UNC GREENSBORO 68, CHATTANOOGA 61
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. ? A 19-2 run by UNC Greensboro to open the second half lifted the Spartans over Chattanooga, 68-61, at McKenzie Arena on Saturday night in the regular season finale for both teams.
The win was UNCG’s first over the Mocs on their home floor since February 12, 2000 and gave the Spartans a 12-6 mark in conference play, their highest league win total since 1994-95. The win also snapped a three-game road losing streak and assured UNCG of a winning season.
UNCG (16-13, 12-6 SoCon) will open the Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday as the fourth see against No. 5 Furman. That quarterfinal game will tip-off at approximately 4:30 pm. Chattanooga will have to play in the opening round on Wednesday as the No. 8 seed, facing ninth-seeded Elon at 3 pm.
Kyle Hines led a balanced UNCG attack with 18 points, his 49t h consecutive game scoring in double figures. Mikko Koivisto chipped in with 11 points, his seventh time in double figures in the last eight games. Ricky Hickman also added 10 points.
“We haven’t won here in quite a while, so this is a big win for us,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “This was the most poise we’ve showed in a 40-minute span this season. It gets us to 16 wins and gives us good momentum going into the tournament to face a good Furman team.”
UNCG shot 10-for-17 from the floor in the second half, including 7-of-13 from three-point range. Five different Spartans had a three-pointer in the game and all had multiple treys for the game.
Chattanooga (14-17, 6-12 SoCon) was led by Casey Long’s 11 points and Ricky Hood’s 10 points.
The game was a grinder at the start. Both teams got after it defensively right from the outset and the scoreboard showed it. Six minutes into the game, UNCG held a slim 7-6 advantage. But consecutive three-pointers by Kendall Toney and Ricky Hickman gave UNCG a seven-point lead.
UNCG held onto the lead for most of the first half, although it never got to be more than seven. Chattanooga regained the lead, however, with 34.6 seconds remaining in the first half when Marcus Watts converted a conventional three-point lead to give the Mocs a 28-26 lead. But Kendall Toney’s three-pointer with 2.7 seconds left gave UNCG a 29-28 lead at the intermission.
But the Spartans went on a 19-2 run over the first 7:45 of the second half to open up their first double-digit lead of the night, 48-30. Chattanooga went 6:21 between field goals as UNCG blew the game wide-open.
The Mocs made a late run with three-pointers. Ricky Hood’s three-pointer with 1:52 to play cut the deficit to 12 at 64-52. The Mocs would cut it to seven in the closing seconds as UNCG did not record a field goal over the final 3:06. But it was not enough to complete a comeback.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 74, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 65
STATESBORO, GA. --- The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team placed five players in double figures, led by junior Louis Graham’s (West Palm Beach, Fla.) game-high 19 as the Eagles celebrated Senior Day with a 74-65 victory over the College of Charleston Saturday afternoon at Hanner Fieldhouse.
GSU ends the regular season with three straight wins and stands at 14-15 overall and 7-11 in the Southern Conference. CofC drops to 20-10 and 13-5.
“I’ve said for the last few days that we’d really find out where we were after this game against an awfully good team,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “I thought we showed a lot of character down the stretch and played really well. Our guys did a great job of answering when we had to win the game.”
Graham just missed a double-double as he grabbed nine rebounds. Junior Matt Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) had 14 points and eight rebounds, junior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) recorded 12 points and six assists, senior Diogo Salazar (Sao Paulo, Brazil) posted a career-high 11 points, and senior Donte Gennie (Tallahassee, Fla.) tallied 10.
“We got really good play off the bench from Matt, and I can’t say enough about Diogo,” Price said. “I thought Diogo was a huge factor in the game. He made some really timely baskets inside.”
Graham became the 18th player in GSU’s Division I history to reach 1,000 career points. He joins Gennie, who reached the hallowed total earlier this season.
Charleston’s Jermaine Johnson and David Lawrence both had 14 points, but only four each in the second half.
The majority of the first half of the game belonged to Charleston. The Cougars led 15-5 through the first 4:34 but allowed a 12-0 run that stretched to 16-2 for a 21-17 Georgia Southern advantage. Charleston quickly regrouped and reeled off nine straight and did not trail again for the rest of the half.
CofC shot 48.5 percent (16-33) from the floor in the first 20 minutes compared to 35.0 percent (14-40) for GSU and led 39-36 at the break.
Georgia Southern came out on fire to begin the second half, scoring the period’s first eight points, all in the paint. Graham finished off the run, and after a lay-up by Johnson, Tobias capped off the 11-2 run with a trifecta.
The Eagles led throughout but the Cougars cut the margin to 61-60 with 4:14 remaining in the contest. GSU proceeded to score the next seven points and ended the game with a 13-5 run to pull away with the victory.
“We kept talking about how important the beginning of second halves were because we haven’t been good at that this year,” Price said. “I thought the beginning of the second half was tremendous.
