SoCon Men’s Basketball recaps for December 29, 2007
FURMAN 67, HOWARD 62
MORAGE, CALIF. -- Freshman Justin Dehm poured in a career-high 23 points and Furman converted 14-of-24 second half free throw attempts to edge Howard 67-62 in the consolation game of the 2007 Shamrock Classic Saturday night at McKeon Pavilion on the St. Mary’s College campus.
The win, Furman’s first of the year, snapped the Paladins’ 12-game skid and closed out a seven-game road trip with a third place finish at the four-team tournament.
Dehm netted 15 first half points and Furman buried five first period treys to build a 32-31 lead at intermission despite the Bison shooting 75.0 percent (12-16) from the floor. Trailing 30-23 with 4:31 remaining in the half, Darryl Evans’ three-point play helped key a 9-1 spurt that gave Furman a 32-31 lead at the break.
Furman (1-11) continued the run in the second half outscoring the Bison 11-2 over the first five minutes to build its biggest lead of the game at 43-33 with 14:41 left. Kandi Mukole connected on a three-pointer to end Howard’s stretch of just one field goal in 9:12. Mukole and Kyle Riley traded buckets as the Bison trimmed Furman’s lead to 43-42 with 11:27 left.
George Brozos, who tallied all 12 of his points after the break, answered with a trey to up the lead to four and Alex Opacic followed with a layup to increase the advantage to 48-42. The Bison cut the lead back to two points with under seven minutes remaining, but Dehm answered with a jumper and two free throws to up the margin back to six. Furman kept Howard at bay, converting 10-of-16 free throw attempts over the final four minutes to secure the victory.
Dehm finished the game 8-of-13 from the floor, including 4-of-7 beyond the arc. Opacic connected on 3-of-7 field goal attempts and 5-of-8 free throws to join Dehm and Brozos in double figures with 12 points. Furman collected nine steals and forced 23 Howard turnovers leading to 22 points.
The Paladins shot 41.7% (20-48) from the field, but connected on 10-of-23 three-pointers and made 17-of-29 free throws on the night. Furman turned the ball over a season-low 10 times.
Howard (3-11) shot 65.7 percent for the game, but attempted just 35 shots to Furman’s 48 attempts. Eugene Myatt paced the Bison with 19 points while adding five rebounds. Riley added 14 points and Mikole chipped in 11 while Adam Walker grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. The Bison made only two three-point field goals on four attempts. Howard held a 28-21 rebounding advantage, but Furman snagged 11 offensive boards.
Furman returns to Southern Conference play Thursday night hosting Western Carolina in a 7 p.m. contest at Timmons Arena. The game marks the first of seven home contests for the Paladins during the month of January.
CHATTANOOGA 74, MURRAY STATE 50
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. - Junior forward Kevin Goffney (Ethel, La.) and junior guard Keyron Sheard (Red Bank, N.J.) combined for 28 points on 7-of-10 shooting as Chattanooga (8-4) defeated Murray State (5-5) Saturday evening in the first round of the 18th Annual Dr Pepper Classic at The McKenzie Arena.
After leading 40-23 at the break, Chattanooga saw their lead cut in half by a 9-0 Murray State run in the first two minutes of the second half to make the score 40-32. That would be as close as the Racers would get, however, as the Mocs rallied with an 11-4 run over the next 5:45 to extend their lead back to 51-36 with 12:16 to play in the game.
From there, Chattanooga would maintain a double-digit lead the rest of the way, reaching the final margin of 24 points three times, before closing out the 74-50 victory to advance to the Championship Game of the Dr Pepper Classic on Sunday evening.
UTC got off to a strong start early on as they jumped out to a dominating 19-4 lead over the game’s first 7:12 behind eight points from Goffney and six from Sheard. Murray State got back in the game with a 9-1 run over the next 4:19 to close the margin to 26-17 with 6:33 remaining in the half before an 11-2 stretch by the Mocs pushed their advantage to 37-19. UTC would then take a 40-23 lead into the half.
