CHATTANOOGA 75, WESTERN CAROLINA 72
CULLOWHEE, N.C.?A Casey Long three-pointer from the top of the key with 1.9 seconds remaining lifted Chattanooga to a 75-72 win at Western Carolina Monday night.
Long’s three capped a see-saw battle in which both teams rallied from double-digit deficits. Western Carolina used a 12-0 run on four consecutive three-pointers to lead 22-11 with 11:23 left before intermission. The Mocs would rally with three-pointers on the next five possessions, including four by Keddric Mays to cut the lead to 32-30 with 4:06 remaining. A Bernard Lowndes lay-in gave the Mocs a brief lead before a Jake Robinson three pushed Western back in front. The Mocs would hold the ball for a final shot and Casey Long responded with a three of his own to give the Mocs the lead at the break, 38-37.
Defense got the Mocs off to a good start in the second half, holding the Catamounts scoreless for the first 6:07 while building an eight-point lead. The Mocs would run the advantage to 14 with 7:53 remaining by hitting from the perimeter. Chattanooga was 6-of-8 from three-point range in the second half, with four different players making at least one.
Western Carolina made one last run with a little help from the Mocs at the free throw line. The Mocs, who shot 56.5 percent in the half, went cold briefly missing open looks on three-of-four possessions allowing the Catamounts to cut the lead to 69-66 after Jake Robinson converted a four-point play.
Chattanooga was 3-of-6 from the charity stripe in the final 1:11, allowing Western to complete the comeback, knotting the score at 72 on two Nick Aldridge free throws with 12 seconds left.
After a Western Carolina timeout, Casey Long’s three gave UTC its second straight SoCon win and its third win in four outings.
Long was one of four Mocs in double figures with 12 points. Keddric Mays was 5-of-9 from behind the arc to lead the team with 16 points. Mays now has 104 three-pointers on the season, the nation’s top total. Nicchaeus Doaks just missed a double-double with 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Ricky Hood rounded out the Mocs in double figures with 10 points.
The Mocs shot better than 50 percent from the floor for the fifth straight game, finishing at 51.9 percent. The numbers were even better from long distance, shooting a season-best 54.5 percent (12-22).
Jake Robinson, the SoCon’s most accurate three-point shooter, was 7-of-16 from behind the arc and finished with a game-high 24 points. Nick Aldridge and Antonio Russell each added 12 points. The Catamounts were 14-of-17 from the free throw line and used 20 offensive rebounds to manage 14 extra field goal attempts, but the Chattanooga defense limited WCU to 34.8 shooting.
Chattanooga improves to 12-15 and 5-10 in the Southern Conference with the win, while Western Carolina falls to 10-15 and 7-7.
DAVIDSON 73, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 63
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Stephen Curry’s game-high 24 points and Thomas Sander’s 12 points and game-high 10 rebounds lifted the Davidson men’s basketball team to a 73-63 victory over the College of Charleston at the John Kresse Arena before 3,784 on Monday.
The win improves Davidson to 22-4 overall and 13-1 in the SoCon, while the loss drops CofC to 17-9 and 10-4 in the SoCon.
In the first half, Davidson shot 43.8 percent (14-32) from the field, including making three out of 14 three-pointers to gain a percentage of 21.4. Charleston shot 41.9 percent (13-31) in the half and made three out of 12 three-point field goal attempts. Davidson grabbed more rebounds than CofC, 20-18 and had more steals, 6-4. Davidson led CofC, 34-31, going into halftime.
For the game, CofC shot 38.6 percent (22-57) from the field and made eight three-pointers out of 25 attempts for a 32.0 percentage. Davidson shot 45.9 percent (28-61) for the game and made seven out of 22 three-point field goal attempts.
CofC made 10 out of 14 free-throw attempts, while Davidson made 11 out of 14. Davidson also had 41 rebounds in the game, while Charleston grabbed 33. The Wildcats had more points in the paint, 34-26, and points off of turnovers, 23-15.
Dontaye Draper scored 13 points with four assists, which were both team-highs for the Cougars. Jermaine Johnson scored 12 points with a team-high nine rebounds for CofC in the game.
Jason Richards had a game-high 10 assists and four steals for the Wildcats in the game. Andrew Lovedale scored 12 points with seven assists Davidson.
The attendance of 3,784 for the game is the fifth largest in John Kresse Arena history. CofC’s 85-63 home victory over Furman on Feb. 20, 1999 was the highest attended men’s basketball game in the history of the John Kresse Arena with 3,857.
