WASHINGTON (AP) — Foster Loyer led the way with 21 points for top-seeded Davidson en route to an 84-69 Atlantic 10 Championship Semifinals victory over No. 5 Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena.
Victory in hand, the Wildcats move on to the program's second Championship Final appearance of the past four seasons, squaring off against the winner between second-overall Dayton and No. 6 Richmond on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
"I thought our guys started fast and put us in a position where our defense created offense for us," Davidson head coach Bob McKillop said. "We were terrific at making shots and getting stops. And giving us that very big cushion at halftime allowed us to go into that second half and feel confident. Our shots didn't fall in the second half, but our defense didn't quit."
Hyunjung Lee racked up 16 points for the Wildcats (27-5) while A-10 Player of the Year Luka Brajkovic added 14 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Michael Jones tossed in 13 points as well.
Davidson dominated the first half and led 44-24 at the break, finishing the contest having never trailed. The Billikens’ 24 first-half points were their season low.
"Davidson, I thought, brought their A game," Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford said. "They were terrific. And we did not. You got to give them a lot of credit. We just weren't our best today. We looked like we kind of ran out of gas, but you don't want to make excuses. It just wasn't our day."
Terrence Hargrove Jr. paced the scoring for SLU (23-11) with 14 points while Yuri Collins tacked on 13 points and seven assists. DeAndre Jones contributed 11 points.