AMHERST — With the regular season winding down, UMass will try to get out of the Atlantic 10’s bottom four against a Davidson team trying to solidify its place among the top-four in the conference when the teams meet tonight at 7 in North Carolina.

The league’s top four (out of 14) earn a double bye straight into the quarterfinals. The bottom four have to play in the first round.

At 4-9, UMass (11-15) is in a four-way tie with George Washington, Fordham and La Salle for either 11th or 14th depending on who is viewing how full the glass is. They’re all one game behind 10th-place Dayton (5-8).

After a 5-6 mark in nonconference play, the Wildcats (14-10) have come together in the Atlantic 10, going 9-4, which puts them third.

They’ve clicked in conference play, especially on offense.

“They’ll have five guys on the floor at all times that can shoot the 3,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “They cause you all kinds of problems. We’ll have five guards on the floor a lot so we’ll be able to switch a lot. But you have to defend the 3. To have any chance in the game you have to defend the 3.”

For the second straight game, UMass will be without freshman big man Khalea Turner-Morris, who is in concussion protocol and did not make the trip.

His absence likely means at least a few minutes for Randall West, the junior football player who joined the team Wednesday.

“We’re been trying to keep it simple in practice and get some defensive fundamentals in over the last few days to try to bring him up to speed as much as possible,” McCall said. “The biggest thing for him is to bring energy and play really really hard. The other stuff will take care of itself.”

Davidson senior Peyton Aldridge seemingly is a lock to be on the Atlantic 10’s all-conference first team and will be in contention for player of the year. The 6-foot-8 forward leads the Wildcats in scoring (20.1 points per game) and rebounding (7.0 per games).

The game will likely be the first of quite a few meetings between a pair of freshman guards from Boston, Davidson’s Kellan Grady and UMass’ Carl Pierre. Grady might be the leader for the Atlantic 10’s rookie of the year honor, with Pierre also in contention. Grady, the Catholic Memorial product, who prepped at Northfield Mount Hermon School, is averaging 16.4 points (17.5 in Atlantic 10 games).

Coming out of high school he had some Atlantic 10 interest, but was mostly pursued by lower conference schools.

McCall hated the idea of a Massachusetts kid, who’d fit his system, playing for a conference rival.

“He’s having a terrific freshman year much like Carl is,” McCall said. “He’s a high-character kid, makes plays in a lot of different ways. We have to keep kids like that in the state of Massachusetts.”