The Cougars will return to action on Feb. 17 against Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C. beginning at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS). The Wildcats’ next game is also on Feb. 17 against Western Carolina in Cullowhee, N.C. beginning at 7 p.m.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 57, FURMAN 55
Greenville, S.C. -- Georgia Southern held Furman to just one field goal in the final 6:40 and Donte Gennie buried two free throws with 2:23 remaining to lift the Eagles to a 57-55 victory over the Paladins Monday evening at Timmons Arena.
The loss snapped Furman’s (13-12, 7-7 SoCon) three-game Southern Conference winning streak and the Paladins’ six-game winning streak at Timmons Arena. The Eagles (11-14, 4-10 SoCon) claimed their first win in their last five outings to complete a season sweep of Furman.
Georgia Southern built a 32-20 halftime lead on the strength of 50.0% shooting from the floor and three treys from Gennie. Trailing 39-29 with less than 15 minutes remaining, Robby Bostain opened a 12-0 Paladin run with a jumper. Tony Anderson followed with a layup and, after a three-point play from Bostain, the freshman buried a trey to tie the game at 39-39 with 12:40 left.
After George Brozos converted two foul shots to give Furman its first lead of the night at 41-39 with 12:08 left in the game, Gennie reeled off five straight points to put the Eagles back ahead.
Following two ties and two lead changes Moussa Diagne took a pass from Eric Webb and slammed it home to give Furman a 51-49 lead with under seven minutes on the clock. The Eagles then put together an 8-2 run holding the Paladins without a field goal until Alex Opacic’s layup pulled Furman to within 57-55 with 1:50 to go.
Furman forced a turnover and used a timeout to set up a play with under a minute left. Louis Graham, however, swatted Webb’s floater to give the Eagles possession with 49 seconds remaining. After an Eagle timeout and a missed three from Dwayne Foreman, Furman had the ball with one last chance. Bostain took a pass and curled around the top of the key, but his tightly defended three-pointer with two seconds left did not draw iron.
Gennie led Georgia Southern with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including
4-for-4 beyond the arc. Jimmy Tobias joined Gennie in double figures with 10 points. The Eagles shot 49.0% (24-49) from the floor and 5-of-8 from three-point range.
Bostain connected on 8-of-16 field goal attempts to lead Furman with 18 points. Tony Anderson came off of the bench to tally 10 for the Paladins. Furman shot just 39.6% (21-53) from the field, including 3-of-16 beyond the arc. Georgia Southern held a 32-29 edge on the boards.
Furman looks to rebound Saturday afternoon when it faces The Citadel Bulldogs in a 1:05 p.m. contest at McAlister Fieldhouse. Georgia Southern returns home to host Elon on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
WOFFORD 61, THE CITADEL 49
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Senior forward J’Mel Everhart recorded another double-double performance as senior guard Kevin Hammack led the Bulldogs with 29 points, however it was not enough to bring the Dogs back from a first half deficit as they were defeated by the Wofford Terriers, 61- 49, in Monday night Southern Conference action at McAlister Field House.
The Citadel and Wofford jumped out to a slow start, both kicking off action with traveling calls on their first possessions and not recording the first field goal until a Junior Salters 3-pointer at 17:13 for Wofford to put the Terriers up, 3-0. Wofford maintained the lead as they started off the game with an 11-1 run. The Bulldogs, who only scored two first half field goals, recorded their first basket at 11:15 when Kevin Hammack nailed a 3-pointer, making the score 11-4.
A jumper by Donny McLendon at 7:30 gave the Bulldogs their second basket of the half as The Citadel remained down by 11 points. Wofford, who took the lead by as much as 17 points in the first period, went into the locker room with a 27-11 lead, shooting 47.9 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from long range.
The Citadel shot a disappointing 10.5 percent from the field in the first period and only hit 1-of-12 long range baskets for 8.3 percent. The Bulldogs picked up the pace in the second half, but continued to struggle putting a stop to the Terrier offensive. Everhart put the first points on the board for the Bulldogs in the second half, followed by a Hammack 3-pointer at 17:59, however a Terrier layup by Tyler Whatley, followed by a Corey Godzinski dunk and Drew Gibson 3-pointer at 15:51 gave the Terriers their largest lead of the game at 36-16.
“We didn’t get the stops early in the second half like we needed to,” head coach Ed Conroy said. “Offensively I think we will be fine, but we have to work on making stops.” Hammack attempted to take control of the game for the Bulldogs, highlighting the second half with a layup, followed by a 3-point basket at 5:30 to bring the Bulldogs within 15.
