Furman 67, Erskine 55
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Robby Bostain scored a game-high 23 points and Eric Webb added 18 as Furman held off Erskine for a 67-55 victory in men’s basketball action before 1,050 fans Monday evening at Timmons Arena.
Leading 38-37 with 17:51 remaining, Bostain netted two lay-ups and Webb buried a pair of three-pointers to key a 13-0 run over the next 5:03 to open up a 14-point cushion. The Flying Fleet trimmed the margin to seven points with just over three minutes left, but a Bostain three-point play and Alex Opacic trey ended the Erskine threat.
“Erskine did a nice job tonight and are a well coached team,” said Furman coach Jeff Jackson. “Robby Bostain and Eric Webb played solid, and I was pleased we were able to make a lot of subs and get guys some good minutes.”
Furman raced out to a 31-16 lead in the opening 15 minutes of the game, but Erskine answered with a 14-2 spurt to help slice the Paladin lead to 36-30 at the break.
The Paladins shot 45.8% (22-48) from the field and 50% (8-16) from beyond the arc. Erskine connected on 21-of-50 field goal attempts and made good on 7-of-10 from the charity stripe. The Flying Fleet converted just 6-of-22 attempts from three-point range.
Bostain added six rebounds and five assists to go with his 23 points, while Webb dished out six assists and grabbed four rebounds. Senior Gerad Punch recorded a game-high eight rebounds for the Paladins.
Forward Craig Williams, who registered four blocked shots, led Erskine with 14 points and six boards. Brandon Wright collected 13 points and Matt Odom notched 11 on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.
With the win, Furman improved to 19-1 in its last 20 home non-conference games.
Erskine travels to face Wofford at Johnson Arena on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Furman (2-0) opens a four-game road trip with a 7:30 p.m. contest at Clemson on Wednesday.
Duke 72, Georgia Southern 48
DURHAM, N.C. --- In a tale of two halves, No. 12/11 Duke outscored Georgia Southern 34-16 in the second half and overcame a six-point, first-half deficit to win 72-48 Monday evening in the CBE Classic Durham Region Championship Game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Georgia Southern (1-1) controlled play for most of the first half. Senior Donte Gennie started the scoring with a jumper in the opening minute and junior Louis Graham added a basket on GSU’s next trip down the floor for an early 4-0 advantage.
Junior Diogo Salazar gave the Eagles their biggest lead of the game, six, to that point with a 3-pointer at the 13:14 mark, setting the score at 15-9. After three Duke free throws, Foreman responded with a trey to double the lead again.
Foreman’s field goal was the team’s last over a four and a half minute stretch and the Blue Devils took advantage. Gerald Henderson cut the margin to two points (18-16) and after a GSU turnover, Josh McRoberts’ second-chance lay-up with 7:47 left in the half tied the game for the first time since the opening tip-off.
The two teams traded the lead back-and-forth over the next seven minutes and neither squad led by more than a point. McRoberts hit four free throws in the final minute and the pendulum swung in favor of Duke when DeMarcus Nelson’s trifecta at the buzzer sent the Blue Devils into the break with their largest lead, 38-32.
Duke continued the momentum after intermission. Dunks by Nelson and McRoberts in the first minute put Duke up 42-32 but buckets by Graham and Foreman brought the Eagles back to within six points.
The Devils’ Greg Paulus answered immediately with a lay-up but shortly after, Foreman’s 16th point of the game made the score 44-38. From there, Duke took over as back-to-back dunks by Lance Thomas began a 9-0 run and the lead ballooned to 15, 53-38. Gennie finally stopped the bleeding with a jumper to snap the 4:30 drought.
Duke led by no fewer than 14 the rest of the way.
“I thought we played hard, for the most part,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’m very disappointed in the final margin. I don’t think the final score is indicative of the game. This is a place where you have to have tremendous poise. And I thought for a spell in the second half we lost our poise and got mentally weak. I thought it really affected the game and allowed them to go on a run.”
The teams were almost even from the floor in the first half with Duke holding a slight advantage, 41.7 percent to 41.4 percent. But the second half was a different story as the Blue Devils hit 58.3 percent from the field and held the Eagles to 21.2 percent.
“Our defense wasn’t nearly as good in the second half,” Price added, “and their defense was a heck of a lot better.”
Free throws helped tell the story as Duke went 22-of-32 from the line to Georgia Southern’s 6-of-14. In the first half, the Blue Devils hit 17-of-25 from the stripe while the Eagles went just 5-for-6.
“It’s hard to overcome the discrepancy at the line in a place like this,” said Price, “but with that said, we missed a lot of free throws. We missed six in a row at one point in the second half. We like to press, but you can’t get into the press if you don’t make your free throws.”
“We played a really good team tonight,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “They were really prepared. The two games we’ve played against were against really well-coached basketball teams. You could tell why Georgia Southern has won the (South Division three of the last five years). They really execute well and their kids are unselfish and they have good ball handlers. It’s tough to pressure them. I don’t think we had as much energy as we had yesterday but I think a lot of that had to do with the way Georgia Southern played. They take the energy out of you.”
