APPALACHIAN STATE 60, WICHITA STATE 58
WICHITA, KAN. - Appalachian State made its debut in BracketBusters a memorable one as D.J. Thompson's floating jumper with four seconds left gave the Mountaineers a hard-fought 60-58 win over Wichita State Saturday afternoon.
The tightly-contested game saw neither team lead by more than eight points for the entire 40 minutes in front a 10,478 fans at Koch Arena. With just under two minutes to play, WSU took a two-point, 55-53, lead on a P.J. Couisnard follow-up dunk. Thompson, who scored four of his eight points in the final minutes, answered with a layup to knot the contest back up. Following a Donte Minter block, Demetrius Scott converted on an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Mountaineers a three-point, 58-55, lead with 28 seconds left.
However, the Shockers’ Kyle Wilson drained a contested three-pointer from the corner on the ensuing possession to tie the game for the eighth time at 58-58. With 17 seconds left on the clock, Thompson ran down the clock to five seconds until he converted on a running 10-foot bank shot to give the Apps their 21st win of the season.
ASU (21-6) shot 50 percent from the field and were led by Donte Minter with 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting with five rebounds and three blocks. Thompson finished the game with eight points while eight of the ten Apps that saw the floor scored in the victory.
The Mountaineers’ defense clamped down, especially in the second half, limiting the Shockers to 33 percent shooting. Sean Ogirri paced the Shockers with 12 points on four three-pointers, all in the first half. As a team, WSU (17-11) shot just 20 percent from three-point range in the second half after converting 55 percent of their three-point attempts in the first half.
ASU took an early 4-3 lead before Ogirri rattled off three-straight three-pointers to key a 9-2 run and give WSU a 12-6 lead six minutes into the game. After back-to-back buckets from Minter, the Shockers stretched the lead to a game-high eight at 20-12 on a Karon Bradley three-points. ASU responded with a 7-0 run capped by a Kellen Brand three-pointer off a Minter assist to cut the deficit to one, 20-19, with six minutes left in the half. Brand finished the game with eight points off the bench.
Three-pointers from Jeremy Clayton and Thompson in the final three minutes of the half gave ASU brief leads before two Wilson free throws in the final minute allowed the Shockers to take a 28-27 lead into halftime.
Neither team led by more than four in the second stanza with WSU leading for nearly the entire first 14 minutes of the half until Eduardo Bermudez hit 3-of-4 free throws in a 45-second stretch to give ASU a 49-47 lead. ASU maintained that lead until Couisnard’s dunk just under the two-minute mark before ultimately reclaiming it in the final minute for the critical non-conference win.
ASU, which set a school record with its ninth non-conference win in a season, will step back into conference play on Monday with a Southern Conference tilt at Western Carolina on Monday evening at 7 p.m.
CHATTANOOGA 75, JACKSONVILLE STATE 64
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.--Casey Long scored 18 of his career-high 28 points in the second half as Chattanooga overcame a pair of 16 point deficits to defeat Jacksonville State 75-64 at McKenzie Arena on a night the school honored its 1977 NCAA Division II National Championship team and the 1997 NCAA Sweet 16 team.
Jacksonville State’s Courtney Bradley scored 18 of his 28 points in the first 16:15 of the game to give the Gamecocks its largest lead at 32-16. The Mocs rallied, however, to close the half on a 14-2 run which opened and closed with Long three-pointers, a three from Keddric Mays and back-to-back buckets from Bernard Lowndes to trim the lead to 34-30 at intermission.
At halftime, UTC recognized two historic teams from its past with players from the 1977 NCAA Division II national championship team and the 1997 Sweet 16 team in attendance. Both teams were honored earlier in the day at a reception on campus.
A 12-0 UTC run, which included eight points from Nicchaeus Doaks, put the Mocs up six with 15:02 to play. The Gamecocks shook loose UTC turnovers on three of four possessions and made a 15-2 run of its own to surge back into the lead at 53-46.
A Will Ginn three-pointer pushed the JSU lead to eight before Casey Long led the Mocs on another run. Long scored eight of the Mocs’ 10 points in a 10-0 run to reclaim the lead at 60-58 on a Doaks dunk.
Ginn would connect on another three to wrest the lead back from the Mocs, but Ricky Hood answered with a three of his own. A Courtney Bradley lay-in knotted the score at 63 with 4:40 remaining, but Long would score at the other end to give the Mocs the lead for good.
UTC scored 12 of the last 13 points of the ballgame and held Jacksonville State to a single point in the final 4:40. UTC was perfect in six attempts at the free throw line in the final two minutes to ice the win.
The Mocs shot a blistering 59.3 percent from the field in the second half and grabbed offensive rebounds on eight of the 11 second half misses. The Mocs turned the ball over a season-low six times, three each half.
