Men’s Basketball Recaps of November 12, 2007
CHARLOTTE 84, APPALACHIAN STATE 78
CHARLOTTE, N.C. ? A career-high 27-point performance from sophomore Kellen Brand wasn’t enough to temper a second-half Charlotte rally and costly turnovers as the homestanding 49ers defeated Appalachian State, 84-78, in front on a crowd of 7,065 at Halton Arena Monday evening.
Senior forward Donte Minter also had a strong showing the loss with 19 points and six rebounds as the Mountaineers shot 58 percent from the floor and 64 percent from three-point range.
Unfortunately, 21 turnovers, 14 of them in the second stanza, opened the door for Charlotte and allowed it to erase a six-point first-half deficit for its second win of the season.
Brand’s 27 points came on 10-of-14 shooting and a 5-of-5 night from behind the arc. Leemire Goldwire paced the 49ers with 33 points, 12 of them coming from the free-throw line, many in the waning minutes of the game as ASU fouled to stop the clock.
In the first 10 minutes of the contest, the 49ers built up a 10-point, 22-12 lead. However, the Apps erased that deficit over the next 10 minutes, closing the half on a 29-14 run to take a 41-35 lead into intermission. Brand scored 13 points during that stretch and Doug McLaughlin-Williams drained a three-pointer from the corner as time expired in the half.
Charlotte exited the locker room and quickly snatched the momentum from the Mountaineers with a 12-2 run to take a 49-43 lead 4:20 into the half. Charlotte maintained that lead and ran it out to as many as 11 on a pair of free throws with three minutes left. Despite much of the green-clad crowd heading for the exits, the Mountaineers battled for the remainder of the game but couldn’t keep the ball out of Goldmire’s hands which kept ASU at bay with their clutch free-throw shooting.
The 49ers didn’t make a field goal in the final five minutes of the game, but were able to keep their advantage by getting to the charity stripe.
The 49ers shot at a 47-percent clip but made 71 percent of their 38 free-throw attempts and held a 31-25 advantage on the glass. Sophomore Ryann Abraham, making his first start at point guard, scored 11 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting.
ASU will look to rebound from the season-opening loss, its first in four years, later this week when they travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn. for the First Shot Exempt Tournament. Appalachian opens play in the tourney against Lipscomb at 5 p.m. CT at the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
FLORIDA STATE 92, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 67
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. --- A 10-2 Florida State run to close out the first half broke open a tight contest as the Seminoles defeated Georgia Southern 92-67 Monday night at the Tucker Center.
The game was the season-opener for GSU and a first-round contest in the Glenn Wilkes Classic. FSU stays undefeated on the young season at 2-0.
FSU was led by Isaiah Swann’s game-high 25 points. Toney Douglas added 18 off the bench.
“I thought we fought hard early and I thought our foul trouble hurt us,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “When Dwayne (Foreman) and Louis (Graham) got in foul trouble it affected our team. I don’t think the score was indicative of the game. We’ve got to find a way when we play schools like this to be mentally tougher down the stretch and play harder and learn from it.”
Three players shared team-high scoring honors for Georgia Southern.
Freshman Willie Powers (Gainesville, Fla.), in his first collegiate contest, poured in 13 on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor. Seniors Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Matt Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) also had 13 points. Junior newcomer Julian Allen (Waterbury, Conn.) tallied 10 and a team-best eight rebounds.
“I thought Willie played excellent in his first game as a freshman against an ACC school,” said Price. “We feel like Willie is going to be a good player ? he’s got some things he’s got to get better at, but we said from the beginning that we were going to throw him out there and let him learn on the job.”
Graham, who picked up his third foul with 7:33 to go in the first half, shot 5-of-10 from the floor and had four rebounds, two steals and one block.
Florida State jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes, but Georgia Southern battled back and managed to pull within one, 16-15.
