Men's Basketball Southern Conference

SoCon Men's Basketball Results, Jan. 20, 2003

College of Charleston 59, Furman 52

Charleston, S.C. -- Troy Wheless scored 15 points and Mike
Benton added his first double-double of the season with 12 points and
10 rebounds leading the College of Charleston to a 59-52 win over
Furman in Southern Conference men's basketball action before 3,647 at
John Kresse Arena on Jan. 20.

With the win the Cougars improved to 13-5 overall and 3-2 in
league play. The Paladins fell to 7-13 and 1-5. Charleston committed
a season-low six turnovers - Charleston had eight miscues in a 71-69
win over Villanova in the title game of the Great Alaska Shootout.

Wheless had eight points and Thomas Mobley seven as Charleston
grabbed a 25-23 lead at intermission.

Charleston opened the second half with a pair of seven-point
leads only to see the Paladins respond both times. Guilherme Da Luz
capped a 7-0 Furman run with a pair of layups tying the game at 36-36
with 9:04 left.

Charleston built a 44-38 advantage on a Tony Mitchell jumper
with 5:59 left. Furman answered with an 8-2 run capped by Karim
Souchu's 3-point play on a layup and free throw knotting the game at
46-46 with 3:41 left.

Benton hit a short jumper from the right baseline and Mobley
followed with an alley-oop dunk and 3-pointer giving Charleston the
lead for good at 53-46 with 1:27 remaining.

Despite missing two front ends of one-and-one free throw
chances down the stretch, the Cougars hung on for their 10th win in
the last 11 meetings with Furman by forcing four turnovers in the
final 1:59.

For Furman, Da Luz had a team-high 16 points and seven
rebounds. Souchu, who entered the game averaging 16.8 points per
game, was limited to 12. The Paladins, who held a 35-30 edge in
rebounding, shot 40.9 percent from the floor hitting 18-of-44 from
the field.

Wheless hit 6-of-9 from the floor and tied his career-high
with seven assists. Mobley added 14 points, while Mitchell had eight
points and three assists.

The Cougars shot 45.5 percent from the floor connecting on
25-of-55 field goal opportunities.

Both teams play league games on Saturday. Charleston plays at
rival The Citadel in a noon start on Fox Sports Net South, while the
Paladins play host to Chattanooga in a 2:00 tipoff.

Wofford 79, Chattanooga 71

Lee Nixon scored 23 points as Wofford came back from a 7-0 deficit to
start the game to post a 79-71 victory over Chattanooga in Southern
Conference action tonight in Spartanburg, S.C.

Wofford improves to 3-2 in the SoCon and 7-8 overall. Chattanooga, the
leader in the SoCon South Division entering the game, drops to 4-2 in
the league and 12-5 overall.

The Terriers shot 52.5 percent, equaling their second-best performance
of the season from the field. With Wofford leading just 49-47 with
12:21 to play, Nixon scored seven straight points to extend the Terrier
margin to 56-47 with 9:35 left. Nixon sandwiched a 3-pointer and a
jumper with an alley-oop dunk. He also had an alley-oop slam to open
the second-half scoring after Wofford took a 40-31 lead at the
intermission.

After the Terriers built a 65-54 lead on a pair of Nixon free-throws
with 4:38 remaining, the Mocs answered with an 11-4 spurt to close
within 69-65 with 2:22 to play. Aaron Morgan had a 3-point play and
dunk while Jason Rogan and Ray Trowell nailed 3-pointers. However, that
would be as close as Chattanooga would get the remainder of the contest.


A Mike Lenzly free-throw and Tyler Berg layup gave Wofford a 72-65 lead
with 1:06 left. Berg, the Terriers' candidate for SoCon Freshman of the
Year, had 14 points (7-of-10 from the field). Fellow Wofford freshman
Howard Wilkerson had a team-best eight rebounds to go with seven points.

"It was a very gutty performance by our guys," Wofford coach Mike Young
said. "I thought we played extremely hard and got a big win against a
great team.

"We made a lot of hustle plays tonight and had some huge rebounds in the
second half (Wofford outrebounded Chattanooga 42-37)."

Trailing 7-0 in the opening 1:09, Wofford answered with an 11-2 run,
capped by a Wilkerson 3-pointer, to grab an 11-9 lead. The Terriers
took the lead for good at 16-13 on an Adrien Borders trey and built
their first-half margin to as many as 11 points on two occasions before
taking the nine-point lead at the intermission.

"We had too many breakdowns, things like boxing out, in a tough
environment to play in," Chattanooga coach Jeff Lebo said.

"They had a senior go-to guy (Nixon) who has been through the wars.
They went to him in the second half, and he took over. He wasn't going
to let them lose."

Borders and Lenzly had 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Wofford while
Sam Daniels added seven points and seven rebounds.

Rogan topped Chattanooga with 20 points while Ashley Champion scored 18.
Trowell had eight points and seven assists with just one turnover. The
Mocs shot 39.4 percent and were just 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) from 3-point
range.

The Terriers return to action Saturday when they host East Tennessee
State at 7 p.m. Chattanooga has a 2 p.m. game Saturday at Furman.