GEORGIA 76, ELON 65
ATHENS, GA. - Ola Atoyebi recorded his first career double-double, but it was not enough at the Georgia Bulldogs fended off the Elon Phoenix 76-65 from the Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga. on Tuesday night's men's basketball action. Atoyebi was one of three Phoenix players to finish the night with a double digit scoring output. Georgia welcomed back the suspended Billy Humphrey who paced the team with 18 points off the bench to lead the Bulldogs who now sit at 3-0. Despite Atoyebi's career-best 20 points, Elon dropped to 2-2 on the year.
Atoyebi's bucket on the game's first possession put the Phoenix up 2-0 18 seconds into the contest. A Dave Bliss jumper at the other end knotted the score before a Brett James jumper put Elon back on top 4-2 just over a minute in. Georgia took its first lead on Humphrey's three with 16:42 to go in the half, but Elon would come back and even the score at 6-6 on a Montell Watson driving lay-up with 16:36 showing on the clock. Jeremy Price put in a lay-up 23 seconds later to give the Bulldogs the lead for good.
Georgia used an 18-0 run to convert the 6-6 tie into a 22-6 edge at the 12:59 mark as Bliss put in another lay-up. The largest lead of the half came when Sundiata Gaines' bucket put the Bulldogs up 18 at 26-8 with 12:13 to play in the first half. Elon chipped away and whittled its deficit down to 10 when James' trey with 5:51 left made the score 29-19. From that point on, Georgia closed the stanza with an 8-6 run to hold a 12-point edge at the break.
The Bulldogs began the second half with a 14-8 run over the first 5:51 of play to build a 51-33 lead. The Phoenix did not fold, but instead began to claw back into the contest and used a 13-4 run of its own to close the gap to nine points at 55-46 with 8:39 remaining in the game. During that span, Chris Long netted nine of his career-high 19 points including a jumper to start it and a three-point bucket to cap the run.
Two Chris Barnes free throws put the Bulldogs back up 12 at 62-50 with 7:02 to play before another Long three cut the deficit back to nine with 5:39 showing. Watson's three with 2:36 to go trimmed the margin to just seven points at 67-60.
Elon was unable to close the gap any closer and Georgia finished the night with a 9-5 run to provide the final 76-65 margin.
Atoyebi led all players with 20 points and a career-best 12 rebounds, including a game-high six offensive boards. Long added 19 points and six caroms while James finished the contest with 11 markers. Elon shot 44.3 percent from the field and finished 6-of-9 from the line.
Georgia saw five players finish with double figure scoring nights paced by Humphrey. Gaines chipped in 14, Bliss 12 and both Terrance Woodbury and Barnes added 11 points. The Bulldogs entered the game averaging 95.0 points in their first two games. Gaines had nine rebounds and a game-high five assists to lead the Bulldogs.
The Phoenix remains on the road to take on Virginia Commonwealth at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 24 from Richmond, Va.
UNC ASHEVILLE 83, WESTERN CAROLINA 73
CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Trailing by a game-high 18 points with just less than seven minutes remaining on the clock, Western Carolina drained five-consecutive 3-pointers as a part of a 15-1 run to slice mountain-rival UNC Asheville's lead to just four, 70-66, with three minutes to play. However, the rally fell just short as the Catamounts only connected on two of their final seven field goals while the Bulldogs made 9-of-10 from the free throw line to outscore WCU, 13-7, down the stretch in an 83-73 loss Tuesday night at the Ramsey Center.
The loss is Western's first at home in the series since 2001 and also snaps its two-game winning streak over the `Dogs. UNC Asheville remained perfect on the season moving to 5-0 for the first-time ever in school history. The Bulldogs also earned their first point in this season's 2nd Annual Parkway Series to trail 4-1. WCU had earned four-straight points in the head-to-head athletic competition with wins in volleyball, women's soccer and both men's and women's cross country.
"This is the third game in a row we have not come out of the locker room and been really sharp at the start of the ball game. We got down early and I thought (UNC Asheville's) execution was much better in that first half than ours," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter who suffered his first defeat to the Bulldogs. "I told our guys in the locker room it was a struggle to play good defense and score. I think our youth really showed. I didn't like our body language - our heads were dropping and we just did not show that good Catamount fight tonight."
Sophomore Jake Robinson found his stroke from long-range in the second half, connecting on five of his game-high six 3-pointers after intermission to lead the Catamounts with 19 points. Front court classmate Nick Aldridge stretched his consecutive double-figure scoring outings to 25 with his fifth-straight double-digit performance of the season finishing with 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman Michael Porrini, who was saddled with early foul trouble, rounded out WCU's leading scorers with 12 points and three assists, while sophomore swing man Brandon Giles chipped in nine.
Western held one lead in the game as Porrini stripped Bulldog senior point guard K.J. Garland and raced in for a lay-up one minute in for the early, 2-0, advantage. However, the Bulldogs responded with a 14-0 run, including three 3-pointers, to grab a 14-2 lead they would never relinquish. The first half deficit for WCU ballooned to as many as 14 with four and a half minutes to play before the break and was sustained at 11, 44-33, at intermission.
Out of the halftime locker room, Western was able to trim the margin into single digits twice before the Bulldogs steadily increased its lead to 18 on a three-point play by junior Reid Augst.
