FURMAN 76, APPALACHIAN STATE 72
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Moussa Diagne scored a career-high 28 points, including a game-tying three-pointer with 1.4 seconds left in regulation, as Furman rallied past Appalachian State for a 76-72 overtime victory before 3,467 Saturday evening at Timmons Arena.
After forcing overtime, Diagne netted seven points in the five minute period as Furman led the rest of the way. The Thies, Senegal, native converted a three-point play to start the overtime and Tony Anderson answered a Donte Minter layup with a trey to push Furman ahead 63-59 with
4:03 left.
Appalachian trimmed the lead to one with a Minter layup at the 2:24 mark, but Diagne made the front end of a two shot foul and buried a jumper after missing the second foul shot to help Furman regain control. Furman connected on 7-of-10 foul shots in the final 1:30 to hold Appalachian at bay for the Paladins’ sixth consecutive victory at Timmons Arena.
After leading most of the first 30 minutes, Furman’s chances appeared to be fading when the Mountaineers put together a 12-1 run to open up a 51-39 lead with 6:32 remaining. With Appalachian State still hold an 11-point cushion with under three minutes left, Furman started its rally. Jadee Jones drained two free throws and Diagne converted a three-point play in the lane to cut the ASU lead to 55-49. Eric Webb stole the ball from Demetrius Scott and Jones scored on a floater in the lane to pull Furman to within four with 1:54 left.
Following a Gerad Punch free throw and a Jeremy Clayton bucket on the other end, Anderson slice to the basket for a layup with 23 seconds left.
Diagne fouled Minter on the inbounds and the Paladins regained possession when the junior missed the front end of a one-and-one chance. Furman used its final timeout to set up the last play and Diagne sunk a three off of an assist from Webb on the left wing with 1.4 seconds left to tie the game at 57-57.
Diagne made 10-of-12 shots from the field, including 2-for-3 beyond the arc, to lead all scorers. Senior Robby Bostain tallied 17 points while Anderson reached double figures with 13 points off of the bench. Diagne led the team with eight rebounds and Webb added a game-high nine assists.
Furman shot 55.3% from the field, including a perfect 4-for-4 in overtime.
Despite making just 19-of-31 shots at the foul line, the Paladins converted 10-of-15 at the charity stripe in the extra period.
D.J. Thompson paced the Mountaineers with 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 at the foul line. Clayton registered a double-double with 14 points and a game-high 10 boards, while Minter added
19 points.
Appalachian recovered from a 20-point first half to shoot 55.1% from the field, but the Mountaineers made good on just 14-of-27 free throws.
Furman won the rebounding battle 31-28.
Furman, 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Southern Conference, returns to the road to face Elon on February 10, at 2 p.m. The game will be televised live on SportSouth. Appalachian State (17-6, 9-3) visits Georgia Southern Monday at 7:30 p.m.
WOFFORD 71, ELON 64
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? Wofford broke away from a 58-58 tie and outscored Elon 13-6 in the closing minutes to post a 71-64 win over the Phoenix Saturday night in the Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Wofford (7-15, 2-9) made all eight free throw attempts in the last 1:34 to seal the win.
Elon (5-16, 3-8) led 30-25 at halftime but Wofford outscored the Phoenix 8-2 to start the second half. Drew Gibson scored on a layup and Shane Nichols drilled a pair of 3-pointers to put the Terriers on top 33-32 with 18:24 remaining in the game.
The Terriers built a 10-point lead at 52-42 after Matt O’Connor converted a three-point play with a layup and a free throw. But over the next eight minutes Elon went on a 14-4 spurt behind Chris Chalko and Ola Atoyebi who each collected a pair of baskets. LeVonn Jordan added a dunk and Brian Waters drained a 3-pointer to knot the game at 56.
Nichols and Atoyebi traded baskets and the game was tied at 58 with 5:00 to play. Elon took a 60-58 lead on a layup by Atoyebi with 3:37 remaining but O’Connor put the Terriers on top for good with a 3-pointer with 3:08 left. Junior Salters extended the Terrier advantage to 63-60 with a pair of free throws with 1:34 remaining.
Nichols took advantage of an Elon turnover and scored on a driving layup with 48 seconds left for a 65-60 Wofford lead. Waters cut the lead to three with a driving scoop layup with 37 seconds remaining. After Drew Gibson made a pair of free throws to go up 67-62, Devan Carter scored on a layup with 26 seconds left as Elon pulled within three at 67-64.
