SoCon Men’s Basketball Recaps for January 26, 2008
DAVIDSON 70, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 58
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Thomas Sander scored a game-high 21 points and Davidson's defense held Charleston to just 33.9 percent shooting as the Wildcats defeated the College of Charleston, 70-58, in Southern Conference men's basketball action before 3,681 at John Kresse Arena on Saturday.
With the win, Davidson improved to 13-6 overall and 11-0 in league play. Charleston fell to 9-11 and 4-6. Charleston plays at Wofford on Monday at 7:00. Davidson is at Chattanooga on Saturday at 7:00.
Sander scored 12 points in the first half helping the Wildcats to a 40-25 lead at the break. Davidson got off to a great start racing out to an 18-4 lead with 10:29 left in the first.
Davidson eventually built the lead to 61-42 with 4:20 left in the game, but Charleston answered with a 16-4 run to cut the margin to 65-58 with 32 seconds left. Davidson's Stephon Curry hit one-of-two free throws with 29 second remaining, but Boris Meno grabbed the offensive rebound, was fouled, and hit a pair of free throws to give the Wildcats a 68-58 lead.
Curry scored 16 points for the Wildcats, while teammates Jason Richards and Andrew Lovedale added 12 and 10 points each, respectively. Sander hit 7-of-10 shots from the field, 1-of-2 of his 3-point attempts and 6-of-8 from the free throw line. Lovedale had a team-high seven rebounds for Davidson.
Freshman Andrew Goudelock led Charleston with 13 points, while Jermaine Johnson recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Tony White, Jr. added 11 points for the Cougars.
The Wildcats shot 41.8 percent from the floor for the game hitting 23-of-55 attempts. The Cougars were 20-of-59 from the field, including 14-of-35 on shots inside the paint.
CHATTANOOGA 89, APPALACHIAN STATE 77
CHATTANOOGA, TENN - Chattanooga snapped Appalachian State’s seven-game win streak with an 89-77 decision at The McKenzie Arena Saturday afternoon. The Mountaineers had difficultly getting into any sort of rhythm, shooting a season-low 39-percent in the loss. Freshman Donald Sims continued to shine, scoring a game-high 23 points for Appalachian.
Chattanooga (13-7, 8-2 SoCon) shot a blistering 56 percent from the field behind Kevin Bridgewaters’ team-high 20 points. The Mocs’ interior players stymied Appalachian (12-7, 7-3 SoCon) all afternoon, outscoring ASU in the paint 36-18 and forcing the Mountaineers to take more than half of their shots from behind the three-point arc.
Appalachian’s big men also got in foul trouble early in the whistle-laden contest with Jeremy Clayton fouling out in just 11 minutes of action. Four other Mountaineers finished the game with four fouls.
Kellen Brand scored 17 points for the Mountaineers, followed by Donte Minter and Ryann Abraham with 13 points each.
ASU got off to a slow start and found itself down 13-5 in the first six minutes of the game before a trio of three pointers from Jeremi Booth, Abraham and Sims tied the game at 16-16 with 10:35 left in the opening half. However, the home squad quickly regained control of the contest and ran out to a 7-point lead courtesy of a 7-1 run with just under six minutes of the clock. The Mocs added to that advantage to carry a 44-34 lead into the locker room.
The Mountaineers appeared poised to make a run to open the second half with a 12-4 spurt to pull within two points, 48-46, four minutes into the stanza. Unfortunately, the Mocs answered by stretching the lead out to 11 over the next 6:19 on a Nicchaeus Doaks dunk with 9:41 left. Appalachian would pull within 10 points three times over the remainder of the contest, but UTC answered each time to earn a split in the season series with the 89-77 win. The victory also gives UTC sole possession of first place in the Southern Conference North Division..
UNC GREENSBORO 74, THE CITADEL 63
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Kyle Hines recorded a double-double with 20 points and 14 rebounds as UNC Greensboro downed homestanding The Citadel, 74-63, in a Southern Conference match-up on Jan. 26 in Charleston. Freshman forward Austin Dahn led the Bulldogs with 17 points and seven boards.