Yet, over the next four minutes, the Catamounts - spurred by a raucous Ramsey Center crowd - splashed in five-straight 3-pointers to pull the game to within four points.
The first triple came at the 6:10 mark as Robinson took a feed from Porrini and canned a shot from the left wing. An Aldridge steal set up a second Robinson trey, while a defensive rebound by the Canton, N.C., set up the first of two Giles' trifectas that trimmed things to six before the final media timeout. After the stoppage, Garland made one of two free throws to push the lead back to seven, 70-63, but a Porrini trey on an assist from Robinson closed the gap to four, 70-66.
On the ensuing possession, UNCA's Vincent James, who led the Bulldogs with a game-high 22 points, committed a turnover giving the ball back to the purple and gold. However, Porrini was short on a 3-pointer that would have sliced the deficit to a single point and started the Bulldog's dance at the charity stripe that eventually put the game away.
Aided by Robinson's six triples, Western Carolina (2-3) tied both a school and a WCU Ramsey Center record with 15 made 3-pointers on a record 34 attempts. WCU connected on 15-of-32 last year against Atlanta Christian exactly one-year to the date - on Nov. 20, 2006 - and attempted 34 against conference-foe, Chattanooga, on Feb. 12. Davidson holds the Ramsey Center record for made treys in a single-game with 16 last season.
The Bulldogs put three players in double figures, each finishing reaching the 20-point plateau. Senior Vincent James led the way with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, while Garland and Augst each finished with 20 points.
UNC Asheville shot 55.3-percent from the field, including a sizzling 59.3-percent in the opening stanza. WCU shot consistently in each half, finishing at 36-percent in the first 20 minutes and 35 in the second half. Despite surrendering height advantage to the Bulldogs - namely in the form of 7-foot, 7-inch center Kenny George - the Catamounts managed to out rebound the Bulldogs, 39-to-37. George finished the game with four points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Catamounts will break for the Thanksgiving holiday before returning to the hardwood next Tuesday, Nov. 27 as it opens Southern Conference play on the road against North Division foe, Elon. Tip-off from Alumni Gymnasium is set for 7:00 pm. The game will be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard locally in Cullowhee on WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 or online at www.WWCUFM.com.
PENNSYLVANIA 93, THE CITADEL 77
PHILADELPHIA, PA. ? The Citadel starting line-up recorded an impressive night on offense with four players scoring in double-digits, but the Bulldogs could not stop the Quakers as they claimed their first win of the season in a 93-77 final at the historic Palestra on Tuesday night.
A first half plagued by early turnovers and fouls started off with a Demetrius Nelson foul with only 12 seconds off the clock, giving Penn’s Tyler Bernardini a 3-point play to start off the game. As the Quakers jumped out to an 8-0 lead with a 3-pointer by Harrison Gaines and a Bernardini layup, Austin Dahn and Nelson put the Bulldogs back in the game brining them within one at 15:53 in the half, 8-7.
However, The Citadel was able to connect on only one basket in the next four-and-a-half minutes as the Quakers went on a 12-2 run to put Penn up 20-9 for their first double-digit lead of the game at 11:30. A jumper by Cameron Wells brought the Bulldogs back within nine points and The Citadel kept the Penn lead in single-digits until 1:26 in the first half. The Bulldogs went into the locker room at the half down by 10 points, 45-35. Leading The Citadel with an impressive 15 points was Dahn. The freshman forward shot 5-of-7 from the field, 3-of-4 from long range and totaled four rebounds.
Gaines opened the second half with a quick basket for the Quakers at 19:29, but Dahn quickly responded with his fourth 3-point shot of the night at 19:14 to bring The Citadel within nine points, 47-38. However, the Bulldog defense could not put a stop to an aggressive Penn team who extended their lead to as much as 23 points with 13:54 left in the game. With three 3-point shots by Matt Clark combined with a layup by Nelson, the Bulldogs brought it back within 11 points at 9:00 left, but that would be the closest they got to the Quakers for the remainder of the game.
“I thought Penn, who were 0-3 coming in, came out confident and aggressive,” said Bulldog Head Coach Ed Conroy. “They were tough on us to handle all night on the defensive end. I give credit to Penn. They did a nice job and they were the aggressors.”
Dahn, who had a quiet second half, led the Bulldogs with 18 points, eight boards and one assist. Wells racked in 17 points and five assists, while Nelson totaled 15 points and six boards. Earning his first collegiate start, Clark totaled 12 points, shooting a perfect 3-of-3 from long range, also the first of his career. He also totaled six rebounds and an assist. Zach Urbanus, who also started for
The Citadel, finished with nine points and two assists. The Bulldogs shot 43.3 percent from the field and 64.7 from long range, hitting 11-of-17 3-pointers. “On the offensive end I think we did well. We may have had a few too many turnovers in the first half, but I think most of our problems were on the defensive end,” Conroy added. “We were just a half step slow on our coverage all night. However, our guys played hard and I’m happy with that.”
The Quakers, who shot 68 percent from the field in the second half and 57.9 percent for the game, was led by Grandieri with 20 points, five boards and four assists. Michael Kach came off the bench to contribute 19 points, six boards and three assists, while Bernardini finished with 18 points. The Citadel will return home for the Thanksgiving holiday and host Webber International on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 2:05 p.m., followed by a match-up against crosstown rival Charleston Southern on Monday, Nov. 26 at 7:05 p.m., both at McAlister Field House.