November 6, 2024 – The Davidson-Davie STORM were able to get another tough victory, 82-75, against a Division I junior college, the Richard Bland College Statesmen, at Brinkley Wednesday night. Davison-Davie rallied behind performances from Aishus ‘Dane’ Stewart (17 points, 3 steals) and Aden Taylor’s double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds) to get another statement home win.
The STORM started out relentless, with a three from Taylor, a five-second inbound turnover, and a lob from Stewart to Lamonte Cousar, all in the first few possessions. Davidson-Davie also made sure to have active hands-on defense, as there were many tipped balls that sometimes lead to one of the Statesmen’s 24 turnovers. However, early on, Davidson-Davie struggled to finish around the rim, which head coach Matt Ridge touched on in a halftime interview.
“I mean, to start the game, we missed six or seven layups,” Ridge said, “and some of them were contested, but great teams don’t miss layups whether they’re contested or not.” Due to the zone used by Richard Bland, the STORM tended to shoot more threes, and so did the Statesmen. Both teams weren’t lights out during the first half, with Davidson-Davie shooting 28.6% and Richard Bland shooting 30.8%, but both made shots when it mattered, which kept the Statesmen within striking distance. The zone also opened up lobs for Davidson-Davie, as Stewart threw another lob, this time to Conall Lowry, to go up by nine. With around two minutes to go in the half, Brinkley Gym erupted when Corion Marshall slammed a put-back dunk off a missed three to have the STORM go up by 12. However, due to some turnovers and a flagrant foul from Davidson-Davie, Richard Bland was able to go on an 11-0 run to end the half, making the score 38-37.
The turnover struggles continued for Davidson-Davie at the beginning of the second half, with the first couple of possessions leading to them throwing the ball away. Although Taylor had a double-double, he was dangerously close to a triple-double with his turnovers, a game-high nine, which was nearly half of the team’s overall turnovers (21). Still, he was able to get the team back on track with one of his three offensive rebounds, which resulted in an and-one layup, plus the free throw, to take the lead back with 15 minutes to go.
Both teams shot considerably better from behind the arc in the second half, with the STORM breaking 40% and the Statesmen shooting 57% from three, which led to some exciting sequences. After Richard Bland took the lead with a three-point shot, Stewart would make two threes in a row to take a two-possession lead for Davidson-Davie. Small runs by Davidson-Davie and tough shot-making by Richard Bland kept this game close all the way to the finish.
With around six minutes to go, Jaylen Wilkerson hit a deep three to go up by eight, then on the next possession, Lowry caught another lob, this time from Taylor to go up by ten. This sequence is followed by Javier Ortiz getting an easy layup off of a turnover to go up by 12. Ortiz wasn’t done there, as he later got a clutch offensive rebound put-back to keep the STORM up by double-digits late. The Statesmen were able to keep their second-half shooting going, and Davidson-Davie faltered at the free-throw line late, but they were still able to fend off the comeback attempt to grab the win.
“I thought our conditioning played a factor in tonight’s game,” Ridge said in a post-game interview, “Dane Stewart carried us in a lot of ways tonight. (Stewart) played really, really hard defensively, and shot the ball relatively well. Really proud of Dane, you know he red-shirted last year, and it’s really neat to see kids that have worked while they’ve waited to come in here and have a good game.”
The STORM return to action on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Brinkley Gym against another Division 1 JUCO, the Denmark Technical College Panthers, at 3 p.m. EST.