Sophomore forward Marvin Williams led the way for the Racers, notching a team-high 12 points to go along with six rebounds while sophomore forward Tony Easley added eight points and five rebounds. Sophomore forward Danero Thomas finished with four points and six rebounds and had his streak of nine consecutive games with a three-pointer snapped as he went 0-4 from beyond the arc.
For Chattanooga, Goffney led all scorers with a game-high 16 points on 4-of-5 shooting and added a game-high five assists to go along with five rebounds while Sheard finished the night with 12 points. Senior forward Marcus Watts (Clinton, S.C.) and senior guard Kevin Bridgewaters (Columbia, Ky.) each added nine points on the night and junior forward Nicchaeus Doaks (Trenton, Tenn.) had a solid all-around night with eight points and game-highs of seven rebounds and three blocks.
As a team, Chattanooga shot 50-percent from the field and limited the Racers to 30-percent for the game.
The Mocs return to action tomorrow evening when they host Wright State in the Championship Game of the 18th Annual Dr Pepper Classic at 8:00 p.m.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE 74, WESTERN CAROLINA 62
RALEIGH, N.C. ? North Carolina State battled back from an eight-point first half deficit to post a 74-62 come-from-behind victory over Western Carolina in front of 14,729 at the RBC Center.
NCSU shot 82-percent from the charity stripe, connecting on 27-of-33 attempts while Western drained its only two free throw attempts of the day at the 3:43 mark of the second half.
"I could not be more proud of our team with the way that they competed today," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter, who spent four seasons as an associate head coach under Herb Sendek at North Carolina State prior to coming to Cullowhee. "We played with an extra bit of toughness and intensity. We did not shoot as well as we would have liked in the second half, but overall the guys gave an incredible effort."
Hunter added, "We are not a real physical type of basketball team. We do not have those type of bodies, and we are young. I think we just got tired. (NC State) just had more depth and size."
The Catamounts (4-8) were led by sophomore Brandon Giles with 25 points, 16 of which came in the opening 20 minutes. The Auburndale, Fla., native connected on 11 of his career-high 23 field goal attempts including three 3-pointers.
"He's inside; he's outside; he likes to score," said N.C. State head coach Sidney Lowe about WCU's Giles. "Sometimes we allowed him to go on a scoring streak. He has the ability and the confidence and just went with it."
Freshman Michael Porrini and sophomore Jake Robinson added nine and eight points, respectively, off the bench as WCU outscored the Wolfpack reserves for the game, 23-to-17. Porrini added a pair of assists and tied his career-best with four steals, while frontcourt classmate Blake Gallagher led the Catamounts with six rebounds.
Western opened the game red-hot from the floor, connecting on its first six 3-pointers en route to building its first of seven first half 10-point leads at 24-14 on a Porrini trey at the 9:32 mark. NC State would only manage to pull to within six, 38-32, the remainder of the half until Robinson buried a triple with 12 seconds showing on the clock to give Western a nine-point halftime lead, 41-32.
The Catamounts shot 70-percent (7-for-10) from long range and only committed two first half turnovers while forcing 11 by the Wolfpack through the first 20 minutes of play.
Things cooled for Western after the break, however, as the Catamounts missed nine of their first 14 shots after the break as NCSU commenced on a 19-to-4 run to erase the deficit and surge ahead. The Pack took its first lead of the game on a Brandon Costner 3-pointer at the 11:34 mark of the second half, 47-45. N.C. State managed to stretch its lead to six before Giles again flexed his muscle scoring seven-straight for the Cats to knot the game at 55 with seven and a half to play.
Down four, 61-57, freshman Camden Miller hit his second 3-pointer of the contest to bring Western to within one, 61-60. State scored on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to three before Porrini connected on the Catamounts' lone two free throw attempts of the game to again pull within a point. However, WCU was outscored 11-0, including seven from the charity stripe, over the final 3:42 as NCSU escaped with the win.