Long was 10-of-14 from the floor and had six rebounds and four assists while making three steals. Nicchaeus Doaks added 19 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Keddric Mays had an off night from the floor, managing only 2-of-8 from behind the arc, but added four free throws for 10 points.
Courtney Bradley’s 28 led the Gamecocks (8-20). Will Ginn added 12 and Erik Adams 11. DeAndre Bray led all players with eight assists.
The Mocs improve to 13-16 and will return to conference play Monday night, hosting Elon.
UNC GREENSBORO 73, UNC WILMINGTON 66
GREENSBORO, NC --- Ricky Hickman had a game-high 23 points, including the 1500t h of his career, as UNC Greensboro defeated UNC Wilmington, 73-66, in a BracketBusters series match-up at Fleming Gym on Saturday night.
Hickman, a senior from Winston-Salem, NC, celebrated Senior Night by recording the 71st double-figure scoring game of his career. It was his 27th career game of 20 or more points and the fourth straight game he has scored 19 or more. For the third consecutive game, Hickman, who has had a roller coaster season shooting the basketball, got it done from the foul line. He was 11-for-14 from the line on Saturday night, making him 37-for-46 at the charity stripe in the last three contests.
The Spartans (15-12) won their 15t h game of the season and assured themselves of at least a .500 season. UNCG finished the season 10-3 at Fleming Gym.
Junior forward Kyle Hines barely kept his streak of consecutive games with 10 or more points alive, and a good number of the 1,286 fans at Fleming Gym knew it when he dunked with just 10 seconds left to extend it to 47 games. Hines scored 10 points, the first time in the streak that he has had to go down to the wire to extend it.
Freshman forward Mikko Koivisto also chipped in with 11 points, including three three-pointers. Koivisto had a couple of big baskets in the second half when UNCW was cutting into UNCG’s lead. It was the fifth time in the last six games that the native of Vantaa, Finland has scored in double figures.
Jeff Horowitz led UNCW (6-20) with 14 points in just 12 minutes of action off the bench, including 4-of-5 from three-point range. Vladimir Kuljanin chipped in 13 points and Todd Henley added 11 points for the Seahawks. Montez Downey also had 10 points.
“We didn’t win on senior night last year and I thought that was really important for our guys this season,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “It has been a long week. I know I am tired. We’ve played four games in eight days and, particularly these last three, I think we’ve played well and accomplished a lot. We’ll get a couple days off and get some rest and get ready for next weekend.”
The next weekend that Dement referred to is a road swing that UNCG will take to Appalachian State and Chattanooga next weekend. The Spartans trail Appalachian State by a 1-1/2 games in the SoCon’s North Division. The Mountaineers, coming off a big win over Wichita State in a BracketBusters game on Saturday, have to face rival Western Carolina in Cullowhee on Monday before UNCG comes to town on Thursday. Appalachian State closes out the regular season on Saturday at Elon, while UNCG goes to Chattanooga.
Dement started his five graduating players for Senior Night, the first time in recent memory that two walk-ons were in the starting line-up. The combination of Greg Vlazny, Donald Moore, Bart Tooms, Matt Akinosho and Ricky Hickman started the game and held their own through the first substitutions. With the subs coming at the first media timeout at the 13:52 mark, UNCG held a 12-6 lead. UNCW’s last lead of the night came in the game’s first four minutes at 6-4.
From there, UNCG extended the lead to 20-8 after a Pete Brown thunder dunk, causing the Seahawks to call their second timeout with 9:58 still left in the opening half. And in that 12-point lead was the fact that Kyle Hines hadn’t scored yet.
The Spartans led by as many as 17 in the first half but settled for a 41-31 lead at the break thanks to a 8-1 UNCW run over the final 2:31 of the half.
The Spartans managed just one field goal in the first five minutes of the second half as the Seahawks closed to within six, 44-38. Consecutive field goals by Kendall Toney, one a three-pointer from the top of the key and the other a pull-up 14-footer, gave the Spartans an 11-point lead once again. UNCW responded, though, with back-to-back three-pointers by Jeff Horowitz to cut it back to five with 13:07 to play.
The Spartans flirted with a double-digit lead a couple times after that, but couldn’t maintain it. Horowitz banked a three-pointer from the top of the key to close the Seahawks back to within five. After a Spartan miss, freshman Montez Downey hit a pull-up jumper in the lane to cut it to 59-56 with 7:09 to play.
The lead was still three with three minutes to play when Hickman hit a jumper from the right side to give UNCG a 65-60 lead. Kuljanian hit one of two from the line in UNCW’s next possession to get back to within four.
After Hickman was called for a travel on a move to the basket, UNCW called a timeout in its halfcourt set with 1:59 to play. But the Seahawks had to settle for a three-point miss by Hundley as the shot clock expired.
