Furman 88, Charleston Southern 69
Greenville, S.C. - Robby Bostain poured in 26 points to pace five players in double figures as Furman downed Charleston Southern 88-69 in the season opener for both teams, and gave first-year Paladin head coach Jeff Jackson a victory in his inaugural game Saturday afternoon at Timmons Arena.
Bostain, who recorded a double-double by adding 10 rebounds to his game-high scoring effort, netted three baskets and a pair of free throws in the opening five minutes of the game to stake Furman to an early 12-0 lead. The Buccaneers were held scoreless until Giedrius Knysas made a short jumper with 14:53 remaining in the first half.
Charleston Southern trimmed the Paladin lead to six at 15-9, but could get no closer as Furman opened up a 44-27 halftime cushion behind Bostain's 19 first half points. Furman seniors Eric Webb and Moussa Diagne, both held scoreless in the opening 20 minutes, combined for 25 second half points as Furman weathered a CSU rally for the 19-point victory.
After trailing 61-40 with 12 minutes remaining, Charleston Southern reeled off a 19-8 run to cut the Furman lead to 69-59 with 5:49 left. Eric Webb helped the Paladins put the game out of reach converting 3-of-4 free throws and draining a three-pointer over the next two minutes to up the lead to 79-64.
"I am real pleased to get off to a good start with a win," said Jackson. "Our seniors really got us going and we were fortunate to get the victory. We are just looking forward to playing again on Monday night against Erskine."
Bostain netted a career best 10-of-14 field goal attempts on his way to 26 points, 10 boards and six assists. Webb, 3-for-5 beyond the arc, finished with 14 points and six assists while Diagne added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Sophomore Alex Opacic contributed a career-high 12 points off of the bench, and junior George Brozos connected on 4-of-4 field goal attempts to register 10 points.
The Paladins shot 59.3% (32-54) from the floor, including 6-of-14 from three-point range. Furman limited Charleston Southern to 26-of-55 (47.3%) from the floor and 7-of-21 from long range. The Paladins outscored the visitors by eight at the foul line. Furman converted 18-of-23 (78.3%) while the Buccaneers made good on just 10-of-21 from the charity stripe.
Furman held a 38-22 advantage in rebounding, including 15 boards on the offensive end of the floor.
Guard Donnell Covington led three Bucs in double figures with 18 points. Dwayne Jackson tallied 17 and Chris Moore added 14 from the Charleston Southern backcourt. Despite the success of the perimeter trio, no player in the CSU frontcourt scored more than six points.
Furman, 1-0, will return to action on Monday when it hosts Division II foe Erskine at 7:00 p.m. Charleston Southern (0-1) plays its home opener Monday against Florida Christian.
College of Charleston 72, Georgia State 66
ATLANTA, GA - Dontaye Draper scored 19 points and Philip McCandies added a career-high 16 points and 11 rebounds as the College of Charleston opened the season and the Bobby Cremins era with a 72-66 win over Georgia State before 2,512 at GSU Sports Arena on Saturday.
Cremins, who coached his first game since 2000 after 19 years at Georgia Tech and six at Appalachian State, saw his team rally from a 39-35 halftime deficit to record the win. Georgia State is 0-1.
The win marked the Cougars first season-opening victory on an opponent's home floor since its 68-54 win at Charlotte to begin the 1991-92 season.
Charleston grabbed the lead for good at 53-51 on a Jermaine Johnson's layup with 11:52 left. Draper second free throw with 22 seconds left gave the Cougars their biggest lead at 71-63.
Johnson came off the bench and added 10 points, while teammate David Lawrence had nine points, seven rebounds and a career-high tying three blocks.
The Panthers, who lost for the 11th straight time to Charleston, got a team-high 19 points and seven rebounds from Lance Perique.
The Cougars take on Villanova at 8:30 on Friday in the open round of the Paradise Jam at the Virgin Islands.
Michigan 78, Davidson 68
ANN ARBOR, MICH. ? Freshman Stephen Curry scored 32 points for Davidson, but Michigan was able to thwart several comeback attempts to fend off the feisty Wildcats on the second day of the John Thompson Foundation Challenge, 78-68. Davidson fell to 1-1 on the young season while the host Wolverines improved to 2-0.
