UNC GREENSBORO 72, ELON 68
ELON, N.C. Kyle Hines poured in 24 points and Ricky Hickman pumped in 23 including a pair of free throws with less than two seconds left as UNC Greensboro nipped Elon 72-68 in Southern Conference men?s basketball Monday night at Alumni Gym.
The seesaw battle featured six ties and seven lead changes. The Phoenix
(3-11 overall, 1-3 SoCon) erupted to an early 5-0 edge on a three-point field goal by Brett James with 18:11 remaining in the opening stanza.
The Spartans (7-8, 4-2) responded by reeling off five consecutive markers, evening the score at 5-5 on a three-point bomb by Ben Stywall with 17:20 to go before the break. Following deadlocks at 11 and 18, Elon used an 8-2 spurt to take the lead at 26-20 on a jumper by LeVonn Jordan with 6:18 left in the period.
UNCG scored eight unanswered points to claim a 28-26 advantage on a free throw by Hines with 2:27 remaining before the intermission. A lay-up by Jordan tied the score at 28-28 with 1:53 to go in the first period.
Hickman?s three-pointer with 1:32 left in the stanza determined the 31-28 halftime margin.
Following stalemates at 34 and 40, the Spartans fashioned a 14-3 run to build a 54-43 lead on a trey by Dwayne Johnson with 9:03 remaining in the contest. Later trailing 56-45, the Phoenix went on a 10-2 spurt to pull within 58-55 on a dunk by Scott Grable with 4:17 to play.
UNCG reeled off six straight points to fatten its lead to 64-55 on a freebie by Stywall with 1:24 remaining. Later trailing 66-57, Elon forged an 8-2 spurt to draw within 68-65 on a three-pointer by Jordan with 19 seconds to go.
After 1-for-2 appearances at the free throw line by both Johnson and Hines stretched the Spartans? lead to five, Jordan canned a three-point bomb with three seconds left to pull Elon within 70-68. However, the Phoenix could inch no closer.
Elon won the battle of the boards by a 37-32 margin. UNCG committed only seven turnovers to 13 by the Phoenix. Elon outscored the Spartans 32-24 in the paint and 17-15 in second chance situations. UNCG outscored Elon 13-8 off turnovers and 28-13 off the bench.
The Phoenix fired 47.4 percent (27 of 57) from the field, 46.7 percent (7 of 15) from three-point land and 100 percent (7 of 7) from the charity stripe.
UNCG connected on 40.7 percent (22 of 54) of its field goal attempts, 29.2 percent (7 of 24) of its three-point shots and 72.4 percent (21 of 29) of its tries from the free throw line.
Elon was led by Jordan (24 points, eight rebounds), Ola Atoyebi (12 points, seven rebounds), James (11 points, four blocked shots, three steals) and Brian Waters (five assists).
The Spartans improved to 7-14 all-time against the Phoenix, including 2-9 at Alumni Gym. UNCG?s previous road win against Elon was a 70-55 victory on Nov. 27, 2001.
UNCG hosts Virginia Tech at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Greensboro Coliseum on Fox Sports South. Elon visits Appalachian State for a 3:30 p.m. conference clash Saturday.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 83, WOFFORD 78
STATESBORO, GA. --- Senior Donte Gennie (Tallahassee, Fla.) scored a career high 28 points to help Georgia Southern defeat Wofford 83-78 Monday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
GSU evens its Southern Conference record at 2-2 after an 0-2 start and is now 9-6 overall. Wofford falls to 5-11 and 0-5.
“You do what you have to do to win,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’ve never had another team force me to play five guards and they literally forced me to do that. They spread us out and were driving on our post players and we were fouling - they’re just a great shooting team. We got stops when we had to - our defense isn’t where it needs to be - but our effort was good.”
GSU placed five players in double-figures: Gennie, junior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) had 14, junior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and senior Jimmy Tobias (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) each had 11 and senior Diogo Salazar (Sao Paulo, Brazil) recorded a career-high 10 off the bench.
The Terriers were led by Eric Marshall who had a career-best 33 points, shooting 11-for-14 from the field (3-for-3 from 3-point land) and 8-for-8 from the foul line. Shane Nichols poured in 21 and Drew Gibson had 13.
Georgia Southern was slow out of the gate, missing its first three shots with two turnovers which helped enable the Terriers to jump out to a 6-0 lead.
It was the Marshall and Nichols show early on for Wofford as the combo started 7-for-7 from the floor, including 3-for-3 from behind the arc.
