Men’s Basketball Recaps for November 16, 2007
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 79, TEMPLE 76
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - Dustin Scott's 3-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer completed the largest comeback in College of Charleston men's basketball history as the Cougars rallied from a 25-point halftime deficit to down Temple, 79-76, in second round action in the O'Reilly Auto Parts ESPNU Puerto Rico Tipoff on Friday.
Charleston (1-2), which plays Houston at 1:30 on Sunday, trailed 50-25 at intermission. The largest previous halftime deficit overcome by Charleston came on Dec. 15, 2001 when the Cougars came back from a 35-18 deficit to win 60-58 at UNC Wilmington.
Freshman Antwaine Wiggins scored a team-high 17 points for Charleston. Tony White, Jr. added 15 points, while Jermaine Johnson and Donavan Monroe added 13 and 11 points each, respectively.
Temple (0-3) was led by Dionte Christmas' game-high 32 points.
UNC GREENSBORO 70, TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN 56
SPRINGFIELD, MO ? Kyle Hines led three Spartans in double figures with 19 points and added 11 rebounds as UNC Greensboro pulled away from Texas-Pan American for a 70-56 win in the first game at the 2007 Price Cutter Classic hosted by Missouri State.
An 11-2 run sparked by a thunderous Hines dunk erased a one-point early second half deficit and put the Spartans on their way to a 2-0 mark for just the third time in the last 20 seasons. Hines recorded his 32nd career double-double ? the most among active players in Division I.
Mikko Koivisto added 15 points and Kendall Toney chipped in with 10 points for the Spartans. Paul Stoll had 16 points to UTPA (2-1), while Dexter Shankle added 12 points.
“UTPA did a good job of getting us into a half court game in the first half,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “They didn’t let us get out and run and we were walking it up and not hitting shots. The second half, we did a better job of rebounding and got a few steals and got into some transition and it opened things up a little.”
There was no doubt what UTPA had in mind early on to thwart UNCG's All-America candidate. The first time Kyle Hines touched the basketball on the offensive end of the floor, he was triple-teamed. The 6-6 senior from Sicklerville, NJ still managed to get lose for six points early on as the Spartans opened up a 13-5 lead.
UNCG’s offense sputtered in the latter part of the first half as the Spartans missed eight of their last nine from the field to close out the half. The Spartans scored just five points over the final 9:29 of the first half.
After UNCG had a 21-12 lead at the 9:29 mark, UTPA went on an 8-1 spurt. The Broncs closed to within 22-20 on Stoll’s three-pointer with just under five minutes left in the first half. The Spartans were still able to hold onto the lead until the closing seconds of the first half. UTPA’s Brian Burrell hit a baseline runner with 22 seconds left before the intermission to tie it at 26-26 ? a score that held into the break.
Shankle gave UTPA the lead at 30-29 with a jumper, but that last all of about 20 seconds as Hines slammed one home on the other end to give the Spartans the lead again and extend his streak to 52 straight games with 10 or more points. That sparked an 11-2 burst as Dwayne Johnson and Toney followed with treys and UNCG eventually got the lead to 10.
The Broncs never got closer than eight after that as the Spartans coasted to the win in the first-ever meeting between the schools. Dement is now 4-0 against UTPA, having beaten the Broncs three times when he was the coach at SMU.
UNCG returns to action on Saturday when it faces tournament host Missouri State at 9:05 pm ET (8:05 pm local time).
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 72, CLEVELAND STATE 70
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --- Matt Fields’ lay-up with one second remaining broke a 70-70 tie to give Georgia Southern a 72-70 victory over Cleveland State Friday afternoon at Glenn Wilkes Classic in the Ocean Center.
Fields’ (Jacksonville, Fla.) bucket capped off a game-ending 11-0 run as the Eagles even their record at 1-1.