Curry a native of Charlotte, N.C., hit 12-of-25 attempts including five buckets from downtown, to become the first Wildcat to go for 30-plus points in a contest since Brendan Winters accomplished that task in the SoCon Championship last season. Along with scoring 17 of his final total in the opening half, the 6-1 guard pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.
Trailing 13-12 at the 12:25 mark, Curry recorded a three-point play and nailed his third of four first half treys in back-to-back possessions to spark a 10-3 run and give the Wildcats a 22-16 lead, forcing the Wolverines to burn a 30 second timeout.
Out of the break, Michigan responded with a 19-5 streak of its own to grab the advantage back and stretch it to double-digits, 37-27, with just under three minutes remaining in the first half. Thanks to a blistering 64 percent (16-25) shooting performance in the first 20 minutes of action the Wolverines went to the break up, 41-31.
Early in the second stanza Michigan continued to have the hot-hand extending its lead to the largest of the evening, 58-41, with just over 13 minutes remaining. Just like their opener, the Wildcats found themselves down by as many as seventeen, but unlike Eastern Michigan, the Wolverines were able to bounce back from a late 12-0 Davidson streak that cut the deficit to 58-53, with an 8-0 flurry of their own to put the game out of reach.
Dion Harris (23) and fellow senior Courtney Sims (21) combined to score 44 points and lead Michigan offensively. The Wolverines’ Ron Coleman also finished in double figures with 12, while Brent Petway led all players on the glass with 13 rebounds.
Michigan shot an even 50 percent (25-50) from the field and knocked down five of its 15 attempts from long range to finish at 33.3 percent. The Wolverines also took advantage of 31 trips to the line hitting 23 of them.
After managing just a field goal percentage of 35.3 in the first half, the Wildcats knocked down 13-of-28 tries from the floor in final period to finish the contest at 40.3 percent. For the second consecutive night Davidson hit seven buckets from downtown.
Junior tri-captain Jason Richards was the only other Wildcat to go for double figures finishing with 10.
On the glass, the Wolverines managed a slim 35-34 edge, but Davidson controlled the offensive side with a 13-10 margin.
Davidson will conclude its appearance in the John Thompson Foundation Challenge tomorrow in a 2 p.m. tip versus Central Connecticut State. The Wolverines will cap off the event with a contest against in-state foe Eastern Michigan shortly after.
Marshall 82, UNC Greensboro 80
HUNTINGTON, WV ? Kyle Hines recorded his 22nd career double-double, set a career high for points and surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career, but a UNC Greensboro late lead didn’t hold up as Marshall topped the Spartans, 82-80, in men’s basketball action Saturday afternoon.
Hines, a junior from Sicklerville, NJ finished the day with 38 points, the most by a Spartan since 1986. He also grabbed 12 rebounds and had three blocks and three steals.
After UNCG led by nine, 67-58, with 1:32 to play, Marshall rallied. Travis Aikens drove the lane and converted a three-point play with 19 seconds to play to give Marshall a 68-67 lead.
UNCG senior Ricky Hickman was fouled with 7.2 seconds to play, but he made just one of two to tie the game. Marshall called time out with 5.5 seconds left and the ball in front of their bench. However, the Herd settled for a long-range three-pointer that was short and the game went to overtime.
Marshall’s Travis Aikens took over in the extra session. He scored 10 of Marshall’s first 12 points of the extra session. The Herd scored the first five points of the overtime to take a quick lead. UNCG’s Mikko Koivisto converted two free throws to cut it back to three, 73-70 with 3:54 left.
The lead was still three when Hickman picked off a pass, drove to the basket and was fouled with 2:14 left in overtime. He converted one of two, but Marshall bobbled the ball out of bounds on the rebound. Hickman missed a pair of three-pointers, but UNCG came away with the ball after both misfires.
The third time, they got it to big man. Hines took it to hole to tie the game, 78-78, for his 36th point of the game, tying UNCG’s Division I era mark.