North Carolina State (9-3) put three players in double figures led by a career-high 33 points from freshman J.J. Hickson, who finished 10-of-11 from the floor and 13-of-16 from the free throw line. Hickson added a game-high 13 points to record the double-double. Ben McCauley tallied 12 points while Brandon Costner scored 10 and dished out seven assists for the Pack.
Western Carolina returns to Southern Conference action in the new year on Thursday, Jan. 3 as it travels to the newly renovated Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C., to face the Furman Paladins. Tip-off is set for 7:00 pm.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 84, MERCER 74
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Marcus Hammond scored a career-high 23 points while freshman Andrew Goudelock added 18 points off the bench leading the College of Charleston to an 84-74 win over Mercer before 3,441 in the second game of the 2007 Jim ?N Nick’s Cougar Classic at John Kresse Arena on Saturday.
With the win, the Cougars improved to 5-6 and will take on James Madison in the championship game at 7:30 on Sunday. The Bears fell to 4-7 and play South Carolina State in the consolation game at 5:00.
Hammond, who scored just two points in the first half, connected on a career-high five 3-pointers. Hammond hit three straight 3-pointers to open the second half to give the Cougars a 46-41 lead with 17:27 lead. The game was tied at 37-all at halftime.
Jeremy Simmons’ dunk gave Charleston its biggest lead at 68-53 with 10:37 remaining.
Goudelock added a game-high six assists and five steals. Dustin Scott added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars.
Mercer had four players score in double figures led by Brian Pfohl’s 16 points and 15 points from Sam Dolan.
For the game, Charleston hit 43.7 percent from field, including 11-of-25 from 3-point land. The Cougars connected on 10 of its 15 3-point tries. Mercer shot 45.6 percent from the floor (31-68).
UNC GREENSBORO 72, UNC WILMINGTON 55
WILMINGTON, N.C. ? Three Spartans scored in double-figures as UNC Greensboro picked up its third straight win with a 72-55 triumph over UNC Wilmington on Saturday night at Trask Coliseum.
Seniors Kyle Hines and Kevin Oleksiak shared team-high honors with 16 points each for the Spartans (6-4). Mikko Koivisto added 11 points. Hines had nine rebounds, leaving him one board shy of his fourth straight double-double despite missing seven minutes with a cut lip that required stitches. Oleksiak also added seven rebounds. Senior guard Dwayne Johnson dished out a season-high eight assists.
With the nine rebounds, Hines moved into second place on the school’s career rebounding list. The All-America candidate from Sicklerville, NJ now has 864 rebounds, surpassing Eric Cuthrell’s 859.
Todd Hendley had a game-high 20 points for UNCW (8-5), while Daniel Fountain added 12 points.
“That’s a great win for us tonight,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “Anytime you come into a place where they have had a lot of success, it is a huge win. We caught a break that their students aren’t here, but it is still a tough place to win and a good team that we faced tonight.
“We got after it defensively early, and that was huge for us so that we would survive our own drought late when Kyle went out. We didn’t score for a while and we have to learn how to score when he isn’t in there. But with the way they have been shooting the basketball, I knew we would have to get after them in order to have a chance tonight and we did that.”
Five Seahawk turnovers in the first six minutes of the contest helped UNCG open up the first lead of the night, 13-6. As the Seahawks went nearly seven minutes without a basket against UNCG’s match-up zone, the Spartans’ Dwayne Johnson got left alone on a ball screen at the top of the key and knocked that down to give the Spartans an 18-7 advantage with 12:29 left in the opening half.
After UNCW cut it to seven with back-to-back buckets to break the drought, the Spartans ran off 11 in a row to stretch the lead to 18. Highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers by Mikko Koivisto, UNCG lengthened the lead to 29-11. The Spartans opened the game 7-for-20 from the floor, but then made 17 of their next 25 from the floor to blow the game wide open.