Dahn got the Bulldogs off to an impressive start putting the first points on the board for either team with back-to-back long range shots to open the game with a 6-0 lead at 18:55. After the Bulldogs forced the Spartans into a timeout at 18:50, Greensboro came out with a quick three of their own to put their first points on the board at 18:34.
The Spartans took their first lead at17:54 putting them in front 8-6. However, Dahn answered with his third 3-pointer of the game at 15:28 to give The Citadel a 9-8 lead. Freshman guard Cameron Wells followed with a 3-point shot of his own to put the Bulldogs up by four. Greensboro’s Ben Stywall then entered the 3-point shootout at 13:00 for the third lead change of the first half, 13-12.
The Spartans extended their lead by four before back-to-back layups by freshman Daniel Eykyn tied the game at 16-16 with 11:42 left to play in the half. However, it was all Bulldogs from there as The Citadel extended their lead by as much as 10 points, the most of any conference game this season.
“I’m really proud of guys and the way they responded,” said Bulldog Head Coach Ed Conroy. “The last time we played this team we didn’t get off to a good start and we had a good first half against them today.”
Holding on to the lead for the remainder of the first half, the Bulldogs went into halftime with a six point lead, 43-37. The Citadel outshot Greensboro 56 percent to 40 percent, while hitting 8-of-12 shots from behind the arc for 66.7 percent. Dahn led The Citadel with an impressive 16 points, going 4-of-4 from long range. Hines led Greensboro with 10 points and six boards.
UNC Greensboro came out of the half with three quick baskets to take over the lead, 44-43. Plagued by turnovers early in the second half, the Bulldogs struggled to put points on the board as the Spartan lead extended by as much as 15.
The Bulldogs, unable to recover, brought the margin back within 10 points with a Zach Urbanus layup at 1:06 left in the game. However, the Spartans held on for the 11-point win as Bulldog guard Jonathan Brick connected on a layup at the buzzer.
The Citadel shot 46.9 percent from the field in the game, while Greensboro stayed consistent in both halves with 40.4 percent shooting. The Bulldogs hit 9-of-19 from long range for 47.4 percent. The Spartans outrebounded the Bulldogs 39 to 32, while The Citadel recorded 20 turnovers.
“Obviously it was a tough loss for us today. Our team is developing and I am proud of them for that,” Conroy added. “I was really disappointed in our guys in the second half. I think we made some poor shot selections and 20 turnovers is way too many for us.”
The Bulldogs drop to 5-14 overall and 0-10 in Southern Conference action, while Greensboro improves to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in the SoCon.
WOFFORD 83, WESTERN CAROLINA 73
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Wofford College men’s basketball team won it’s third straight game with an 83-73 win over Western Carolina on Saturday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena. Junior Salters led Wofford with a career-high 26 points in the victory.
Wofford is 11-8 overall and 4-5 in SoCon play. Western Carolina is 6-13 on the season and 2-7 in conference play. The Terriers were led by Junior Salters with 26 points and Tim Johnson with a career-high 17 points. Drew Gibson had eight rebounds. For the Catamounts, Brandon Giles had 24 points and six rebounds. Negus McKenna had 19 points as he was a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor, including 5-of-5 from behind the arc.
“I was very disappointed with our lack of energy in the first half,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “Western Carolina has very capable players and for them to score 43 points on our defense in the first half was not pleasant. We played a much better second half and Tim Johnson won the game for us. He had a couple of great finishes on stick-backs and played excellent in the post. Junior Salters was outstanding with 26 points and played the way I know he can play.”
The Catamounts scored first, but the Terriers went on a quick 6-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. Western Carolina jumped back out to an 11-7 lead. Matt Estep then scored the next eleven points for the Terriers, which included three three-pointers to retake the lead at 18-14 at the 10:40 mark in the first half.