“We started off slow and I knew we would,” Price said. “We were really tight. But once we loosened up a little bit and got in the flow of the game we played a lot better. We have to make shots ? we have to make open shots. We struggled with that, particularly Dwayne. When we get looks like that, for our team to be successful, we have to knock some down.”
The Eagles managed to tie the score four times but was unable to overcome the Seminoles.
Swann broke a 32-32 tie with back-to-back 3-pointers, the last coming at the 5:08 mark after a GSU turnover. Senior Anthony Marshall (Lake Worth, Fla.) cut the margin to six with two free throws, but FSU reeled off eight straight points, five from Ralph Mims to increase the lead to its largest of the night, 46-34.
Florida State took a 48-36 lead into the break and GSU was never able to get the lead into single-digits the rest of the way.
The Eagles return to action this weekend as they continue play in the Glenn Wilkes Classic. The second phase takes place in Daytona Beach, Fla. at the Ocean Center. Friday’s tilt against Cleveland State is set to tip-off at noon.
INDIANA 99, CHATTANOOGA 79
BLOOMINGTON, IND. --- The Chattanooga Mocs (1-1) put up a valiant effort at Assembly Hall, but could not hold off spectacular freshman Eric Gordon and the No. 9-ranked Indiana Hoosiers (1-0). Gordon scored a game-high 33 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and three steals to lift Indiana to a 99-79 victory over the Mocs.
The Mocs jumped out to a 7-2 lead on a Stephen McDowell (Indianapolis, Ind.) layup with 18:10 to go in the first half. IU battled back and led by as many 11 in the first half and was up 40-32 on a Jordan Crawford three-pointer with 6:23 left in the half.
Chattanooga’s defense and offense clicked the rest of the half going on a 18-6 run to take the lead into the break. The Mocs defense shut down the Hoosiers holding them without a field goal for 5:50 after the Crawford three. Senior point guard Kevin Bridgewaters (Columbia, Ky.) scored all of his team-high 14 points in pacing the Mocs to the lead.
The second half was all IU and the Eric Gordon show.
“Eric Gordon was the difference in the game,” said Mocs Head Coach John Shulman. “I’m not just talking offensively, his defense in the second half turned the game around for them.”
Junior forward Kevin Goffney (Ethel, La.) added 13 points and nine rebounds, while junior forward Nicchaeus Doaks (Trenton, Tenn.) had 12 points to go with eight boards.
The Mocs hit 56.8 percent (21-37) from the floor in the first half, but then hit just 33.3 percent (10-30) in the second. The Hoosiers hit 14-of-25 (56.0%) treys in the game, while hitting 55.4 percent (31-56) from the field.
Chattanooga is off until Nov. 22 when it will face Southern Illinois in the first round of the Anaheim (Calif.) Classic.
CLEMSON 91, FURMAN 46
CLEMSON, S.C. -- James Mays scored 17 points and Cliff Hammonds tallied 14 points to lead Clemson to a 91-46 win over visiting Furman Monday evening at Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Tigers (1-0) raced out to a 17-0 lead five minutes into the game and used impressive full court defensive pressure to hand the Paladins (1-1) their worst loss since a 102-55 loss at Vanderbilt during the 1997-98 season.
Mays added a career high six steals with his 17 points, and K.C. Rivers claimed a game high eight rebounds for Clemson, which shot 54.2 percent from the field, including a sizzling 66.7 percent in the second half.
Furman was paced by freshman Justin Dehm’s 11 points. Alex Opacic tallied a couple of baskets in the final minute to finish with 10 points. The Paladins shot just 34.0 percent from the field, converting 8-of-18 3-pointers. Clemson claimed a 38-35 rebounding advantage and blocked 12 shots. The Tigers also racked up 25 steals in the contest.
“We were obviously overmatched tonight by a fine Clemson team,” said Furman head coach Jeff Jackson. “The most disappointing aspect were the turnovers. We just didn’t handle their pressure very well at all. We’ll learn from this experience and get better as a team. That’s all we can do.”
