University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
Bulldog Basketball Holiday Memory - The Miracle on Flint Street
12.27.2022 | Men's Basketball
Story Written by Mike Gore
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - With the holidays around us, Mike Gore will look at some memorable basketball games that have been played near the holidays. Today's first memory is a game with Davidson on Dec. 29, 1990.
Bob McKillop has some wonderful memories of Asheville and playing games at its downtown Civic Center. However, don't ask him about "The Miracle on Flint Street."
His Davidson Wildcats captured Southern Conference championships at the then called US Cellular Center in 2012 and 2013. Under McKillop, Davidson became a perennial power in the SoCon before leaving for the Atlantic 10 Conference prior to the 2013-14 season. He guided great teams with the fabulous Steph Curry but Davidson was good before Curry and afterwards.
Did you know that McKillop coached in three different conferences during his long coaching career with the Wildcats that ended with his retirement last spring? And the first conference he coached in was the Big South Conference. The Wildcats were in the Big South from 1990-92. They had left the Southern Conference in 1989 and were an independent for a year before joining the Big South in 1990.
Davidson's foray into the Big South started successfully when they edged the Bulldogs at Belk Arena earlier in the month, 74-72. The teams would meet a few weeks later, right before the New Year (1991).
Asheville was a very young team under the tutelage of third-year coach Don Doucette. The Bulldogs had won a Big South championship in Doucette's first year (1989) as head coach and nearly won another one the following season before falling to Coastal Carolina in the title game by three points.
But most of that team had graduated and Asheville started two freshmen for most of the 1990-91 campaign. It was a rough start for Doucette's third year with the Bulldogs. They brought a less-than-imposing 3-6 record into the second game with the Wildcats. McKillop was in his second year at Davidson and had a young team. The Wildcats had shown some promise in the early going and had a 5-4 record coming into Asheville.
The game began with Davidson controlling the tempo and the contest. McKillop's team raced out to an early lead and the Bulldogs were having a hard time keeping up.
The visitors led at the half 40-29 and seemed in control. Asheville hung around in the second half and was within striking distance but could never mount a serious threat. Two Jason Zimmerman free throws at the 56-second mark put Davidson in front 78-69 and the Wildcats appeared to be on their way to a 2-0 start in Big South play.
The Bulldogs rallied a little bit but still trailed 81-75 with seven seconds left after two more Wildcat free throws. Asheville quickly came down and threw up a three and missed. Darryl Sanders, a senior guard, was headed to the locker room after the miss but the ball came right to him. He knocked down a long trey with two seconds left to cut the lead to 81-78. Doucette quickly called a timeout to try and force a turnover.
The Wildcats still looked in great shape but things had gotten a little closer than they wanted. An assistant coach for Davidson told the team that Asheville was out of timeouts. Just throw the ball as long as you can throw and as soon as Asheville touched the ball the game would be over.
That's what happened but the Bulldogs still had one timeout. Center Brent Keck intercepted the ball and quickly called timeout.
With one second left, there weren't too many options for Asheville. But Keck who intercepted the pass would come through in dramatic fashion. The 6-10 center was known more for his inside play than his three-point shooting. He entered the contest going 1-for-2 for his career from beyond the arc. Keck caught the ball from Kurt Samuels and immediately threw up a 28-footer that swished through the basket as the horn sounded and somehow the game was tied at 81-81.
The Bulldogs continued the momentum in overtime. They quickly took the lead and held on from there to record the improbable 89-86 victory. McKillop was still shocked after the game.
"We had the game won and to send the game to overtime, they (Asheville) had to hit two incredible shots in a two-second span. That's tough to take," stated McKillop afterwards.
So the legend of "The Miracle on Flint Street" was born. Flint Street is a street just outside the Civic Center and, well, it rhymed pretty good.
The loss hurt Davidson but the Wildcats went on to have a nice season and advanced to the semifinals of the Big South Tournament where they nearly knocked off a great top-seeded Coastal Carolina squad. It was a harbinger of things to come for Davidson under McKillop. The Cats would eventually be let back in the Southern Conference two years later and McKillop would quickly start producing championship teams' year-after-year.
The victory for Asheville was a bright moment in a long season. The Bulldogs nearly upset Appalachian State in their next game but would come up a little bit short. That would be the theme the rest of the year as Doucette's third team would stagger to an 8-20 overall record.
McKillop would have better memories on Flint Street with championships in 2012 and 2013.
But despite those titles and all the championships Davidson has won over the years, he'll always remember a certain game early in his coaching career that will be forever known as "The Miracle on Flint Street."
