Furman 68, Chattanooga 61
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--A 22-4 run late in the second half pulled the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team within two points of visiting Furman with 2:30 to play, but the Paladins were 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 40 seconds to hang on for a 68-61 win at McKenzie Arena.
The win snapped a six game road losing streak for the Paladins (11-11, 5-6 SoCon) who had four players in double figures, led by Gerad Punch’s 14. Robby Bostain scored 10 points while grabbing a team-leading five rebounds and dishing out seven assists.
Keddric Mays led the Mocs (9-14, 2-9 SoCon) with 21 points including three 3-pointers. Nicchaeus Doaks and Ricky Hood each added eight points.
Furman used a 9-0 run which featured a pair of three-pointers from Eric Webb and one from Punch to take a 33-24 lead with 4:25 before intermission. The lead remained nine at the break, but the Paladins pushed the cushion to 18 midway through the second half.
With walk-on Zach Ferrell running the point for the Mocs, the Furman lead was sliced in half win three possessions. A Keddric Mays three, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play by Khalil Hartwell preceded another triple from Mays. In 57 seconds the Mocs were back within striking distance. Two free throws and a lay-up from Mays made the run 13-0 and UTC was within five at 57-52.
After Marcus Watts drained two charity tosses with 2:30 left to pull the Mocs within 61-59, Punch answered on the other end to put Furman up four and preserve the win.
The Mocs won the battle of the boards 25-23 and committed only 11 turnovers while forcing 15. However, Furman shot 56.8 percent from the field and was 9-of-20 from behind the three-point arc.
UTC will hit the road this weekend to face Georgia Southern at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Mocs were 67-58 winners over the Eagles earlier this month.
UNCG 65, Georgia Southern 62
GREENSBORO, NC ? In a game where both teams had more turnovers than field goals, UNC Greensboro gutted one out to defeat Georgia Southern, 65-62, in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Monday night at Fleming Gym.
The Spartans (12-9, 9-2 SoCon) forced 26 Georgia Southern turnovers to win their sixth-straight conference game and keep pace with Appalachian State atop the North Division of the conference. Appalachian State defeated College of Charleston, 67-56, at home on Monday.
Coming out of a timeout with 1:01 to play, UNCG ran the shot clock down. With five on the timer and Kyle Hines well-covered, Ricky Hickman drove and drew contact to get to the foul line. He knocked down both shots to give the Spartans a 64-62 lead.
Georgia Southern had two shots on its initial possession, but UNCG couldn’t control the loose ball after the second shot and the Eagles got possession in front of their bench with 16.1 seconds left. Donte Gennie tried to drive the right side of the lane off of a ball screen at the top of the key with six seconds left. But Hickman reached in for a deflection and Kevin Oleksiak came up with the loose ball. Hickman was then fouled after Oleksiak flipped the ball back to him.
Hickman, a senior from Winston-Salem, NC, made the first, but missed the second to leave the door open ever so slightly as Georgia Southern called timeout with 1.2 seconds left. However, the length of the court pass went out of bounds and UNCG was able to run out the remaining clock.
Hines led the way for UNCG with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Hines, the leading scorer in the Southern Conference at better than 21 points per contest, extended his streak to 42 straight games in double figures and recorded his 30t h career 20-point game, including 12 this season.
Hickman added 15 points, five rebounds, four steals and four assists, while Oleksiak scored 10 points, all of them in the first half.
Georgia Southern (10-11, 3-7) had four players in double figures, led by Gennie’s 12 points. Louis Graham had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, his ninth of the season to tie Hines for the league lead.
UNCG didn’t help its cause at the free throw line, although it was there often. The Spartans were 26-of-40 from the foul line for the night, but made three big ones in the final 36 seconds to give UNCG its fifth-straight win overall. Despite UNCG going to the free throw line 26 more times that the Eagles, 40-14, overall fouls were relatively close, 23-18.
UNCG made just 17 field goals and committed 18 turnovers, while Georgia Southern had 25 field goals, but turned the ball over 26 times.
For much of the night, the teams had to have a feeling of d?j? vu as the game had an almost identical feel of the game that was played four weeks earlier in Statesboro.
The Spartans got off to a slow start, making just two field goals in the first eight minutes. But 7-of-10 at the free throw line kept the Spartans within striking distance at 14-11. The Eagles, however, got hot and made five shots in a row to spark a 13-4 run and open up a nine-point lead, 32-23, with six minutes to play in the opening half.
UNCG ran off eight of the next nine to cut the margin to two late in the half. After a drive down the lane by Oleksiak just beat the buzzer, UNCG trailed by just one at the break, 38-37, despite Georgia Southern shooting 55 percent from the floor in the half.
The start of the second half was more of the same as the Eagles continued to shoot the ball well, but turned the ball over. Meanwhile, UNCG looked out of sync offensively, but got to the free throw line and was able to take advantage of some of the turnovers to stay in striking distance.
UNCG buckled down midway through the second half, however. UNCG held Georgia Southern to just three points over a nearly eight-minute span, leading to a 13-3 Spartan run. Ben Stywall gave UNCG a 51-50 lead with two free throws. After Gerogia Southern’s 22nd turnover of the night, Gennie was called for an intentional foul when Hickman drove to the basket. Hickman converted both free throws to give the Spartans a three-point lead with 8:26 to play, their first lead since 8-6.
The game became a see-saw affair from there. Mikko Koivisto made his first field goal of the night a big one, a three-pointer from the left corner to give UNCG a 62-58 lead with three minutes to play. Graham scored on the other end to cut the margin to two. After a UNCG miss, Salazar scored on a tip-in to tie the game with 1:49 to play.