Foreman finished with a game-high 18 points, tying his career high. He went 7-for-13 from the floor, 2-for-5 from 3-point land, and added five rebounds and three assists.
Gennie, who tallied a career-high 26 points Sunday night vs. UC Davis, was held to four points on 2-for-15 shooting, but pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
Nelson notched a double-double with 16 points and 10 boards. He led a group of four Duke players in double-figures. Georgia Southern returns to the court Friday night, traveling to Illinois for an 8 p.m. Eastern tip.
Appalachian State 109, North Greenville 71
November 13, 2006 - BOONE, N.C. -- Four Appalachian State University players scored in double-figures, led by 19 from true freshman Kellen Brand, as Appalachian men’s basketball opened the 2006-07 season with a decisive 109-71 victory over North Greenville on Monday night at the Holmes Center.
The game was decided in the first 20 minutes, as Appalachian (1-0) scored 25 points off 15 North Greenville turnovers in the first half alone to take a 60-29 halftime lead. For the game, ASU held a 34-17 advantage in points off turnovers and a 48-24 scoring edge in the paint. The Apps also held a 43-28 advantage on the glass with 12 different players pulling down rebounds.
In addition to Brand’s 19 points in his collegiate debut, the Mountaineers got 18, 14 and 11 points, respectively, from its senior trio of D.J. Thompson, Demetrius Scott and Nathan Cranford. In all, 13 different players scored for the Apps and shot 42-for-81 (.519) from the field.
Brand finished his stellar debut, the best by a Mountaineer this decade, by going 6-of-9 from the field, 3-of-5 from behind the arc and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. He also had two steals in his first game in the Black and Gold.
Austin Randel led North Greenville (0-0) with a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds with Amonzo Gannt dropping in 18 points.
Appalachian used a 9-0 run between the 6:33 and 4:08 mark in the first half to build up its largest lead of the half at 50-20. During that stretch, all nine points came via NGU turnovers. ASU’s defense continued to cause fits for the Crusaders as the Apps opened the second half with a 16-4 run to take a 43-point, 76-33 lead with just under 16 minutes left. ASU’s largest lead of the game came on a Scott lay-up that gave ASU a 48-point advantage at 94-46, with nine minutes left.
Appalachian’s 109-point output was the team’s largest since a 109-53 drubbing of Greensboro College on November 23, 1998 and is tied for the 13th highest output in program history.
Despite being usurped as the team’s leading scorer for the first time in the last eight games, Thompson still boasted a nearly perfect line, with six assists, no turnovers and six steals to complement matching a team-high with seven boards.
Brand and the Mountaineers will attempt to build upon their season opening win on Friday, when they travel to Clemson to face the Tigers in a 7:30 p.m. game at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Penn State 69, UNC Greensboro 56
STATE COLLEGE, PA ? UNCG went scoreless for 4:30 minutes in the second half and Penn State took advantage with a 9-0 run to take a lead it would not surrender on its way to a 69-56 win in men’s basketball action Monday night at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Penn State was led by Jamelle Cornley’s 23 points and 11 rebounds. Ben Luver added 13 points for the Nittany Lions (2-0)
UNCG (0-2) got 20 points from junior forward Kyle Hines, his 23rd consecutive game in double figures. It was also his 20th career 20-point game as he shot 10-for-14 from the floor. Bart Tooms chipped in with 12 points, including 5-for-6 shooting from the field.
The Spartans were hurt by Penn State’s 14 offensive rebounds, 11 in the second half, which allowed Penn State to stretch its lead late. The Nittany Lions also converted UNCG’s 14 turnovers into 23 points. UNCG had just eight points off of Penn State miscues.
“I thought we played well for about 30 minutes,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “Then they went off with a flurry of offensive rebounds, especially Cornley and Kyle got his fourth foul ? that certainly didn’t help us. That was when they started getting three and four shots.”
The teams played a fairly even first half, both shooting 12-of-27 from the floor. Penn State got out to a quick 9-2 lead in the first four minutes of the game as UNCG missed five of its first six from the field. But UNCG slowly climbed back into it. Senior forward Bart Tooms came off the bench to score 10 points in a 15-5 run as UNCG gained its first lead of the night, 17-14, on a Tooms three-pointer with 9:25 to play in the opening half.
Penn State pushed the lead back out to five at one point, but the Spartans pull close once again and trailed by just two, 31-29, at the intermission.
The Nittany Lions started quickly in the second half, too, going on a 7-2 run to open the half to force UNCG coach Mike Dement to call a timeout. And it worked as UNCG ran off seven of the next eight points, capped off by a Kevin Oleksiak three-pointer, to make it a 39-38 Penn State lead. The Nittany Lions, however, ran off six straight, including a pair of buckets by D.J. Jackson, to open up their biggest lead of the night, 45-38.