Nichols connected on two free throws with 21 seconds left and after Jordan misfired on a short jumper, Gibson rebounded and was fouled and added both tosses with 10.6 seconds remaining.
“I thought we played pretty darn well in the second half,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “We had a much better tempo in the second half.
“Matt O’Connor had one of his best nights. He hit a lot of big shots for us down the stretch.”
Nichols finished with a game-high 20 points as Wofford put five players in double figures. O’Connor finished with 11 while Corey Godzinski, Tyler Whatley and Gibson all finished with 10.
Elon was led by Atoyebi who scored 16 points. Chalko finished with 13.
After shooting just 36 percent from the field in the first half, the Terriers improved to nearly 54 percent in the second half, making 15 of 28 field goals. Wofford was 10 of 12 at the line after intermission.
The Terriers will host UNC Greensboro Monday night at 7 o’clock in the Benjamin Johnson Arena. Elon visit The Citadel Monday at 7 p.m.
DAVIDSON 75, UNC GREENSBORO 65
DAVIDSON, N.C. ? Stephen Curry scored a game-high 29 points including seven treys, and Boris Meno added 20 to lead Davidson to a 75-65 victory over UNC Greensboro in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Saturday afternoon in front of 4,588 fans at Belk Arena. The win was the fourth straight for the Wildcats and 16th in their last 17 as they improved to 20-4 overall and 11-1 in the league. UNCG had its six-game SoCon streak snapped, falling to 12-10 and 9-3.
This afternoon’s triumph marks the third consecutive campaign Davidson has reached 20 wins and seventh time under Head Coach Bob McKillop. The last time the Wildcats strung together three straight 20-win seasons was from 1968-70.
Curry, a freshman from Charlotte, N.C., connected on 11-of-20 from the field to finish with at least 23 points for the fourth consecutive game while reaching 20 for the 11th time this season.
Meno hit his first nine shots before misfiring on his final two attempts, reaching double digits for the 17th time in his career. The other Wildcat to reach the 10-point plateau was Jason Richards who finished with 17, 14 of which came in the second half.
Trailing 49-48 early in the second stanza, Richards scored seven straight to begin a 17-2 Wildcat run, while Curry capped it off with the last eight, including a couple threes to give Davidson a 65-51 advantage with 7:49 to go.
Richards’ final bucket with 4:25 left gave the Wildcats’ their largest lead (72-57) and put the game out of reach.
UNC Greensboro shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) in the opening period and got 14 points from the league’s leading scorer, Kyle Hines, to lead at the break, 37-33. Voted Co-Preseason Player of the Year by SoCon head coaches, Hines missed just two of his 11 attempts and added six boards in the period.
Not to be outdone, Curry, who ranks second in the conference behind Hines in scoring, kept Davidson close with 16 points before intermission. The 6-1 shooting guard was 6-of-12 from the floor, including four of the Wildcats’ five three-pointers.
Davidson held Hines to just one field goal in the final 20 minutes of action to finish with 18 points. On the strength of six trifectas, Matt Kovisto also recorded 18 points off the bench for the Spartans while Kevin Oleksiak added 12.
In the second stanza, Davidson shot 56.3 percent overall and forced 13 Spartan miscues while turning them into 16 points. The Wildcats concluded the game 31-of-64 (48.4 percent) including nine from long range.
UNCG shot 52.1 percent (25-of-48) and 10-of-22 from downtown, but managed 13 fewer attempts than the Wildcats in the second half.
Behind nine Meno boards and eight from Thomas Sander, Davidson controlled the rebound column, 35-26.
Along with outscoring the Spartans 22-6 off turnovers, the Wildcats dominated the points in the paint, 45-23.
Davidson will conclude its brief homestand with a 7 p.m. tip-off against Chattanooga Tuesday, Feb. 6 at Belk Arena. The Spartans return to the hardwood Monday as they travel to Spartanburg, S.C., for a 7 p.m. start.
WESTERN CAROLINA 78, THE CITADEL 68
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Forward Nick Aldridge had 25 points and eight rebounds to lead Western Carolina to a 78-68 victory over The Citadel basketball team on Saturday afternoon in Southern Conference action at McAlister Field House.
