Chattanooga 90, Maine 75

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - Keddric Mays scored 22 points and Chattanooga built a big lead in the first half en route to a 90-75 victory Thursday over Maine in the first round of the Dr Pepper Classic.

 

Chattanooga (7-6) hit 60 percent in the first half to lead 53-31 at halftime.

 

Maine (3-8) got as close as 11 in the second half at 79-68 until the Moccasins pulled away again.

Casey Long and Alphonso Pugh scored 18 points each for the Mocs, who made 18 free throws to 6 for the Black Bears.

 

Ernest Turner led Maine with 18 points, and his layup with 15:09 left in the first gave the Black Bears their last lead, 10-9.

 

Philippe Tchekane Bofia had 14 points for Maine and Jon Sheets 12.

 

Chattanooga will play Howard for the championship Friday night. Mercer plays Maine in the consolation.

Furman 83, Kennesaw State 76

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Junior guard Robby Bostain scored a career high 27 as Furman held off a late Kennesaw State charge to claim an 83-76 win in the opening round of the Jack In The Box Holiday Classic.

 

Eric Webb added 15 for the Paladins (5-5), who will play South Carolina State in the tournament's championship game Friday night.

 

The Bulldogs topped Marshall 71-66 in the first round.

 

Junior guard Golden Ingle scored 22 to pace the Owls (4-6) who will take on Marshall in the classic's consolation game.

 

A fast-break slam by Moussa Diagne gave Furman a 76-69 lead with 40 seconds left, but the Owls got four free throws by Ingle and a three-point shot by Ryan Nelson to close within 2 at 78-76. Bostain hit one free throw at 19 seconds and four more with 3.5 seconds left on an intentional foul and a technical on the Kennesaw bench.

 

Owls coach Tony Ingle earlier earned a pair of technicals and was ejected from the game by official Tim Clougherty.

 

Webb hit all four of those free throws to give Furman its largest lead at 62-53 with 6:45 to go.

The game had 64 total free throw attempts, 40 by Furman and 24 by Kennesaw. Bostain hit 15-of-20 and Ingle 13-of-14.

Illinois-Chicago 76, Davidson 67

CHICAGO (AP) - Justin Bowen scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half to lead Illinois-Chicago to a 76-67 victory over Davidson on Thursday night.

 

Trailing 62-60 with 3:38 left, Illinois-Chicago (7-5) finished the game by outscoring Davidson 16-5. Bowen hit two free throws to put the Flames up 64-62, then later in the run, he took a pass from Elliot Poole and finished with a dunk to give Illinois-Chicago a 70-66 lead with 42.7 seconds left. Bowen had eight points in the decisive run.

 

Poole added nine points and nine rebounds for Illinois Chicago.

 

Ian Johnson led Davidson (7-4) with 24 points and five rebounds and Brendan Winters added nine points.

Georgia Southern 84, Jacksonville 79

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Guard Elton Nesbitt scored 24 points and visiting Georgia Southern held off a furious Jacksonville comeback to post an 84-79 win on Thursday.

 

It was the Eagles' second win in two weeks over the Dolphins, after posting an 81-67 win at home on Dec. 14. Jacksonville lost its sixth consecutive game and fell to 1-8 on the season.

 

Georgia Southern (8-4) held a 17-point lead at 71-54 with just under eight minutes to play when Jacksonville mounted its comeback attempt. The Dolphins went on an 18-3 run over the next four minutes to trim the deficit to 74-72. After the teams traded baskets, Nesbitt scored his team's next six points to open up a seven-point advantage of 82-75 with 39 seconds left in the game.

 

Nesbitt is the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Week after scoring 28 and 26 points over Arkansas State and Jacksonville last week.

 

Jacksonville's Antonio Cool hit three 3-point shots in a 70-second span to spark the Dolphins' second-half rally. He finished with a career high 25 points.

 

The Dolphins had 27 turnovers in this game with the Eagles scoring 30 points off the Jacksonville miscues.

Story courtesy of College of Charleston sports information

College of Charleston 77, Longwood 53

Charleston, S.C. ? Josh Jackson and Dontaye Draper scored 15 points each and Jermaine Johnson added 13 points and 10 rebounds as the College of Charleston cruised to a 77-53 win over Longwood in opening round action in the College of Charleston Holiday Classic at John Kresse Arena on Thursday.

 

The Cougars improved to 6-4 with the win while the Lancers fell to 2-11.  Charleston takes on Rider at approximately 7:30 on Friday in the championship game.  Longwood plays Long Island at 5:30 in the consolation.

 

Jackson scored nine points and Drew Hall added eight as the Cougars grabbed a 39-29 lead at intermission.

 

A jumper by Jackson capped an 11-3 run to start the second half that gave the Cougars a 50-32 lead with 17:22 left.

 

Johnson, who had his third double-double of the season, added a career-high three assists.  Jackson added 10 boards for his second double-double of the season.  Philip McCandies had 10 rebounds off the bench for Charleston and a game-high four blocks.

 

Longwood got eight points each from Kirk Williams and Chad Kosmo.  Kosmo added a team-high 10 rebounds.

 

The Cougars, who had a season-high eight blocked shots, held a 56-47 edge in rebounding, including a 33-22 margin in the second half.