SPORTS

 

DAVIDSON — The Davidson Wildcats scored the first eight points against La Salle and led throughout a 77-69 home win over the Explorers Saturday in Atlantic 10 play.

Luka Brajkovic scored a game-high 22 points, as the Wildcats improved to 17-3 overall and atop the A-10 at 7-1. La Salle dropped to 6-12 and 1-7 in the league.

Though the Explorers were never within a bucket after the opening minutes, they stayed in range and made it tight down the stretch, twice pulling within four points as the Wildcats went the final four-plus minutes without a field goal. But Davidson hit its final 14 free throws — including six from Brajkovic and four each from Foster Loyer and Hyunjung Lee — to close the door.

With the help of a 12-2 run, the Wildcats pushed their lead to 61-46 with 7:30 remaining, following a Brajkovic layup.

Loyer scored eight straight points in the first half and finished with 14, to go with seven rebounds and five assists, while Lee also scored 14. Michael Jones scored nine, and Sam Mennenga added eight points and eight boards.

Davidson led by as many as 14 in the first period, following Emory Lanier’s first trey of the season at the 9:43 mark. La Salle scored the last five points of the half to cut the deficit to 37-30 at intermission.

Jack Clark scored a team-high 18 for the Explorers.

In addition to it being head coach Bob McKillop‘s 1,000th career game as coach of the Wildcats, Davidson retired the jerseys of Charles “Lefty” Driesell (former head coach) and Terry Holland (former player, coach and administrator) following the contest.