WOFFORD 82, JACKSONVILLE STATE 80
JACKSONVILLE, AL ? Wofford’s Shane Nichols scored 24 points including seven free throws in the final minute as the Terriers defeated Jacksonville State 82-80 Saturday night.
Nichols sealed the win with a pair of free throws with nine seconds left.
The win was Wofford’s first non-conference road win since posting an 84-65 victory at Charleston Southern on Dec. 18, 2004.
Tyler Whatley led Wofford with 8 rebounds. Drew Gibson added 20 points for the Terriers and Matt O’Connor scored 15 points.
The game was tied at 41 at half and Wofford led by as many as 8 points in the second half.
FLORIDA 93, CHATTANOOGA 44
GAINESVILLE, Fla.?The University of Florida shot 63.3 percent in the second half and held Keddric Mays to five points to run away from Chattanooga for a 93-44 win at the O’Connell Center.
The Mocs (1-2) started slow trailing 13-2 after the first five minutes, managing only a Nicchaeus Doaks dunk. After a Lee Humphrey three-pointer but the Gators up 18-6, Rickey Hood connected on three consecutive three-point attempts to cut the lead to seven halfway through the half. The Florida lead was nine at 27-18 after a Marcus Watts layup with 7:57 remaining in the half. The Mocs would only manage a single Khalil Hartwell free throw the rest of the half. Florida closed the half on a 10-1 run to claim a 37-19 advantage at the intermission.
The Mocs held a three rebound advantage on the first-half glass, but turned the ball over 16 times leading to 17 Florida points.
Doaks got the Mocs started again in the second half with a jumper on the first UTC possession, but Chattanooga would not score again until a Doaks’ three-pointer with 11:45 remaining in the contest. Florida scored 23 points in that stretch to gain a 38-point advantage at 62-24.
Lee Humphrey led the Gators with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range. Corey Brewer added 13, while Taurean Green had 11.
Chattanooga had a strong defensive showing against Florida’s heralded post players. Joakim Noah scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds in 28 minutes of play, well below his season averages of 14 points and 11 rebounds. His frontcourt mate did not fare much better against the Mocs’ double-teams. Al Horford was held scoreless until 10:54 remained in the game, and was held to seven points and three rebounds, well below his averages of 16.7 points and eight rebounds.
The Gators defense held Keddric Mays, who had made 14 three-pointers in the Mocs’ first two games, to a single three-pointer on five attempts. Doaks was the only UTC player in double figures, scoring 11 points. Ricky Hood added nine points on three three-pointers.
The Gators, ranked number one in both the Associated Press and ESPN Coaches’ polls, are now 4-0.
The Mocs will travel to Muncie, Indiana for a game with Ball State on Tuesday.
EAST CAROLINA 72, UNC GREENSBORO 64
GREENBSORO, NC ? East Carolina closed out the game on a 12-4 run, making eight of nine from the line over the final 2:37, to defeat UNC Greensboro, 72-64, in front of a capacity crowd of 1,831 at Fleming Gym on Saturday night.
The Pirates (3-1) snapped UNCG’s 10-game home non-conference winning streak and spoiled UNCG’s home opener. The Spartans (0-4) entered Saturday night having won 13 of the last 15 home openers and eight in a row. It was also the first time since February 18, 2003, that UNCG lost at home when leading at the half. UNCG had won 21 in a row during that span.
East Carolina, which avenged a loss in Greenville to the Spartans last December, got 19 points each from Darrell Jenkins and Jeremy Ingram. Courtney Captain chipped in 10 points.
UNCG, which jumped out quickly by scoring the first 10 points of the game, had four players in double figures. Kyle Hines and Dwayne Johnson had 13 points each and Ricky Hickman and Mikko Koivisto each had 12. Hines extended his double figure scoring streak to 25 straight games, two shy of a school record, and also grabbed nine rebounds. It was, however, his lowest scoring output of the young season, shooting just 5-for-14 from the field.
After UNCG used four different players to score the first 10 points of the contest, East Carolina went on a 12-2 run to tie the score, capped off by Darrell Jenkins jumper at 14:06. Neither team opened up a margin of more than four after that as UNCG took a 34-33 lead to the locker room on Kendall Toney’s off-balance three-pointer just before time expired.
The Spartans jumped out quickly to start the second half, as well. UNCG used a 13-5 spurt over the first 5:36 of the second half to gain a 47-38 lead. The lead was still eight, 52-44, at the 10:43 mark when UNCG went cold. The Spartans missed their next 10 shots from the floor over a 5:29 span as East Carolina regained the lead, 56-53, on an alley-oop dunk by freshman Josh Fields.
UNCG stopped the bleeding momentarily, tying the game at 60-60 on Johnson’s steal and lay-up with 2:37 to play. But East Carolina scored 12 of the final 16 points the rest of the way, with Captain scoring five of those from the free throw line.
Over the final 10:43, UNCG was just 3-for-21 from the floor after making 5-of-10 to open the half. The Spartans finished the night shooting just 35 percent from the floor. Their free throw shooting also proved costly as UNCG was just 14-24 from the charity stripe. East Carolina wasn’t much better at the line for most of the night, going 9-for-18 at the line before the final 2:37. But the Pirates made them when it counted down the stretch.
UNCG will look bounce back when it visits Gardner-Webb for an 8 pm tip on Tuesday night.
VCU 71, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 59
Jesse Pellot-Rosa’s 18 points paced Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) to a victory over the College of Charleston, 71-59, at the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam on Saturday night.
Jesse Pellot-Rosa’s 18 points paced Virginia Commonwealth to a victory over the College of Charleston, 71-59, at the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam on Saturday night.
The loss drops CofC to 1-2 while the victory improves VCU to 2-1.
Eric Maynor and Wil Fameni each scored 12 points for the Rams in the victory. Senior Dontaye Draper led the Cougars with 30 points and six assists in the loss.
CofC lost its first game of the Paradise Jam to Villanova, 81-68, on Nov. 17. The Cougars will face Toledo in the final game of the four-day tournament on Monday, Nov. 19.