WOFFORD 91, CINCINNATI 90
CINCINNATI, OHIO ? Shane Nichols hit one of two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to play to lift Wofford to a 91-90 win over the University of Cincinnati Tuesday night at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati.
Wofford improves to 4-1 on the season. The Bearcats are now 3-1.
Eric Marshall led the Terriers with 27 points while Nichols contributed 20. Wofford played without starting point guard Drew Gibson who strained a hamstring against Jacksonville State on Saturday night. Nichols played the point the entire game against UC’s full-court pressure and committed just one turnover in the second half.
Wofford built a nine-point lead at 83-74 with 3:59 to play when Marshall drilled a three-pointer. The Terriers were up 87-80 with 2:32 remaining after a pair of Marshall free throws. Vaughn cut the lead to 87-83 with a three but another Marshall free throw put Wofford ahead 88-83 with 2:08 remaining.
A trey by Marvin Gentry pulled UC within two at 88-86 with 2:05 remaining. After a Wofford turnover, Marcus Sikes grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in to tie the game at 88. Matt O’Connor put Wofford in front 90-88 with a twisting basket underneath off a pass from Marshall with 39.7 seconds left.
UC’s John Williamson tied the game at 90 with 27 seconds remaining on an inside basket.
Nichols drove the right baseline and was fouled by Vaughn with 5.2 seconds remaining. After missing the first, he made the second free throw for a 91-90 lead. After a Bearcat timeout, Vaughn missed a three at the buzzer that would have been the game-winner.
Cincinnati led 42-38 at halftime despite a career-high performance from Wofford’s Junior Salters. Salters led the Terriers with 14 points in the first half including a trio of 3-pointers. Vaughn hit 22 of his 33 points in the first half including six treys.
Wofford outrebounded the Bearcats 29-27. The game featured 56 three-point attempts as Wofford made 12 of 24 and Cincinnati was good on 17 of 32 from beyond the arc.
“We’ve got a pretty good outfit and we’ve got a bunch of guys that can shoot the basketball,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “This was a huge win for our program. I’m obviously excited.”
DAVIDSON 99, COLBY 69
DAVIDSON, N.C. --- Davidson tied or broke four school records, and Jason Richards set new career highs with 20 points and 16 assists to lead the Wildcats to a 99-69 victory over Colby College in men?s basketball action Wednesday evening at Belk Arena. The win lifts Davidson to 4-2 on the campaign, while Colby falls to 1-2.
Richards, a junior from Barrington, Ill., hit 7-of-16 shots from the floor including five buckets from downtown and finished just one assist shy of tying a Davidson mark for set ups in a contest.
The Wildcats? Stephen Curry set a new school record for three-pointers attempted and made, hitting 9 of his 20 attempts. For the third time in his brief career, the native of nearby Charlotte, N.C., went for 25-plus points in a contest scoring a game-high 29.
Fellow freshman Bryant Barr was the other Davidson player to go for double figures with a season-high 10 points off the bench in 11 minutes of action.
Neither team shot the ball well in the first half, but the Wildcats ended the stanza on a 16-4 run to head into the locker room ahead, 37-23. Despite shooting just 28.0 percent (14-50), Davidson had a trio of individuals put up notable numbers in the first 20 minutes of action. Richards assisted on
11 of Davidson?s 14 field goals to break his previous career high of nine, junior Boris Meno pulled down 13 boards and Curry hit seven treys to finish with 21 points in the half.
Meno added five rebounds in the final period to conclude the evening with 18, besting his previous high of 16 which was tallied against St. Mary?s on Dec. 15, 2005.
As a club, Davidson broke the school and Southern Conference mark for attempts from behind the three-point arc with 52. The 19 makes from deep tied a Wildcat record that was established in a 105-48 triumph over Washington & Lee on Nov. 30, 2002. The previous conference standard of 46 attempts was posted by former league member East Tennessee State during the
1990-91 slate.
After its shooting performance in the opening frame, Davidson hit 60.0 percent of its tries in the final half including 10-of-18 from long range to finish the game at 42.2 percent.
The Wildcats entered the night as the league?s top-rebounding team, and helped its cause with a commanding 55-33 margin on the glass.
Colby placed four players in double digits including a trio of Mules with 13 points. Drew Cohen, Nick Farrell and Artie Cutrone tied for the high, while John Bandi came off the bench to score 10.