“I thought we had a pretty good opening,” said Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell. “We set a good tone and tempo from the beginning. I also was impressed with our second half defense, as well as the unselfish offense. I thought we outmanned Furman physically and was very pleased with how we came out in the beginning.”
Furman committed 37 turnovers, including 20 in the first half to trail 41-21 at intermission. The Paladins outscored the Tigers 8-4 over the first two minutes of the second half to narrow the lead to 16 points at 45-29 following a Darryl Evans 3-pointer, but from that point Clemson took
over, scoring 38 of the game’s next 45 points to grab total command. A free throw by Sam Perry with 6:06 left gave the Tigers an 83-36 lead.
SOUTH CAROLINA 103, THE CITADEL 42
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? The Citadel Basketball suffered a tough loss on Monday night as they fell to South Carolina in their first road trip of the season, 103-42, before a crowd of 11,655 at the Colonial Center in Columbia. Senior center Demetrius Nelson led the all Bulldogs (1-1 overall) with 16 points, going 8-of-9 from the line.
Sophomore transfer Devan Downey set the tone for the Gamecocks opening the game with a layup at 19:32 followed by a quick jumper from Dominique Archie to give South Carolina a 4-0 lead to start things off in what became a long night for the Bulldogs. Freshman guard Cameron Wells responded with two quick shots of his own, while Austin Dahn and Nelson kept the Bulldogs within single-digits of the Gamecocks combining for the next 11 points, making the score 20-14 with 10:53 left in the first half.
However, foul trouble plagued both teams as Wells, who finished the night with 11 points, was forced to take a seat after capturing his third foul with 9:50 left in the half. South Carolina, taking advantage of the Bulldog foul trouble took their first double-digit lead at 9:10 and extended it to a 24-point margin going into the half, 46-22.
“We just had a breakdown in all the fundamentals,” said Bulldog Head Coach Ed Conroy. “It wasn’t so much South Carolina. They’re a good basketball team, but I think we had several breakdowns and the halftime score could have been totally different.”
Coming out of halftime, Downy put the first points on the board again for the Gamecocks, followed by a three-point shot by Zam Fredrick to extend the South Carolina lead to 29. A Downey foul took Nelson to the line again at 18:56 where he connected on one of two shots. Freshman guard Phillip Pandak followed with a jumper at 18:28 to make the score 51-23, but the Bulldogs would not score another basket until Wells connected on back-to-back jumpers at 14:18 and 13:48 to make the score 67-31.
The Bulldogs, who broke the school record for most three-point shots made in a game on Friday against Daniel Webster with 21, struggled from long range as they fought to stay in the game. The Citadel, who shot 3-of-29 from behind the arc, was never able to recover as the Gamecocks ran away with the game, recording their first 100-point performance since scoring 100 against Furman in 1996. Downey finished the night for the Gamecocks with 11 points, 11 assists, nine boards and six steals.
“Devan I thought was a one-man wrecking machine. It’s very difficult to stay in a transition game because of Devan,” Conroy said. “I thought all of our guys made some rookie mistakes and South Carolina sure made us pay for them. In the second half our discipline just broke down. I thought too many guys were trying to make hero plays. Our guys have to learn that you have to play as a team.”
The Citadel shot 26.8 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the free throw line. Nelson led all scorers with 16, while Wells added 11. Dahn finished with eight points, while Pandak contributed five points, three boards and two steals. The Gamecocks, who shot 52.1 percent from the field, finished with six players scoring in double-digits. Mike Holmes led with 14 points, while Downey scored a double-double (11 points, 11 assists) and was just one board shy of a triple. Brandis Raley-Ross finished with 13 points, while Archie and Fredrick scored 12 and Dwayne Day contributed 10 points.
The Citadel will return home to host Southern Cal at McAlister Field House on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 7:05 p.m.