CHATTANOOGA 67, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 58
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.--Keddric Mays scored 17 points and Casey Long 15 to lead the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a 67-58 win over Georgia Southern at McKenzie Arena Wednesday night.
The Mocs sprinted to an early 7-2 lead before the Eagles raced back with a 12-0 run to wrest the lead back at 14-7. After a Mays three brought the Mocs within four, Georgia Southern pushed the lead to 19-10 with 8:55 remaining in the opening stanza.
Chattanooga would battle back beginning with the next possession. A Khalil Hartwell dunk off of a Long assist got the Mocs offense rolling. Less than three minutes later a Casey Long three-pointer found the net to cap an 11-2 UTC run that tied the game 21-21. Donte Gennie answered for Georgia Southern with a three of his own to push the Eagles back on top, but Long responded with another triple to knot the score again. UTC would hold GSU scoreless the final 5:09 of the half, closing the opening half on a 9-0 run to take a 30-24 lead to the locker room.
Chattanooga’s halftime edge would only last two possessions as Dwayne Foreman dropped consecutive three-pointers to even the score at 30 apiece. The lead would see-saw between the two clubs until Keddric Mays hit his second consecutive three-pointer forcing a Georgia Southern timeout with 14:36 to play and the Mocs up by six.
UTC’s lead would balloon to 12 at 56-44 with 7:57 to play, but Jimmy Tobias and Donte Gennie would both connect from long distance during a 14-2 run which tied the score at 58 with 2:13 remaining.
The Mocs took back the lead on the next trip on two Kevin Bridgewaters free throws and the UTC defense brought home the win by keeping GSU scoreless the final 2:13. UTC was 7-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch to close out the Eagles and Casey Long’s steal and reverse dunk at the horn put an exclamation mark on the Mocs 67-58 victory.
Nicchaeus Doaks led the Mocs with 10 rebounds, his second game of the season with double-figure caroms. Ricky Hood added six points and eight rebounds.
Georgia Southern had four players in double figures led by Gennie and Tobias who both tallied 16. Dwayne Foreman added 11 and dished nine assists. Louis Graham batted foul trouble to post 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles.
The win improved the Mocs to 8-10 and was the club’s first Southern Conference triumph against five losses. Georgia Southern fell to 9-7 overall and 2-3 in league play.
Chattanooga will hit the road for its next three games, opening the away swing at UNC Greensboro Saturday night.
DAVIDSON 71, FURMAN 63
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Junior Thomas Sander tallied 24 points and added nine rebounds to lift Davidson to a 71-63 victory over Furman and extend the Wildcats’ winning streak to 10 games Wednesday evening before 2,984 at the Bi-Lo Center.
Davidson limited Furman to 27.6% shooting from the field in the second half and compiled a 39-24 rebounding edge to improve to 14-3 overall and 5-0 in Southern Conference play. Furman falls to 7-8 overall and 1-3 in the SoCon.
Both teams blistered the nets in the opening 20 minutes with Furman grabbing a 37-36 halftime lead. The Paladins shot 56% from the field and connected on 9-of-12 three-point attempts. The Wildcats made 13-of-26 first half shots, including six treys.
Furman stretched its lead to 43-38 with 17:25 remaining before the Wildcats reeled off a 13-2 run to take a 51-45 lead with under 13 minutes left. Davidson opened a 10-point cushion, but a Stanley Jones layup and Jadee Jones three trimmed the lead to 60-55 with 5:14 to go. The Wildcats held Furman over the final five minutes converting 6-of-8 free throw attempts to hold on for the final 71-63 margin.
Jason Richards netted 18 points and Stephen Curry chipped in 15 to join Sander in double figures. Davidson shot 48.0% (24-50) from the floor for the game and connected on 17-of-22 attempts at the charity stripe.
Eric Webb and Moussa Diagne each tallied 13 points, while Robby Bostain added 11 for Furman. Diagne hit 3-of-5 treys, but the Paladins made only
1-of-11 second half three-pointers as a team.
Davidson returns to action Saturday when it travels to Wofford. Furman will travel to the College of Charleston on Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest.
The game will be televised live by CSS.
VIRGINIA TECH 74, UNC GREENSBORO 51
GREENSBORO, N.C. --- Kyle Hines led UNC Greensboro with 21 points, but no other Spartan scored more than seven points as Virginia Tech upended UNCG, 74-51, in men’s basketball action at the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday night.
It was Hines’ 37th straight game of 10 or more points, extending his school record streak. It was the 19th time in the streak that Hines has scored 20 or more points. He entered the game averaging 21.5 ppg, ranking 11th in the nation. He moved into eighth place on UNCG’s career scoring list, raising his total to 1,330 points in just his junior season.
However, as good as Hines was, the rest of his team struggled. Hines accounted for half of his team’s 16 field goals. Outside of Hines’ 21 points, the remaining four starters only scored eight points for the Spartans (7-9). Kevin Oleksiak and Bart Tooms each had seven points off the bench for the Spartans.
Virginia Tech, meanwhile, was pretty good themselves from the field. The Hokies (12-4) shot 48 percent from the field, although they were above 50 percent most of the night until the benches emptied, and hit 10-of-15 from behind the three-point line.
Four Hokies scored in double-figures, led by Zabian Dowdell’s 17 points. Dowdell was 4-of-5 from behind the three-point arc. A.D. Vassallo added 16 points in 24 minutes off the bench, while Coleman Collins and Jamon Gordon each chipped in with 10 points.
“We knew coming into the game tonight that we were going to have to make jump shots because of their ability to block shots,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “We weren’t able to do that. Had we gotten a few of those shots to go down, particularly early, we might have been ok.
“Tooms gave us a lift at the start of the second half (when UNCG cut the lead to seven). But then they got hot and it just got away from us. We started to get tired, having played three games in five days.
“We told our guys at the 12-minute timeout that it was getting away from us and let’s just try to take it from there. Our scout team did a great job down the stretch and we actually won the last 12 minutes of the game, so we can take that from this.”
The Spartans struggled offensively right from the outset. UNCG missed 10 of its first 12 from the field. In fact, Hines was the majority of the offense in the first half. Hines, a junior from Sicklerville, NJ, made UNCG’s first six field goal on his way to 16 first-half points. UNCG didn’t have a field goal from any other player until the final minute of the first half.
Kendall Toney knocked down a three-pointer for UNCG’s first non-Hines field goal. Despite the inbalance, however, UNCG trailed by just 12 at the half, 36-24.
Virginia Tech, on the other hand, knocked down 7-of-10 from three-point range in the opening half to account for a good portion of the halftime margin. The Hokies, coming off a win at No. 5 Duke and facing a game at home against top-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, showed no signs of the infamous “trap game” early on.
UNCG pulled to within seven, 37-30, on Kyle Hines’ 19th point of the night early in the second half. But the Hokies ran off 11 straight points to open up a 48-30 lead with 16 minutes to play.
Virginia Tech extended the lead from there, opening it up to 60-32 over the next five minutes, and wasn’t threatened after that.
The game was used as a fundraiser for Eastern Guilford HS, an area high school that burned to the ground back on November 1. More than $32,500 was raised, including over $27,000 from ticket sales and another $5000 in the form of a corporate donation by Verizon Wireless.
UNCG returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Chattanooga back at Fleming Gym at 7 pm.