Guard Antonio Russell added 18 points for the Catamounts and forward Jake Robinson hit four three-pointers, all in the first half, in scoring 12 for Western Carolina. Senior guard Donny McLendon led the Bulldogs with 20 points as he went 5-6 from beyond the arc. Senior guard Kevin Hammack added 16 points, five assists and five rebounds. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field as The Citadel hit 52.2 percent of their shots while Western Carolina shot 52.4 percent.
“I’m very disappointed with our defensive effort today,” head coach Ed Conroy said. “We lost our focus, especially down the stretch. “Overall, I think that we played well, but the offense flowed so well early that we lost our focus defensively,” Conroy said. The Bulldogs opened up a 12-6 advantage on McLendon’s second three-pointer of the game with 16:15 left in the first half.
McLendon drained another one from long range to push the lead to 15- 6 with 15:28 left, and Hammack found freshman forward Bryan Streeter for a layup to put the advantage into double digits at 17-6. Another three-pointer, this one by freshman guard Vytautus Valiulis, made it a 22-11 Bulldog lead, but the Catamounts then went on a 10-2 run to cut the advantage to three on a three-pointer by forward Negus McKenna at 24-21 with 9:54 remaining. A three-point play by senior forward J’Mel Everhart stopped the run and made it 27-21, but Western Carolina tied the contest at 27 on a three-pointer by Robinson with 5:04 left until halftime.
The Catamounts took the lead at 29-28 on a jumper by Aldridge. Another three-pointer by Robinson pushed the Western Carolina advantage to 34-30 with 1:23 left, and that was the score as the teams headed into the locker rooms. McLendon led The Citadel with nine first-half points on his three three-pointers. Aldridge had 13 points to lead Western Carolina in the first half while Robinson added 12 with his four three-pointers.
CHATTANOOGA 62, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 57
STATESBORO, GA. --- The Chattanooga men’s basketball team went 5-for-6 at the free throw line in the final 24 seconds to defeat Georgia Southern 62-57 Saturday afternoon at Hanner Fieldhouse.
With the win, UTC improves to 10-14 overall and 3-9 in the Southern Conference. GSU falls to 10-12, 3-8.
The Mocs’ Casey Long tallied a game-high 19 points and Keddric Mays added 13.
For Georgia Southern, junior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Donte Gennie (Tallahassee, Fla.) scored 10, and was held to an uncharacteristic 2-for-10 performance from 3-point land.
Georgia Southern was without junior point guard Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) who was in street clothes with a hamstring injury. His absence meant career high minutes for freshmen Antoine Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) and Blake Thompson (Cartersville, Ga.). Johnson made his first career start today.
“It affects us tremendously,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “We’re aware of that and we’re going to have to find ways to be creative. We’re playing inexperienced freshmen at this level and they’re going to have to grow up fast. If anything, maybe this time right now when we’re not at our strength, it’ll make our team deeper.”
The largest lead for either team was seven, a 47-40 advantage for Chattanooga with 10:54 to play in the game. But it didn’t last long as the Eagles cut it to one four minutes later on a Gennie trifecta. But Georgia Southern was unable to take the lead and the Mocs went back up by five (57-52) with 3:42 on the clock.
After that point, the two teams went over three minutes without a field goal with only Johnson hitting a free throw and the Eagles trailed by four with a minute to play.
Gennie cut that lead in half, putting back a missed 3-point attempt by Graham with 36 seconds left. Following a timeout, senior Jimmy Tobias (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) stole the inbounds pass, but Graham was called for a double-dribble on his game-tying dunk.
After two UTC free throws, GSU turned the ball over on its next possession. Chattanooga hit two more at the line, putting the game out of reach.
“We’re not nearly the explosive offensive team we’ve been in the past, particularly without Dwayne,” Price added. “I continue to tell our team that they’re not going to score a lot and they have to be defending well. I thought we spent so much time chasing Mays around that we let other guys score baskets that don’t need to be scoring. To Coach (John) Shulman’s credit, I thought he did a great job of seeing that and making adjustments and getting easy shots.
“The bottom line is, we shot 39 percent in here, Donte Gennie missed his first five 3’s that were wide open and that’s unlike him. But that’s the way it was today.”
Georgia Southern takes a day off before hosting Appalachian State Monday night at 7:30 p.m.