Hammack, who wowed the crowd with a 360-layup for the basket and the foul at 3:32, pulled The Citadel to within 11. But that was as close as the Bulldogs would get as after Hammack made a free throw to make it 54-43 with 2:10 remaining, the Terriers went 5-6 from the free throw line down the stretch and hung on for the 12-point victory. Hammack led all scorers with his 29 while Everhart recorded his third straight double-double as he scored 10 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
Gibson and Matt Estep paced the Terriers as they each scored 16. After going just 2-19 from the floor in the first half, the Bulldogs bounced back to shoot 53 percent in the second half. Wofford shot 55 percent from the field for the game. “That’s the one area in which I’m really proud of our guys, they loosened up after halftime,” Conroy said. “We had good numbers in the second half, but for whatever reason they were really gun-shy in the first period.” The Bulldogs will stay home to host Furman on Saturday at McAlister Field House. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and all of the action can be heard live on CNN Radio
UNC GREENSBORO 86, ELON 63
GREENSBORO, NC ? After losing its star player to an ejection, UNC Greensboro went on a 28-8 run to turn away backyard rival Elon, 86-73, to snap a three-game losing streak in Southern Conference men’s basketball action at Fleming Gym.
Kyle Hines, who in his career had just one technical foul ? way back in his freshman season, lost his cool with an official and drew three technical fouls and an ejection in the process with 15:14 to play. After six Elon free throws by Chris Chalko, however, the Spartans ran off 28 of the next
36 points to give UNCG a 74-58 lead with 4:46 to play.
“I want to go on the record an apologize for my behavior,” said a shaken Hines in the postgame press conference. “There is no excuse for what I did. I got frustrated and let my emotions get the best of me. I am embarrassed. I want to apologize to the fans, my teammates, the people at Elon, the officials, our entire University. There was no excuse for my behavior.”
UNCG (13-12, 9-5) was led by Ricky Hickman’s 22 points, 15 of which came at the foul line. Hickman was 15-of-18 at the foul line, tying the UNCG record for free throws made in a game and one short of the school record for free throws attempted in a contest. He was one of four players in double figures for UNCG. Mikko Koivisto added 13 points and Kevin Oleksiak chipped in 12 points. Hines also had 12 points in 17 minutes of action, extending his streak to 46 consecutive games with 10 or more points.
“I am really proud of the way my team responded after everything happened,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “Obviously, all of us in this room know Kyle Hines and that is not the way he typically behaves. However, our players as a group pulled together and played outstanding basketball after everything that happened.”
Elon (5-19, 3-11) was led by LeVonn Jordan’s 22 points. Chalko finished with 18 points, including four three-pointers.
Coming off of a 22-point loss at home on Saturday, one might think the Spartans would come out with a passion on Monday. That was the case early on against Elon. The Spartans ran off the first nine points of the game and held Elon to one field goal attempt in the first three minutes. It wasn’t until Spartan killer Chalko came off the bench during an Elon timeout and drilled a three-pointer at 16:54 that Elon got on the scoreboard.
But that was the spark that the Phoenix need as they scored 13 of the next 18 points to pull within one, capped off by another three-pointer by Chalko.
Elon pulled ahead briefly at 17-15, but UNCG went on a 12-4 run to re-open its nine-point advantage. Hines scored six of the 12, his first six points of the night, as UNCG opened up a 33-24 lead with a little over five minutes left in the first half. The lead got as large as 12 before the Spartans headed into intermission with a 43-35 lead.
Elon’s Scott Grable scored the first five points of the second half, however, to pull the Phoenix to within three and force UNCG to call a quick timeout to get things back in order. But Brett James pulled Elon to within a point to cap off the quick 7-0 burst that made it 43-42.
Things got crazy with 15:17 to play in the second half, though. Hines thought he was fouled on a jumper from the right baseline and let the official know it, drawing a technical foul. As he went by the official reporting the technical foul, Hines drew a second technical and then a third as he went out the door to the locker room. Chalko knocked down all six free throws to give Elon a 50-46 lead.
But UNCG wasn’t about to fold without its star player. The Spartans went on a 28-8 run, using five three-pointers in the surge to open up a 16-point lead and cruise to the win.
With the win and the combined losses by Western Carolina and Furman, UNCG moved one step closer to a bye in the upcoming Southern Conference Tournament. UNCG now has a 2-1/2 game lead on the Catamounts and Paldins with three games remaining on the Spartans’ schedule. Western Carolina, which is tied with Furman for the fifth and final bye slot, comes to town Wednesday at 7 pm.