“It was a hard-fought game,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I’m proud of our guys for showing some resiliency against a really, really physical basketball team. We could’ve cashed it in ? we were down nine with about 2 ? to go. We were just very resilient and we followed what we wanted to do the last 10 minutes of the game. I told our guys that the only chance we were going to have to win is to spread the floor and score points with the clock stopped. We did a great job of getting to the line the last 10 minutes and making our free throws allowed us to get into our press and our press really bothered them.”
Four players scored in double-figures for Georgia Southern, led by senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) who totaled a team-high 18 points off the bench. Senior Anthony Marshall (Lake Worth, Fla.) added a career-high 13 points, eight in the second half. Freshman Willie Powers (Gainesville, Fla.) and junior Julian Allen (Waterbury, Conn.) added 12 and 10, respectively.
The game-winning play started 94 feet away with five seconds remaining. Foreman broke into the open court and fed Fields with a long-range alley-oop pass, who laid it off the glass. It gave the Eagles their first lead since the 7:46 mark of the first half.
The Vikings (1-2) went without a point in the final 2:27 and without a field goal in the last 2:41.
“We got stops when we had to,” said Price. “In the last minute and a half we got some key stops and Anthony Marshall hit a huge ?3’. The press created some problems. It took away some of their physicalness and made them speed up, which I don’t think they wanted to do.”
Marshall almost single-handedly brought GSU back. He converted a 3-point play with 1:15 left to close the deficit to five (70-65), then after a turnover, hit a ?3’ from the right-wing to bring the Eagles to 70-68.
Graham finished off the comeback by blocking a dunk attempt on one end and tying the game with a lay-up at the other.
Foreman, who finished with nine assists, provided the key pass on each of GSU’s last four field goals.
CSU’s Cedric Jackson led all players with 21 points and also had nine assists and four steals.
The Eagles continue play at the Glenn Wilkes Classic Saturday afternoon against UAB. Tip-off is set for 2:15 p.m.
SAN JOSE STATE 64, APPALACHIAN STATE 62
HAMMONS, MO. --- Appalachian State University rallied from a large first-half deficit and battled, but ultimately fell to San Jose State, 64-62, on a San Jose State basket with 0.7 seconds left in its second game at the First Shot Exempt Tournament
(High Point, N.C./Andrews) led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting while Jeremy Clayton (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) and Donte Minter (Salisbury, Va./Virginia) each had a game-high nine rebounds. Minter also scored 13 points despite encountering foul trouble late in the game.
ASU (1-2) faced a five-point, 37-32, deficit at the half but opened up with a new fervor and intensity, to take the second half lead. The Mountaineers' press forced four turnovers and a timeout to avoid a turnover on the Spartans' first six possessions of the half. After a SJSU (2-0) basket three minutes into the half, the Apps held the Spartans without a field goal for the next 7:47 to peel off a 21-5 run and take an 11-point, 53-42 lead with 11:52 remaining.
However, over the next nine minutes, SJSU outscored ASU 20-7, with nine of the points coming from the free-throw line to take a two-point, 62-60, lead with one minute left on a Justin Graham three-pointer. On ASU's next possession, Ryann Abraham (Mayaguez, P.R./Starmount) drove hard to the basket and drew a blocking foul to get to the line. Abraham calmly sank both free throws to tie the ballgame at 62-62 with 44 seconds left. Abraham finished the evening with 11 points, many of them coming on hard cuts to the basket.
The Spartans elected to slow down the tempo on their next possession and didn't attempt a shot until five seconds remained on the shot clock. Graham missed his attempt and the Apps couldn't grab the critical rebound before it went out of bounds and SJSU called a timeout with eight seconds left. On the ensuing play, Graham drilled a floater from the lane, leaving ASU with just 0.7 seconds to go the length of the floor and score, which ultimately proved to fruitless as the Spartans prevailed.
The Mountaineers will wrap up play in the First Shot Exempt Tournament on Saturday when they play the homestanding Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee at the Murphy Center at 7 p.m. CST. MTSU was also the victim of a late bucket from SJSU, falling to the Spartans 78-77 on Thursday evening.