Aikens was fouled on the other end. He made both free throws to give Marshall a two-point lead. But then Hines was fouled making a move to the basket with 25 seconds left. Notoriously a bad free throw shooter, Hines reworked his free throw stroke in the off-season. It worked as he sunk both free throws to tie the game, 80-80.
Humphrey, however, was fouled as he was shooting on the other end with 5.5 seconds left. He hit both and a desperation three-pointer by Hickman was off target.
“It was a tough game for either team to have to lose,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “It was good for both of us from the standpoint that we got put into situations that you can’t simulate in practice, going to overtime and such. I think we will both learn from this game.”
Hines got off to a fast start. Needing just 14 points entering the day to reach the 1,000-point milestone, he scored 11 points in the first five minutes as UNCG jumped out to a 16-12 lead. That extended his streak of double figure scoring games to 22 straight and give him 53 games with 10 or more points in his career.
He surpassed the 1,000-point mark at 9:34 with a putback, to make him the 14th player in school history to surpass the milestone. He wound up scoring 22 of UNCG’s 43 first-half points to give UNCG a seven-point lead at the intermission, 43-36.
UNCG missed nine of its first 11 from the floor to open the second half as Marshall whittled the lead down to two early in the second half. But the Spartans strung together seven straight points to take the margin back to a nine-point lead, 57-48, with 11 minutes to play.
Marshall’s Chris Ross drove the lane and converted a conventional three-point play, however with 4:54 to play to cap a 10-3 spurt and pull the Herd back to within a bucket at 60-58.
But Hines hit two free throws and then hit one of his trademark leaners in the lane to give the Spartans a six-point cushion with three minutes to play. The Spartans tried to go to work on the clock from there.
Marshall’s Darryl Merthie knocked down a three-pointer from the right wing with 1:16 to play to cut it 67-61. The Spartans failed to convert their next possession and the Herd’s Ross was fouled on a rebound with 53.3 seconds. He converted the front end of a one-and-one and then grabbed the rebound, but Merthie dribbled the ball off of his foot to give the ball back to UNCG.
But Hickman had a couple of mental lapses and Marshall got another life. First, he pushed off on the in-bounds to give it back to Marshall. Then, he fouled Markel Humphrey on a three-point shot. Humphrey converted all three free throws to make it 67-65. Against full court pressure, Hickman tried to hit Ben Stywall with a length of the court pass, but threw it too far and it went out-of-bounds to give Marshall the ball with 39.1 seconds left in regulation.
Chattanooga 108, Ohio Valley 85
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--Keddric Mays drained three-pointers on three of the Mocs first four possessions to pace the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to an early 30-8 advantage en route to a 108-85 win over Ohio Valley University at McKenzie Arena Saturday night.
Nicchaeus Doaks scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting to lead all scorers. Mays made six 3-pointers in all, scoring 18 points. Four other Chattanooga players were in double figures, including two players wearing a Chattanooga uniform for the first time.
Marcus Watts scored 16 points in his debut, while Kevin Bridgewaters added 10 along with five assists. Casey Long and Rickey Hood rounded out the Mocs in double figures with 15 and 11, respectively.
Hood’s team-high seven rebounds helped the Mocs to a 53-32 rebounding advantage. Eighteen turnovers kept Chattanooga from building on a 59-38 halftime advantage. Overall, 13 Mocs saw action and 11 scored. Six UTC players were making their Chattanooga debuts, while three of those were also seeing their first collegiate action.
"This was a good learning experience for our kids" said UTC head coach John Shulman. "It good to win while learning though. We were dreadful defensively and on the glass. We are pleased with the win, but disappointed with the effort. I expect a lot from this team.”
Ohio Valley (0-2) closed the gap to 15 points at 93-78, but could get no closer. The Fighting Scots were 19-of-23 from the free throw line. They also out-shot the Mocs from the floor, making 48.3 percent of their attempts, while the Mocs only managed 44.7 percent. Nathan Cozart led Ohio Valley with 18 points.
Chattanooga will play its next five games on the road, beginning with East Tennessee State on Wednesday night. The Mocs’ next home game will be November 30.