The Eagles led for the first time, 18-16, at the 12:51 mark, but not for long. Nichols reclaimed the lead with a trifecta and held the advantage for another six minutes.
The game went back-and-forth until GSU took control with a 9-0 run, capped off with a trey from Gennie, to go up 41-34 with 2:22 to go in the half.
Gennie came through again with a fall-down triple from the left corner at the buzzer and Georgia Southern went into halftime with the momentum and a 49-40 lead.
Gennie had 19 of his 28 points in the first 20 minutes, the most by a GSU player in a half this season.
The opening moments of the second period belonged to Wofford thanks to an 8-0 rally, but the Terriers were unable to grab a hold of the contest. Wofford pulled even (58-58) at the 12:10 mark and kept Georgia Southern in reach.
A Marshall jumper cut the deficit to 70-69 with 6:08 left, but seven straight points gave GSU the cushion it needed. Wofford would get to within three with just over a minute left, but no closer.
Georgia Southern dominated the glass, outrebounding the Terriers 47-28, led by Graham’s 12. He notched his seventh double-double of the season.
“Our rebounding was really good,” said Price. “We’ve rebounded well in the last two games, averaging 15 offensive rebounds and I’ve been really pleased with that.”
Georgia Southern takes a day off before going back out on the road to face Chattanooga Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
WESTERN CAROLINA 73, CHATTANOOGA 67
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. --- Junior Antonio Russell added a late spark to the Catamount offense, scoring 12 of his team-high 16 inside the final 5:16 as Western Carolina led from start-to-finish, clipping the Chattanooga Mocs, 73-67, Monday night in Southern Conference action.
The win, which gives Western a 4-1 start in league play matching its best opening five games since also going 4-1 in the 1994-95 season, was just the second all-time for the Catamounts at the McKenzie Arena. It also sets up a first place showdown in Boone next Monday, Jan. 15 as Western visits arch-rival, Appalachian State, in a FSN televised affair, tip-off at 7:30 pm.
Late in the second half, Chattanooga's Keddric Mays nailed a 3-pointer to pull the Mocs to within two, 57-55, before Russell took over. The Tampa, Fla., native hit 1-of-2 charity tosses on the ensuing possession and buried a trey following a UTC miss to balloon the advantage back out to six, 61-55, with 4:38 to play. Russell would add a lay-up and hit 6-of-6 free throws to help Western keep the Mocs at bay. UTC hit consecutive 3-pointers inside the final minute to trim the lead to four, but the Mocs would not score again as Western iced the game from the charity stripe.
Russell led four Catamounts in double figures, with freshman forward Nick Aldridge adding 15 points, 13 of which came in the first half, and four rebounds. Junior Arnold Gore went 6-of-9 from the field en route to scoring 12, while freshman Brigham Waginger, who saw additional court time due to an ankle injury to WCU senior Kyle Greathouse six minutes into the game, scored his SoCon-high of 10 points. Waginger and his freshman counterpart, Brandon Giles, led the team with seven rebounds apiece.
Behind strong opening 20 minutes by Aldridge and Gore, Western Carolina led by as many as 13 in the first half but committed seven turnovers amidst a 15-4 Chattanooga run that cut the lead to two points with 1:50 remaining in the half. The Catamounts got back-to-back baskets from
Aldridge and were able to recover and take a four-point, 36-32, advantage to the halftime locker
room.
Out of intermission, freshman Jake Robinson scored three of his five points on a triple to push Western ahead by seven, 39-32, but back-to-back buckets by the Mocs closed the game back to within two, 39-37. The Catamounts managed to answer with five-straight points by Waginger and eventually expanded the lead to 10, 57-47, with 7:09 to play prompting a Chattanooga timeout. After the stoppage, the Mocs rallied to again trim the deficit to a pair with an 8-0 spurt, setting up Russell's final five minute heroics.
Mays was 4-of-9 from long distance and led Chattanooga with 14 points. Casey Long added 12 points and six rebounds for the Mocs. Khalil Hartwell and Nicchaeus Doaks helped the Mocs to a six rebound advantage for the game with nine and eight rebounds, respectively, with Doaks also scoring 11 points.
Chattanooga struggled from the floor, managing a meager 38.6 shooting percentage and 53.3 percent from the free throw line. Western countered with a 45.6-percent outing, hitting 71-percent (15-of-21) of its free throw attempts and 35-percent (6-of-17) from long range.
Western returns to action at Appalachian State next Monday, Jan. 15, in a televised game in Boone. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.