The Mules shot 44.3 percent from the floor and knocked down just 7-of-22 threes (31.8 percent) in their first-ever affair against the Wildcats.
Davidson returns to the floor in a 7 p.m. tip at in-state foe Duke Saturday, Nov. 25. Colby travels to the University of New England for a 7:30 p.m. game on Monday, Nov. 27.
CHATTANOOGA 70, BALL STATE 55
MUNCIE, IND. --- Nicchaeus Doaks scored 13 points in a 2:36 stretch of the second half to rally Chattanooga from a eight point deficit and claim a 70-55 win over Ball State in the second round of the Las Vegas Invitational.
The Mocs struggled in the first half, committing 13 turnovers while Ball State built a seven point halftime advantage. Micah Rollin aided the Ball State cause, scoring 13 points. Ball State also won the first half rebounding battle 20-15.
Chattanooga scored the first seven points of the second half to erase the halftime deficit. Ball State responded by running off eight straight points to claim a 41-33 lead with 14:08 remaining.
Enter Nicchaeus Doaks. With 13:34 remaining, Doaks took an entry pass from Marcus Watts, spun and scored to trim the lead to six. Following a Ball State turnover, Doaks finished another Watts pass with a thundering dunk while being fouled by Micah Rollin. Doaks missed the ensuing free throw, but hit a three in transition on the Mocs’ next possession. Following two Ball State free throws, Doaks scored again inside. Ball State turned it over again and Doaks was fouled again by Rollin and made one of two free throws. Following a Ball State jumper, Watts found Doaks again. Doaks converted the old-fashioned three point play to put the Mocs ahead 46-45 with 10:58 remaining. When the dust settled, Doaks had scored 13 points in 2:26 and had turned an eight point deficit to a one point lead.
Ball State would take the lead back on the next possession on a D’andre Peyton jumper, but a Ricky Hood three-pointer would give the Mocs the lead for good.
An Anthony Newell jumper with 4:56 left cut the Mocs’ lead to five, but Ball State would be held without a field goal the rest of the way.
Chattanooga was 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the last 2:32 to put the game away.
Chattanooga shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the second half, while holding Ball State to 23.3 percent including 0-for-15 from three-point range. Overall the Cardinals were 2-of-29 from behind the arc for 6.9 percent.
Doaks 19 points and eight rebounds led the Mocs in both categories. Casey Long added 16 points while Keddric Mays tallied 15. Ricky Hood chipped in 12 points. Tyler Troupe was solid off of the bench, grabbing six rebounds and blocking two shots.
Chattanooga improves to 2-2 while handing Ball State (2-1) its first loss of the season. Both teams will advance to Las Vegas for games on Friday and Saturday. The Mocs will face Towson Friday afternoon.
UNC GREENSBORO 79, GARDNER-WEBB 67
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. -? Junior forward Kyle Hines overcame a slow start to record a double-double with 27 points and 13 rebounds as UNCG picked up its first win of the season, 79-67, over Gardner-Webb in men’s basketball action Tuesday night at Porter Arena.
The win snapped UNCG’s 14-game road losing streak. The Spartans hadn’t won on the road since December 6 of last year at East Carolina.
Freshman Mikko Koivisto chipped in with a season-high 16 points, his third double-digit scoring game this season. He knocked down 3-of-5 from three-point range in 25 minutes of action. Ricky Hickman also added 16 points, including 9-of-10 from the foul line. Dwayne Johnson added five points and a season-high nine assists for the Spartans.
Ricky McPhee led Gardner-Webb (0-4) with 17 points. Chris Gash added 16 points for the Bulldogs.
Despite a tough shooting first half, the Spartans took a lead to the locker room, 36-33, thanks to Koivisto’s three-pointer just before the buzzer. The Spartans (1-4) shot just 31 percent from the floor in the first half, but committed just five turnovers and knocked down five three-pointers to hold a lead at the break.
Gardner-Webb, coming off a 53-point loss to North Carolina on Sunday and playing its home opener, hit 5-of-8 to open the game and take a 13-3 lead in the first 4:24 of the contest. UNCG missed 9-of-11 from the field to open game. However, the Spartans battled back, holding the Bulldogs without a field goal for more than five minutes. A three-pointer by Kendall Toney capped a 12-0 run as UNCG took its first lead of the night, 15-14.
