Georgia Southern 89, Portland 75
LUBBOCK, Texas ? Elton Nesbitt and Sean Olivier’s 41 combined points led Georgia Southern to an 89-75 victory over Portland in the opening round of the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. The Eagles will now play either host school Texas Tech or San Jose State in the championship game tomorrow evening at 8:30 p.m. EST.
Georgia Southern (1-0) jumped out to an early 9-2 lead on Olivier’s second basket of the game at the 17:55 mark. After a pair of free throws by the Pilots (0-1), Olivier scored on back to back possessions to put the Eagles up 15-7 with 15:15 remaining in the half.
Portland went on an 8-0 run over the next minute and a half to tie the game with 13:16 to play. Georgia Southern answered, going on a 10-0 spurt, sparked by a Dwayne Foreman three-pointer, putting the Eagles up 25-15 with 10 minutes remaining before the break. A jumper by Will Dunn at the 7:08 mark gave the Eagles their largest lead of the half, 12, at 34-22. The Pilots put together a 9-1 run late in the half to cut the lead to five. A Diogo Salazar trey with 1:18 remaining in the half sparked a 7-0 run by the Eagles to end the half, taking a 45-34 lead into the locker room.
The Eagles came out hot in the second half, increasing their lead to 20 as they opened the stanza with an 11-2 run, including two three pointer from Nesbitt. Portland’s Pooh Jeter fired back, cutting the Eagle lead to 15 on his only three pointer of the night. Jimmy Tobias’ five unanswered points put the Eagles back up by 20 with 14:06 to play in the game. The Pilots mounted a comeback late in the game, going on a 16-5 run, cutting the Eagle lead to 10, 81-71, with less than two minutes in the game. Four trips to the charity stripe by Nesbitt sealed the game for Georgia Southern, as they advanced to the finals of the Lubbock Regional with the 89-75 win.
Nesbitt led all scorers with 27, including four three pointers. Olivier finished with a career-best 14 points and a career-tying 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Gennie also finished with 14 points, while newcomer Tobias had 10 points and six rebounds in his Eagle debut. Foreman led the team with six assists.
Georgia Southern shot 50 percent from the floor (31-62), compared to Portland’s 39.7 percent (25-63). The Eagles were 20-29 from the charity stripe. The Eagles out-rebounded Portland 43-36.
Western Carolina 56, Bowling Green 50
Blacksburg, Va. ? Western Carolina senior Corey Muirhead registered a double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling down a career-high 15 rebounds, while sophomore Antonio Russell scored a career-high 21 points, as the Catamounts held on for a 56-50 season-opening win over Bowling Green at the 2005 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Classic, hosted by Virginia Tech.
The season-opening win was the Catamounts’ first over an NCAA Division I opponent since starting the 1980-81 season by defeating Georgia Tech, 88-77, in Atlanta on Nov. 28, 1980. (The next night, Nov. 29, 1980, Western’s Ronnie Carr returned to Cullowhee to make the first 3-pointer in NCAA history in the Cats’ win over Middle Tennessee State.) Other than the win at Georgia Tech in 1980, Western has 10 wins in season openers over the past 25 years, including victories over Methodist (1981), Emory & Henry (1982), Milligan (1983 and ’84), Tusculum (1987), Mars Hill (1989), St. Andrews (1990), Eckard (1991), Erskine (1993) and Tennessee Wesleyan (2001).
Western scored the first points of the game, a 3-pointer and free throw by Russell, and never let the Falcons tie or take the lead after that. Russell would go on to score Western’s first nine points of the game. While the Cats, who led by 13 at the break, would lead by as many as 18 on a Russell free throw with 8:13 left in the game, Bowling Green would claw its way back into the game, despite having four technical fouls called on them.
After John Floyd hit a three pointer to trim Bowling Green’s deficit to 14 at the 13:53 mark, Falcons’ head coach Dan Dakich was whistled with back-to-back technical fouls. Kyle Greathouse hit 3-of-4 from the line to push Western’s lead back to 17. A third technical was called on the Falcon bench and Greathouse made 1-of-2 with 6:12 left, giving Western a 50-35 lead.
From that point, Bowling Green turned up the intensity, forcing turnovers, getting most of the rebounds and holding Western scoreless over the next four minutes. Floyd made a trey at the 3:16 mark and Matt Lefeld connected on two free throws with 2:22 left to make Western’s lead just three points (50-47). Russell snapped the draught with a runner, putting the Cats up five.
Bowling Green’s Martin Samarco answered with a 3-pointer with 1:32 left to make it a two-point game. However, he was whistled for a technical after the shot for taunting. Greathouse sank 1-of-2 at the line, then Trey Hopkins was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play. The sophomore hit both shots from the charity stripe for a five-point Western cushion with 56 seconds left. Russell provided the final margin, 56-50, making 1-of-2 at the line with 21 seconds left.
Muirhead was half-way to his double-double in the first half, grabbing 10 rebounds in the first 20 minutes as Western had a 23-14 advantage on the boards. Overall, the Cats out-rebounded the Falcons 41-34. While Bowling Green out-shot Western, making 36.5 percent of its shots compared to Western making just 28.9, the Catamounts made 27-of-42 free throws, while the Falcons were just 8-of-17 at the line.
Western made seven field goals in the first half, thanks to seven assists. In the second half, the Cats made just six field goals with one assist. On the flip side, the Cats’ offense was not able to get on track due to shooting 26 free throws over the final 20 minutes, while attempting just 22 field goals.
Bowling Green was led by Lefeld’s 14 points. Samarco added 12 points with Floyd contributing 10 points. Lefeld and Erik Marschall each had six rebounds.
Western Carolina will take Friday off before returning to Virginia Tech’s Cassell Coliseum to face Radford on Saturday (Nov. 12) at 3:00 pm. That game will not be broadcast due to Western’s football game at Appalachian State at 3:30 pm. The Catamounts will conclude the NABC Classic facing host-team Virginia Tech on Sunday at 3:00 pm. That game will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network by Gary Ayers and Steve White. The game will also be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network which includes radio affiliates in Asheville (WZNN, 1350 AM), Cullowhee (WWCU, 90.5 FM) and Sylva (WRGC, 680 AM).