UNCG was able to maintain that margin for the remainder of the opening half, taking a 43-25 lead to the locker room, and kept that momentum going into the early part of the second half. Eight straight points by the Spartans drew a pair of quick UNCW timeouts and saw the lead go to 26.
UNCW cut into the lead late after Hines left the game to have a cut in his mouth patched up which he suffered during a loose ball battle and Koivisto was lost to an ankle injury. Todd Hendley’s three-pointer with 6:15 left cut it to 63-48. Daniel Fountain followed that up with another three from the right wing and the UNCG lead was down to 12.
Hines checked back into the game with 3:15 to play and he promptly swatted a T.J. Carter shot on UNCW’s next possession. It was finally at the two-minute mark that Kendall Toney’s breakaway lay-up broke an eight-minute Spartan dry-spell and the Seahawks were left to foul. The Spartans were 7-for-9 from the line in the final two minutes to put it away.
UNCG’s 18-point halftime lead was its largest at the break since December 16, 2005. It was the largest halftime lead on the road since November 27, 2001 and the first time the Spartans held a double-digit halftime advantage on the road since January 17, 2004. The Spartans shot 53 percent from the floor in the opening half to open up the early lead for the easy win.
The Spartans, who began a span of six games in 15 days with Saturday night’s tilt, will host Central Arkansas to begin 2008 on Wednesday night at Fleming Gym. The first of three straight home games, game time is set for 7 pm.
RHODE ISLAND 85, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 80
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS --- A 23-point deficit was too much to overcome as the Georgia Southern men’s basketball team fell 85-80 to No. 25 Rhode Island Saturday in the championship game of the Flint Hills Resources/Islander Invitational hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
GSU falls to 9-3 on the season while URI wins its eighth in a row to improve to 13-1.
The Eagles rallied to get within two points on three occasions but was unable to overtake the Rams.
“You can’t dig a hole like we did in the first half against a team that good,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “It’s unfortunate we were down by that many and end up losing the game. We cut it to two and lost an awfully close game. We dug a hole too early.”
URI’s Will Daniels led all scorers with 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds. He paced five Rams in double-figures, including Lamonte Ulmer who notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.
Senior Matthew Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) tallied a career-high 18 points for Georgia Southern. Junior Julian Allen (Waterbury, Conn.) recorded his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 boards. Senior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) had 12 points and seven assists and senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) added 12 points.
After Allen started the scoring at the 18:31 mark, Rhode Island went on a 29-4 run, holding Georgia Southern scoreless for 7:56. The Rams reeled off 17 straight points before the Eagles finally snapped the string with 7:35 to go in the first half.
“We didn’t make shots,” said Price on the early struggles. “We had really good looks at the basket and missed shots we normally don’t miss. It’s hard when you miss easy shots like that to keep your team mentally focused and tough when you’re just missing so many shots. We didn’t get enough second shots. When you’re missing that many there are that many opportunities to get seconds ? we didn’t get enough seconds.”
GSU shot just 36.1 percent in the first half and went 2-for-11 from behind the 3-point line.
In the second half, the Eagles cut the margin to single-digits with 14:49 to play and down to five 1:27 later, but the Rams quickly responded with a 7-2 run to get back up 10.
With URI holding an 11-point lead, back-to-back 3’s from Foreman and Graham kick-started an 11-2 rally to close to 72-70.
“We just attacked the basket a lot more, we were a lot more aggressive and we started making shots,” said Price. “When you make shots, your confidence is up.”
But after Fields hit a lay-up with 5:30 to go to complete the run, the Eagles did not hit another field goal until sophomore Antoine Johnson’s (Atlanta, Ga.) tip-in with 1.5 seconds left in the contest. GSU grabbed eight offensive rebounds during that stretch but was unable to find the rim.
Georgia Southern does not play again until 2008, continuing conference play on Jan. 3 at Davidson.