DAVIDSON 87, THE CITADEL 70
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? The Citadel basketball fought to take their seniors out of McAlister Field House on a good note on Saturday as they played their last regular season game, but could not come up with the win against Davidson (26-4 overall; 17-1 SoCon), falling to the Wildcats, 87- 70.
Davidson opened the game with an 11-0 start in the first four minutes of action. Nine of those points were from freshman guard Stephen Curry who hit three of the Wildcats’ 10 first half 3- pointers. Davidson continued their unanswered scoring run until The Citadel put their first points on the board at 14:14 when senior guard Kevin Hammack hit a long range shot of his own, making the score 16-3.
The teams traded baskets as the Bulldogs brought the Davidson lead down to nine points at 9:15 when a Curry foul sent freshman forward Bryan Streeter to the line, making the score, 22-13. Getting into early foul trouble, Curry was replaced in the line-up by freshman Bryant Barr, who broke his previous career-high of 11 points in the first half alone with 15 points, shooting 5-of-6 all from long range. The Wildcats extended their first half lead to as much as 24 points at the 2:39 mark when Barr hit his fourth 3-pointer, making the score 46-22.
A jumper by senior forward J’Mel Everhart, followed by a Vytautas Valulius basket and free throw, brought the Bulldogs within 19, but Barr responded with another 3-pointer with four seconds on the clock, going into the half, 51-29. The Citadel started off the second half with a 3-point shot by sophomore guard Chris Diasparra at 18:33 as the Bulldog offense started to pick up pace.
However, while the full-court pressure by The Citadel slowed down the Davidson offense some, it was not enough to close the margin any less than 17. The Bulldogs, who outscored the Wildcats in the paint, 28-22, never regained the lead and lost their final game of the regular season, 87-80.
Member: Southern Conference NCAA Division I Barr led the game with 21 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the field, all three-pointers, while Curry totaled 18 points, two assists and two boards. For the Bulldogs, senior Everhart and Hammack led their final game at McAlister Field House with 14 points each. Five players scored in double- digits, while four Bulldogs totaled thee boards each.
The Citadel shot a season-high 88.5 percent from the charity stripe, connecting on 23-of-26, while hitting 21-of-52 from the field for 40.4 percent. Davidson shot 57.1 percent from the field and only 57.1 percent from the line. Totaling 15 baskets from behind the arc, the Wildcats shot 53.6 percent from 3-point range.
The Citadel wraps up the regular season 7-22 overall and 4-14 in the Southern Conference. They will kick-off Southern Conference Tournament action on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the North Charleston Coliseum. For further information on tournament seeding, stats and more information on Bulldog Basketball or The Citadel Athletics, go to www.CitadelSports.com.
APPALACHIAN STATE 72, ELON 63
ELON, N.C. Appalachian State withstood an early storm and a career-high 27 points from Brett James to upend Elon 72-63 in the Southern Conference men?s basketball regular season finale for both teams Saturday night at Alumni Gym.
James canned 10 of his 18 field goal attempts five of 10 from beyond the arch and snatched a game-high three steals. His contest-best point total included 15 points in the first half when the Phoenix forged an eight-point lead.
For the Mountaineers (24-6 overall, 15-3 SoCon), D.J. Thompson scored 16 points, Jeremy Clayton added 15 and Nathan Cranford chipped in 12. The Phoenix (7-22, 5-13) got 13 points from LeVonn Jordan and 10 rebounds from Scott Grable.
The contest saw four ties and four lead changes. Elon erupted to an early 17-9 lead on a fast-break lay-up by Brian Waters with 15:02 remaining in the opening stanza. Late in the first period, Appalachian State used a 12-4 spurt to trade a 28-21 deficit in for a 33-32 edge on a pair of free throws by Thompson with 1:17 left before the intermission.
Jordan canned a jumper to restore the Elon advantage at 34-33 with 34 seconds to go in the frame. Doug McLaughlin-Williams netted a jumper right before time expired to give the Mountaineers a 35-34 halftime lead.
Thompson and Demetrius Scott each knocked down baskets to extend the Appalachian edge to 39-34 just 32 seconds into the second stanza. After Jordan?s bucket in the final seconds of the first half, the Mountaineers fashioned a 15-4 run to build a 48-38 advantage on a lay-up by Thompson with 16:28 remaining.
The Mountaineers maintained a five-to-10 point lead until stretching it to 12 markers at 72-60 on a free throw by Donte Minter with 24 seconds to play. Jordan?s three-pointer with 18 ticks left determined the final margin.
Appalachian State fired 56.1 percent (23 of 41) from the field 35.7 percent (5 of 14) from three-point land and 77.8 percent (21 of 27) from the free throw line. Elon shot 49.1 percent (26 of 53) from the floor 40.0 percent (8 of 20) from behind the arc and 50.0 percent (3 of 6) from the charity stripe.
The Phoenix earned a 26-24 edge on the boards, but surrendered 12 turnovers to 11 for the Mountaineers. Appalachian State outscored Elon 26-24 in the paint, 19-13 off turnovers and 21-4 off turnovers.