getting better."
Most -- if not all -- of the hype surrounding Davidson this season has focused on Curry, whose profile continues to rise with his scoring average.
But there's more to Davidson than Curry -- maybe not as much as there was last March, but enough to put a scare into a team like Duke on Wednesday. There's Lovedale, the French connection of Quebec-born Max Paulhus Gosselin and Will Archambault, the coach's son Brendan, a backup guard, and another big forward, Steve Rossiter.
The mix isn't as polished as it was last season, but it might be starting to come together at the right time.
"We're pretty confident with where we're at right now," Curry said. "We've had some games that were big losses. We've also gotten better."
Better wasn't good enough Wednesday, although it was close enough to give the Blue Devils a moment of concern. In a couple of months, it may be enough to give someone else a real scare.
(Contact Luke DeCock at luke.decock@newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
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