Gardner-Webb opened its lead back up to six midway through the first half, but UNCG battled back despite the Bulldogs keying on Hines. Hines missed seven of his first eight from the field, yet the Spartans were deadlocked, 31-31, with 2:30 left before halftime.
UNCG opened up a five-point lead midway through the second half, its largest of the night to that point. Ricky Hickman connected for his first field goal with 11:54 to play when he knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key with the shot clock winding down. Hines then followed with an up-and-under move on UNCG’s next possession to give the Spartans a 51-46 lead with just over 11 minutes to play.
Gardner-Webb knocked down back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions to promptly erase that lead, the latter by Ricky McPhee. But the Spartans ran off 12 points in a row, sparked by Hines going over the 20-point mark for the 21st time in his career and recording his 23rd career double-double, to give UNCG a 63-52 lead with just under six minutes to play.
The Bulldogs cut it back to five with 4:30 to play on three-pointers by McPhee and Gash, causing UNCG to take a timeout. The Spartans settled down again and slowly stretched the lead back to six before Koivisto knocked down a big three-pointer from the left corner with 45 seconds to play to put the final nail in the coffin.
After Hines missed seven of eight to open, he made a more typical 7-of-12 from the floor to close out the game. It was just the second time in his career that he shot below 50 percent in consecutive games after going just 5-for-14 in a loss to East Carolina on Saturday night.
UNCG returns to action next Monday, November 27, when they open Southern Conference play against Wofford at Fleming Gym. Game time is set for 7 pm.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 74, THE CITADEL 58
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. --- The Citadel Basketball held Southern Cal to a single-digit lead for most of the first half, but a game plagued by turnovers and fouls on both ends did not end in the Bulldogs’ favor as The Citadel recorded a 74-58 loss on Tuesday night at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
Senior guard Donny McLendon opened the night with a three-point shot to put the first points on the board for either team at 19:44, setting a tone for the Bulldogs that the final game of a five-game road trip may end differently for the team that was searching for their first road win. With The Citadel up 3-0, the Trojans quickly answered with two layups and a jumper, making the score 6-3 by 19:13, taking the lead for what ended up being the remainder of the game. A lay-up by senior guard Kevin Hammack, followed by a Southern Cal foul on Abdoulaye N’Diaye that sent McLendon to the foul line for three made shots and a three-pointer by sophomore Vytautas Valiulis put the Bulldogs back in the game, slimming the Trojan lead to three points at 16-13 at 11:03 in the half.
The Citadel managed to keep the Southern Cal lead in single-digits until a Lodrick Stewart layup at 6:58 put the Trojans up by 10 at 29-19. Southern Cal extended their lead to as much as 12 points, ending the first half up, 39-27. While the Bulldogs only hit 7-of-16 shots, shooting 43.8 percent in the half, their free-throw shooting kept them in the game, connecting on 10-of-11 from the line, a season best at 90.9 percent for the first half. However, the Trojans shot 14 -of-21 from the field for 66.7 percent, while also hitting one less free throw at 9-of-11 for 81.8 percent.
Coming out in the second half, it appeared that senior forward J’Mel Everhart was going to have another second half run after scoring quickly, recording his first points of the night at 18:54. However, Southern Cal dominated the boards, and Nick Young, who totaled 19 first half points for the Trojans, added a couple of field goals to a Dwight Lewis three-pointer at 11:45 to put the Trojans up, 55-33, extending their lead to 22. As the Bulldogs continued to turnover the ball over, Southern Cal extended their second half lead to as much as 26 with under nine minutes left in the game.
The Citadel was able to bring the lead back down to 14 after several made free throws followed by a couple of field goals and a three-pointer by Hammack at 1:21 left in the game. Hammack, who led the Bulldogs with 14 second half points, followed a Ryan Wetherall jumper at 1:10 with a long three-pointer at the buzzard that did not count, making the final score 74-58.
Both teams suffered in turnovers as The Citadel recorded 23 turnovers resulting in 29 Southern Cal points, while the Trojan’s put 26 turnovers on the board resulting in 24 Bulldog points. Although junior forward Demetrius Nelson was the only player to foul out of the game, each team 23 fouls for the night. Hammack led The Citadel in scoring with 17 points in 28 minutes, while Young led the Trojans with 24 points in 25 minutes of play. The Citadel dropped to 1-5 overall and will return home for Thanksgiving to host Asbury on Friday, Nov. 24 at McAlister Field House at 1:05 p.m.