The Davidson and George Mason Wednesday night contest featured two of the best scorers in the Atlantic 10, Otis Livingston II and Kellan Grady. Both guys occupied the Second Team in the Atlantic 10 last season. Both were expected to elevate to the First Team this season, competing for A-10 Player of the Year.
While Grady got his due, it was Justin Kier, not Livingston, who paced the Patriots throughout the entire night. By game’s end it was Kier who stole the show and Davidson narrowly escaped with a win.
Kier exploded in the second half of this contest in what was an anemic showing of Mason’s offense. Almost single-handily he erased a 15-point second half deficit. On offense he was the only player for Mason to score more than seven points. On defense he took over the assignment on Grady in the second half and exploited the matchup. Quick hands and back door steals propelled him to the open court where he used an 18-4 run to get Mason back in the contest.
The 6-4 guard facilitated in the middle of Davidson’s zone, attacked the basket when shots weren’t falling for anybody and made sure he got to the free throw line.
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In the contest, he finished with 26 points, 21 of which came in the second half. Adding in 12 rebounds, he recorded the sixth double-double of his career and fifth in his past six games.
“[Kier] is clearly somebody that is going to contend for the [Atlantic 10] Player of the Year award,” Davidson’s head coach Bob McKillop said. “You look at the way he filled the stat sheet… I mean he did everything. Kind of reminded me of a taller version, and a better shooter than the great player [Mason] had here from New York City, Marquise Moore.”
Take Kier out of the offense for Mason and it was pedestrian at best, 10-for-38 (26 percent) with 30 points and five assists. Kier, who attempts less than two 3pters a game in his career, made half of the Patriots’ 3pt baskets.
Shortly after Grady went on a personal 7-0 run in the opening moments of the second half, Javon Greene picked up his third foul. Up until that point Greene, Mason’s best defender, was guarding Davidson’s most prolific scorer. Greene did admirable on Grady despite his run to start the final half. He held him to only 13 points in the first 22 minutes of the game.
Grady though was just heating up. His run had the Wildcats up 30-19 and his latest behind the back dribble caused Greene to take a tumble. Grady leisurely took a second dribble then drained his first 3pter. He had started to figure out Greene.
But then Kier took over the assignment for the rest of the game. Not only did he claw the Patriots back, he limited Grady to only four more points in the game, two coming at the stripe.
“I just tried to bring energy,” Kier said after the game. “Some of the assistant coaches and coach [Paulsen] just told me to lead and bring energy and I tried to do that, to light the fire for everyone else.”
Two of Kier’s three steals came against Grady. The Davidson guard finished with 17 points on 7-for-18 shooting and 1-for-9 from deep. He still doesn’t look as explosive due to the injury that forced him to miss four games. Livingston was a non-factor on the offensive end for Mason. He failed to score in the first half and only had four points in the game on 2-for-11 shooting.
While neither of them showed it in EagleBank Arena, both Grady and Livingston are two of the biggest threats to scoring in the conference. Kier has justifiably moved onto that list now as he is averaging 19.7 ppg in the three conference games thus far. That’s the third highest in the league. He also leads the league in rebounding in A-10 play (13.3 rpg), one of only four players to average a double-double.
Justin Kier’s first 76 games at Mason: 1 double-double
Kier’s last 6 games: 5 double-doubles https://t.co/ZVL4vKz4wq
— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) January 10, 2019
Throw in the fact that he averages two steals a contest as well and coach McKillop maybe onto something. George Mason maybe has a Player of the Year candidate on their hands.