UNCG, however, used a five-point swing to get back into it. Kyle Hines scored and got fouled. After he missed the free throw, Ben Stywall made a great play to tap the ball out to Dwayne Johnson. He swung it around to Hickman who knocked down a 25-footer to cut it to three. Then, after Hickman took a charge to give UNCG the ball back again, Mikko Koivisto knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game, 49-49.
But Kyle Hines picked up his fourth foul, UNCG went scoreless for 4:30, and Penn State ran off the next nine points to take a 58-49 lead with five minutes to play.
UNCG will stay on its three-game road trip to open the season when they visit 10th ranked Duke on Thursday night at 7 pm.
Iowa 75, The Citadel 53
Iowa City, Iowa ? The Bulldogs came out stronger and held a lead on the Hawkeyes on two occasions but The Citadel defense could not stop Iowa Adam Haluska’s behind the arc performance in Monday night’s 75-53 loss in Iowa City, Iowa.
The Citadel basketball made several attempts, but had no answer for Iowa’s senior guard who lit up the court in Monday’s loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Haluska, 6-5, 210 pounds, hit 6-of-14 three-pointers, four in the first half, totaling 29 points for the Hawkeyes on the night.
“We knew who Adam Haluska was throughout the night, although it may not have looked like it,” said The Citadel Head Coach Ed Conroy. “He’s an outstanding player. He moves very well and Iowa did some very good things with him tonight. We lost him a couple of times and he really hurt us, especially in the first half.”
Haluska started off the night with the first basket of the game, a long range shot at the 19:41 mark in the first half, followed by an Iowa basket by Kurt Looby, another three-point shot by Justin Johnson, former high school teammate of Bulldog J’Mel Everhart, and a Looby layup to give the Hawkeyes a 10-0 advantage to start off the half.
It was not long, though, before senior guard Kevin Hammack made his presence known with a lay-up at 15:35, followed by a couple of free throws and a long range shot by Jonathan Brick to put the Bulldogs back in it, down 10-9. Shortly there after, sophomore guard Vytautas Valiulis took the lead for The Citadel with a layup at the 13:17 mark, putting the Bulldogs up, 11-10.
The lead changed again with a Johnson three-point shot followed by another Hawkeye basket at the 11:39 mark. Behind by four points, The Citadel hung in there and took the lead from Iowa again, this time with a Chris Diasparra three-pointer at 10:33, putting the Bulldogs up one for their second and final lead of the game.
“I really thought that’s how the game would go the rest of the way. Maybe I’m an eternal optimist, but we were doing a lot of things right,” Conroy added.
However, the Bulldog lead was quickly dampened by back-to-back Haluska three-pointers to put Iowa back up by five at 9:49 left in the first half. The period ended just as it began, with two baskets - this time free throws by Haluska, who ended the first half with 18 points. The Hawkeyes led by as much as 19 points and eventually ended the half up by 20 with a score of 42-22.
Returning from the half, both teams struggled as neither scored in the first four minutes and 15 seconds of action. Leave it to Haluska to break the silence at 15:45, connecting on a jumper to put the Hawkeyes up by 22 points.
Conroy resorted to putting in three-point shooters Joseph Thompson and Mark Schiavoni hoping that one or both would get hot and closer the margin. But after Schivoni found success from behind the arc once, he was never to see it again. The Bulldogs finished the night shooting 6-of-22 from long range, an average of 27.3 percent.
“Our guys just have to keep the faith and keep their confidence up and it’s our job as coaches to make sure that they do that and teach our guys that you still have to play defense even when you don’t make the baskets,” Conroy said.
Iowa led by as much as 31 points in the latter of the second half, but a few nice shots and an exchange of baskets between Bulldogs Jonathan Brick, Hammack and Valiulis with several members of the Iowa roster, The Citadel was defeated, 75-53. Once again, Everhart dominated the boards, despite the Iowa height advantage, with 12 rebounds, nine on the defensive end of the ball. Brick and Valiulis were the only Bulldogs that ended the night in double-figures. Valiulis led The Citadel with 15 points, while Brick finished with 11, both career-highs.
“I could not be happier with those two guys (Brick and Valiulis). I really believe in the way we scheduled because when you play big games like this, you learn more about your team. Do we discover the combination of Jonathan, Vytautas and Kevin if we don’t come in and play in these tough environments?” Conroy asked. “We got an awful lot of this experience. Just from where we were to where we’re going. We found out a lot about our guys. People think I’m crazy for playing this schedule, but I think we need this experience to find out a lot about our team.”
The Citadel shot 33.9 percent to Iowa’s 49.1 percent from the field. The Hawkeyes hit 9-of-24 from long range, averaging 37.5 percent for the game. However, the Bulldogs’ bench outscored the Hawkeyes 35-19, while recording a 10-2 advantage in second chance points.
“Obviously it would have been nice to get some wins. I thought it was going to be a better ballgame tonight. But, I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning just as excited to teach the game of basketball as I was this morning,” said Conroy.
The Bulldogs return home to play Charleston Southern at the North Charleston Coliseum on Thursday, Nov. 16 before heading on their second road trip to take on Notre Dame on Sunday, Nov. 19 and Southern Cal on Nov. 21.