UNCG went to work on the clock, but lost the ball with 1:10 to play and UNCW called timeout when it grabbed the loose ball in the pile. Darryl Felder drove the lane, but had his shot blocked by Hines and Hendley fell down with the rebound for a traveling violation.
UNCW had to foul and Hickman stepped to the line, hitting them both for his 1500 and 1501st career points and putting the game away. The only thing that was left in doubt was Hines streak, which began on December 19, 2005. That question was answered when Oleksiak grabbed took a quick in-bounds and found his big man streaking to the bucket for a dunk.
It was the first meeting between the two schools since November 1991 when the Spartans earned their first win as a Division I program, defeating the Seahawks, 68-66, at Fleming Gym. As part of the BracketBusters agreement, UNCG will return the trip to Wilmington to face the Seahawks at Trask Coliseum.
DAVIDSON 92, WESTERN CAROLINA 59
CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Stephen Curry and Jason Richards combined for 46 points and 11 of Davidson's 16 treys, the most by a team ever at the Ramsey Center, as the Wildcats clinched the SoCon South Division regular-season crown with a convincing 92-59 victory at Western Carolina Saturday evening. The win was the seventh straight for the Wildcats and 19th out of their last 20 as they improve to 23-4 overall and 14-1 in the league. WCU falls to 10-17 and 7-9.
A 6-1 shooting guard from Charlotte, N.C., Curry finished with a game-high 25 points and has gone for at least 23 in every game of the Wildcats' current streak. The SoCon's second leading scorer made 6-of-11 from the floor, five triples and missed just one of his nine attempts from the charity stripe. Curry has connected on 94 threes this season and broke Brendan Winters' mark of 89 with his first of the evening 1:18 into the contest.
Richards drilled a career-high six from downtown en route to 21 points. The native of Barrington, Ill., also set up seven buckets putting him just two assists shy of Kenny Grant's single-season record of 208 set a year ago.
Others in double figures for Davidson included Boris Meno, who charted his eighth career double-double with 14 points and 11 boards, while Thomas Sander also finished with 14 of his own.
In the opening period, Davidson shot lights out from downtown connecting on 10-of-20 attempts. Richards went on a 12-0 run of his own with four straight trifectas from the right side to give the Wildcats a 25-15 cushion, forcing Western Carolina to burn a 30 second timeout. Out of the stoppage, Davidson continued to stretched its advantage to as many as 20 (43-23) before heading to the locker room up, 44-27.
Richards led three Davidson players in double figures before the break with 13 points, while Curry added 11, including three buckets from deep, and Meno scored 10.
The Wildcats made just four buckets from inside the arc in the first 20 minutes, but only took eight to finish the period 50 percent overall.
Davidson opened the second half with a 15-5 run to stretch the lead to 59-32 with 13:48 to go. The Catamounts cut the deficit to 21, but never got closer as the Wildcats led by as many as 40 (89-49) following a Bryant Barr jumper with just under four remaining.
Western Carolina struggled offensively the entire night shooting just 33.9 percent (20-59) from the field and 6-of-25 (24 percent) from three-point range. Nick Aldridge and Brandon Giles were the only Catamounts to hit double digits with 19 and 10 points, respectively.
The Wildcats have now captured eight SoCon division titles under head coach Bob McKillop and fifth in the last six years. Davidson begins its final homestand of the campaign with a 7 p.m. tip-off against Wofford Monday at John Belk Arena. The Catamounts will entertain North Division leader Appalachian State Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.
FURMAN 69, FURMAN 51
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Furman shot 70.8% from the field in the first half and finished the period on a 14-0 run to key a 69-51 victory over The Citadel Saturday afternoon at McAlister Fieldhouse in Charleston, S.C.
The win improves the Paladins to 14-12 overall and 8-7 in Southern Conference play while the Bulldogs fell to 7-19 overall in 4-11 in the league.
With Furman clinging to a 27-25 lead and under 3:30 remaining in the first half, Eric Webb buried a three-pointer to ignite a 14-0 Paladin spurt.
Robby Bostain converted on a jumper to push the lead to seven before Jadee Jones scored seven straight points to put the Paladins ahead 39-25 on a trey with 47 seconds left in the half. Moussa Diagne’s jumper with six seconds on the clock capped the rally and gave Furman a 41-25 lead at the break.
Furman upped its lead to 24 in the second half before settling for the 18-point victory, its largest of the season against a SoCon opponent.
Jones led the Paladins with 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field and a 2-for-2 effort at the foul line. Robby Bostain added 12 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and three steals while Webb and Diagne each totaled 11 points. Diagned tied a career-high with four blocked shots while Furman held a 31-28 edge on the boards.