After a put-back by Tim Johnson for a 20-16 lead for Wofford, Negus McKenna went on a nine-point run with three straight three-pointers to give the Catamounts a 25-20 lead at 8:31. A three-pointer by Junior Salters pulled the Terriers to within one point at 27-26, but another 6-0 run by Western Carolina increased the lead to 33-26 with 5:53 remaining. A long three-pointer by Junior Salters and a couple free throws by Drew Gibson tied the game at 33 with 3:39 left in the half. However, the Catamounts went on a 10-3 run to end the half and took a 43-36 lead at the break.
Early in the second half, the Catamounts were able to keep a comfortable lead and at the 12:53 mark were up eight points at 53-45. Then, Tim Johnson took over for the Terriers and scored eight points in a 12-0 run for Wofford over a four minute span to take a 57-53 lead at 9:12.
At the 5:40 mark, Negus McKenna hit his fifth three-pointer of the game to give the Catamounts a 63-62 lead. The game was tied briefly at 65 each before the Terriers went on an 8-0 run, which included another three-pointer by Junior Salters as Wofford took a 73-65 lead with 2:52 left in the game.
It was a free throw contest for the last two minutes, with Corey Godzinski hitting five-of-six attempts to give Wofford an 80-70 lead with 38 seconds left in the game. Drew Gibson scored the last three points for the Terriers, while Brigham Waginger hit a three pointer with three seconds left for the Catamounts for the 83-73 final score.
The game was the second in a stretch of five conference games in ten days. Shane Nichols (ankle) and Marcus Jackson (shoulder) did not dress for the contest. Wofford has now won three straight conference games, scoring 80+ points in all three games. The Terriers have come from behind at the half in the last two games, making up nine and seven-point deficits, respectively.
Wofford shot 60.0% from the floor and 60.0% from three. The Terriers were 66.7% from the line. The Catamounts were 45.6% from the floor and 52.6% from behind the arc and 73.3% from the free throw line. Wofford had a 31-25 edge on the boards. Jake Robinson fouled out for the Catamounts with 28 seconds left in the game.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 62, FURMAN 53
STATESBORO, GA. --- The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team used a 16-3 run to open the second half to rally from a one-point deficit and defeat Furman 62-53 Saturday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Eagles get one back in the win column after two straight defeats and now stand at 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the Southern Conference. The Paladins drop to 3-17 and 2-9.
A crowd of 4,082 saw GSU reel off 13 straight points to take control of a tight ballgame. It was the sixth-largest crowd in Hanner Fieldhouse history and the largest since March 11, 1992.
GSU senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) led all players with 14 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Freshman Willie Powers (Gainesville, Fla.) added 12 off the bench and senior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) had 10 and six assists.
Three Furman players recorded 10 points each: Justin Dehm, Darryl Evans and George Brozos.
Neither team was able to find a rhythm in the first half as the two squads combined for just 34.3 percent from the field and 41 points. Furman hit just 20.7 percent (6-29) but led 21-20 at the break.
“We couldn’t make any shots to their credit,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “We saw zone for forty minutes. They wouldn’t let us score inside, they made us shoot the ball from outside and we just couldn’t make shots. I thought our defense was great. Our defense held us together. Furman basically did what they had to do to have a chance to win, and it worked for awhile and I knew we would shoot the ball better in the second half and we did.”
A Dehm 3-pointer at the 17:50 mark of the second half put Furman ahead (24-23) for the final time. Georgia Southern responded with 13 consecutive points over a four-minute stretch. Five different players contributed during the run, including an alley-oop by sophomore Antoine Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.), and the rally was capped off with a lay-up by Graham.
“We had a big run and we had couple of momentum plays,” said Price. “Great play to A.J. - that was big - and we had a great crowd that really got behind our players and I thought that was important. We just needed to play with more confidence. I kept stressing we needed to get that swagger back. We were still stinging from Thursday night. I think we all were kind of stunned and I thought it showed in the game, we didn’t have the confidence or the swagger we normally have in this building and it took us awhile to get it back.”
GSU shot 47.8 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes and more than doubled their first-half output with 42 points. Furman finished the contest with 32.7 percent shooting and hit just 52.2 percent from the foul line.