Koivisto missed a three-pointer on the next possession, but chased down his own rebound to give the Spartans a new shot clock and set the stage for the thrilling final minute.
Western Carolina 77, Wofford 74 (OT)
Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina scored six of its last nine points from the free throw line in overtime to outlast Wofford College, 77-74, Monday night at the Ramsey Center. With the win, Western Carolina breaks a four-game skid and improves to 8-13, and 5-5 in Southern Conference action, while Wofford falls to 6-14, 1-9 in league play.
Playing with a taped left elbow, freshman Nick Aldridge scored a team-high 22 points and his classmate, Jake Robinson, matched his career-high with 20 points, including five 3-pointers, to give the Catamounts their second win of the season over the Terriers. Robinson, a native of Canton, also established a career-best with eight rebounds and drained a pair of clutch shots late in the game.
Playing with four freshmen on the floor down the stretch, Robinson nailed a 23-foot, 3-pointer with 1:45 showing on the regulation clock to snap the sixth tie of the second stanza, giving WCU a three-point lead, 68-65. On the other end of the court, Wofford junior guard Shane Nichols hit a three with 24 seconds showing to eventually send the contest into overtime.
Robinson came up big again in the extra session, hitting another long-range trey with 33 seconds remaining in OT, pushing the Catamounts' lead to five, 76-71. However, Nichols again answered on the ensuing possession, canning a three to bring the Terriers within two, 76-74, with 18 seconds to play. Four seconds later, Robinson was fouled on the inbounds play and hit 1-of-2 free throws, which proved to be enough as Nichols missed a three as time expired in the game.
A third freshman, Brigham Waginger, also had a career-night for the purple and gold. Starting at the point for injured teammate Kyle Greathouse, Waginger set career highs with seven assists, seven steals, seven boards and only committed one turnover in just under 40 minutes of court time.
Trailing by 10 with 14:32 remaining in the second half, Western went on a 12-to-2 run over the next 3:36 to tie the game at 51. With 5:02 remaining in the contest, Waginger swiped a key steal to start the fast break and made a behind-the-back pass to classmate Brandon Giles for the dunk to put Western up by four, 61-57, forcing Wofford to use a 30 second timeout. After the stoppage, the Catamounts extended their lead to six before the Terriers battled back to tie the game at 65 before Robinson hit the go-ahead three setting up OT.
Wofford also put three in double-figures as Nichols scored a game-high 23 points, including 6-of-11 from 3-point range. Freshman Junior Salters added 18 points off four treys, while Drew Gibson scored a dozen with nine rebounds and dished out a team-best six assists.
The Catamounts are back in action this Saturday (Feb. 3) afternoon as the team travels to Charleston, S.C., for the first of two games in the Lowcountry. Western faces The Citadel at 1:00 pm on Saturday, and visits the College of Charleston on Monday night. Both games will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard in Western North Carolina on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee or on-line at www.WWCUFM.com.
Appalachian State 67, College of Charleston 56
BOONE, N.C. -- D.J. Thompson recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 assists and Davis Bowne poured in a game-high 16 points to lead Appalachian State University men’s basketball to a decisive 67-56 victory over College of Charleston on Monday evening at the Holmes Center.
Appalachian (17-5, 9-2 Southern Conference) never trailed and led by as many as 17 points en route to the comfortable win. After closing the first half with a 15-3 run to open up a 33-19 lead, ASU held a double-digit advantage the rest of the way before a regional television audience on CSS.
In addition to Thompson and Bowne, Jeremy Clayton and Kellen Brand chipped in with 11 points apiece to lead four Mountaineers in double figures and spoil former Mountaineer head coach and current CofC coach Bobby Cremins’ return to the High Country.
Philip McCandies and Josh Jackson led College of Charleston (15-8, 8-3 SoCon) with 12 points each.
With the win, Appalachian kept pace with UNC Greensboro (12-9, 9-2 SoCon), a 65-62 winner Monday evening over Georgia Southern, atop the Southern Conference’s North Division standings.
A stingy defensive effort by the Mountaineers limited CofC to just 25 percent shooting in the first half and 35 percent for the game, the Cougars second worst effort from the floor this season. The Mountaineers didn’t fare much better, shooting 42 percent to snap their recent string of hot shooting. However, the defensive unit forced CofC into 17 turnovers and scored 18 points off turnovers as a result.
Appalachian jumped out to a 7-0 start in the first three minutes of the contest, all seven points coming from Bowne and Clayton. The Mountaineers extended their lead to 12 points, 18-6, with 10:37 left before the Cougars went on a 10-0 run to cut the margin to two with 7:45 on the clock. Thompson responded for the Apps with a three-pointer to start a 9-0 ASU run to re-establish ASU’s lead at 11 points with five minutes left in the half. ASU extended its lead to 14, 33-19, going into halftime on a Nate Cranford three-pointer.
ASU maintained the advantage, never letting the Cougars within 10 point for the entire second half and going up by as many as 17, 63-46, on a Brand three-pointer with 2:42 left in the contest. CofC got a late three-pointer with 15 seconds left for the final 67-56 score.
Thompson’s double-double was the first of his career and the first points-assists double-double by a Mountaineer since Graham Bunn did so on February 15, 2003 also against the Cougars in the Holmes Center. The win also marked the best start by an ASU squad since the 1988-89 started out 17-5 through its first 22 games.
ASU will have a few days respite before resuming its SoCon schedule on Saturday with a 6 p.m. game at Furman. That contest will also be regionally televised on CSS. The Apps will then stay on the road an travel to Georgia Southern for a 7:30 p.m. game in Statesboro.