The Paladins finished at 27-of-48 (56.3%) from the floor after their season-best half of 70.8%. It marked the fourth time in five games Furman has shot better than 50% from the field. Furman connected on 8-of-21 treys, but made just 7-of-14 attempts at the foul line.
Demetrius Nelson came off of the bench to pace The Citadel with 13 points.
Guard Kevin Hammack added 10 on 3-for-11 shooting. The Bulldogs shot just 38.8% (19-49) from the field and 7-of-14 at the charity stripe.
The win, coupled with Wofford’s Saturday night loss versus the College of Charleston, leaves only the Paladins (8-7) and Western Carolina (7-9) vying for the SoCon Tournament’s fifth seed and first round bye. A Furman win in its final three games or a Catamount loss in either of its last two regular season games would secure the fifth seed for the Paladins.
Furman returns to Greenville, S.C., for its final appearance in front of the home fans this season when it hosts the College of Charleston on Monday night at the Bi-Lo Center. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 71, WOFFORD 58
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? Josh Jackson scored 19 points and David Lawrence turned in a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds as the College of Charleston overcame a four-point halftime deficit to defeat Wofford 71-58 Saturday night at the Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Wofford (9-17, 4-11 SoCon) made five first half 3-pointers and led by as much as 12 points before taking a 33-29 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The College of Charleston (18-9, 11-4) tied the game at 33 early in the second half on consecutive layups by Jermaine Johnson. Drew Gibson scored on a layup to put the Terriers back on top 35-33 but the Cougars took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Lawrence with 16:05 remaining. Dontaye Draper followed with a 3-pointer and Tony White scored on a layup to put the Cougars on top 41-35.
Wofford pulled within five at 50-45 with 10 minutes remaining but Cof C then scored eight straight points to go on top 58-45 with 7:01 to play. Jackson, Johnson, Philip McCandies and Lawrence all scored field goals for the Cougars during the 8-0 run.
The Terriers closed the deficit to nine points at 60-51 on a pair of Shane Nichols free throws with 4:09 remaining but could draw no closer.
“I didn’t think we had very good energy in the second half,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “We had a nice tempo in the first half but I thought we were back on our heels a little bit in the second half.”
Nichols led the Terriers with 12 points while Gibson finished with 10. Tyler Whatley led the Terriers with eight rebounds.
Draper finished with 11 points and a team-high five assists. Charleston shot 59.3 percent from the floor in the second half, making 16 of 27 field goal attempts.
Wofford will visit Davidson on Monday, Feb. 19 for a 7 p.m. game with the Wildcats. The College of Charleston will play at Furman Monday night at 7 o’clock.
GEORGIA STATE 63, ELON 53
ATLANTA, GA. ? Georgia State used its solid defense to post a 63-53 victory over Elon in an ESPN BracketBuster game on Saturday afternoon at the Georgia State Sports Arena.
Georgia State, (10-17, 5-11) of the Colonial Athletic Association, posted its second straight win behind a personal-best 22 points from sophomore guard Leonard Mendez, a personal best 12 rebounds from junior forward Justin Billingslea and 14 points from senior forward Lance Perique. The Panthers held a 41-32 rebound advantage with 15 offensive boards in front of its Homecoming and Letterwinners Day crowd of 1,205.
Elon, (6-20, 4-11) of the Southern Conference, was led in scoring by senior forward Chris Chalko and freshman guard Devan Carter. Senior LeVonn Jordan topped with Phoenix with nine rebounds, but scored just five points, ten below his season average. The Phoenix were hoping for a sweep on their Georgia swing after a win Thursday at Georgia Southern.
“It is certainly good to get back-to-back wins late in the year,” said head coach Michael Perry. “You want the players to get used to winning at this time and having confidence in themselves. We hustled on defense today and controlled the boards and blocked some shots.”
Georgia State grew a 25-22 halftime lead to 41-30 at the 10-minute mark and it appeared the host Panthers were in control. But, the visitors went on a 12-5 run to close back to 46-42 with 4:56 to play with Chalko getting five points, including a trey.
The final victory push by Georgia State then grew a 48-44 lead into a 55-44 advantage after a pair of free throws by Perique, a trey from the corner by guard Ron Larris, and a steal that led to a dunk by Perique with 1:20 to play.
This is Georgia State’s first ESPN BracketBuster win after an 83-75 loss last year at Charleston. Today, Georgia State blocked a season-best seven shots with three by Deven Dickerson. They held Elon to 38.5 percent shooting in holding its ninth opponent to under 60 points this season. The 53 points allowed were the second lowest of the year.
Mendez has now posted consecutive personal scoring bests with 21 points in the win Wednesday over Northeastern and then his 22 points today that both bettered his 20-point game in January. He was 9-of-14 today with a pair of treys to up his team-best total to 42 in that category.