Nik Cochran

Davidson College’s men’s basketball team narrowly defeated the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Thursday night, 64-63, in a game that came down to the final second. With the score tied at 63 and 1 tick on the clock, Nik Cochran hit a free throw to win the game, and keep the Cats undefeated in the Southern Conference.

Davidson came into the game atop the league’s South Division. Chattanooga was fifth in the North Division. With the win, the Wildcats improved to 9-0 in the league and 15-4 overall. Chattanooga fell to 3-6 in the conference and 9-13 overall.

JP Kuhlman led the Wildcats with 16 points and four assists. The Mocs held Davidson’s top scorer, Jake Cohen, to just 10 points after a string of 20-point-plus performances. Cohen, who also had 3 blocks and 3 assists, scored all his points in the second half.

Cochran had six points and five assists, while De’Mon Brooks added five points and 10 rebounds for Davidson.

Ricky Taylor (14 points) led Chattanooga.

Davidson led 29-26 at halftime at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga. The Mocs outscored the Cats 37-35 in the second half but came up a point short.

The game ended with drama as Davidson led the entire second half, by as many as 13 points. The Mocs pulled within one or two points several times, but couldn’t gain an edge.

Then, trailing by three with five seconds left, Chattanooga’s Keegan Bell hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 63.

Omar Wattad fouled Cochran after the in-bounds pass, setting up the winning foul shot.

Cochran hit the first of the two shots. Then, with Chattanooga out of timeouts, he let the second one miss.

Bell then missed a full-court desperation shot as time ran out.

RELATED LINKS

DOWNLOAD the box score and game summary (PDF).

Read the full game story at DavidsonWildcats.com