The Emory men’s basketball team opened its season Friday night with a 93-67 loss in an exhibition game against Davidson College (N.C.), a division I school who is the pre-season favorite to win the Southern Conference.

Led by Head Coach Jason Zimmerman, the team was able to hang around for most of the game before Davidson finally pulled away with seven minutes left in the game.

“I thought we played very well, and competed for 40 minutes,” Zimmerman said. “We kept it close for most of the first half, and had a chance to pull it to four at the end of the half.”

Davidson came out firing in the beginning of the game, hitting seven of its first 11 field goal attempts to create a 13-point cushion early in the first half. With a little over 10 minutes left in the first frame and the Eagles down 25-13, they were able to bounce back into the game after going on a 17-6 run to trim Davidson’s lead to one. In the final six minutes of the first half, Davidson responded with a 9-0 run to head into the locker room with a comfortable 42-34 lead.

The Eagles kept it close for the beginning stages of the second half with senior guard Alex Greven scoring Emory’s first 11 points in the frame. With a little over 16 minutes to play, the Eagles were back in the game, trailing by nine in the 54-45 score.

After some back and forth play, the Wildcats pulled ahead with a 7-0 run to extend their lead by 16. The Eagles managed to pull within 12 points, but the Wildcats then went on a 12-3 spurt that secured their lead by 21 points and eventually the game as well.

One of the reasons Emory was able to hang around for most of the game was because of the team’s ability to rebound the basketball. Senior Forward Michael Friedberg led the team with 12 rebounds.

“I thought the team competed really hard and fought for 40 minutes,” Friedberg said. “We were within striking distance of Davidson the whole game but couldn’t put together a series of stops and scores.”

Greven was Emory’s top scorer, finishing with 27 points.

“I think we played solid and did some good things,” Greven said. “But the game definitely exposed some things we need to work on.”

The exhibition game against a Division I school allowed the team to test itself competitively while at the same time learning what mistakes they made and what they must work on before the season starts.

“I thought our transition defense was good and rebounded the ball very well,” Zimmerman said. “We got a little tired at the end of the game and didn’t lock down defensively for the entire game.”

The team hopes to learn from this loss and become a better team overall.

“We aim to get better every day, whether that be in practice, in the weight room or watching film,” Greven said. “Film showed us that we should work on our defensive rotations and ability to be locked into the game while fighting fatigue.”

The Eagles will begin their regular season next weekend on November 16-17 when they head to Birmingham Southern (Ala.) to play in the Black Tie Classic.

By Brian Chavkin 

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