College of Charleston 73, Coastal Carolina 58
Charleston, S.C. -- College of Charleston men’s basketball coach Bobby Cremins earned the 500th victory of his illustrious coaching career on Wednesday night, as the Cougars used a second half scoring barrage to knock off Coastal Carolina 73-58 before 3,724 at Carolina First Arena.
With the win, Cremins is the 69th coach in the college basketball history to win 500 games. He is also the 17th active coach in college basketball to reach to 500-win plateau.
The victory improves the Cougars mark on the season to 8-1 to continue their best start since the 2003-04 season. With the loss, Coastal Carolina falls to 3-7 on the year.
In the first half, Coastal Carolina came out in the first four minutes and jumped to a 12-4 lead on torrid shooting from the field (70 percent). Meanwhile, the Cougars were hampered by cold shooting from the field at 22 percent.
Coastal Carolina eventually extended their lead to 22-14 at the 10 minute mark, which was one of the last points of the contest in which Coastal had control of the game.
Over the next eight minutes, Charleston outscored Coastal Carolina 21-10 to take a 33-32 lead with a little over two minutes left in the half.
Charleston ended the half with a Jeremy Simmons tip-in at the buzzer to take a 37-34 lead going into intermission. Donovan Monroe was the Cougars’ leading scorer at the half with 11 points, while the sophomore also set a career-high in the half with in three-pointers made with three.
In the second half, the Cougars came out and dominated from the start. Charleston started the half racing out on a 13-2 run, which was capped by a Simmons alley-oop dunk from teammate Andrew Goudelock that made the score 50-36.
The deficit was too much for Coastal Carolina to come back from, as the Cougars eventually extended their lead to 61-42 at the eight minute mark and proceeded to coast over the final minutes to earn the 73-58 win.
The top scorers on the night for the Cougars were Jermaine Johnson and Dustin Scott, who each registered 14 points. Johnson also recorded his third double-double of the season after pulling down 11 rebounds. Logan Johnson led all Coastal Carolina scorers with 12 points.
The Cougars return to action on Friday, Dec. 19th when they host UNC Wilmington at the Carolina First Arena. Game-time is set for 7 p.m.
Wofford 82, Union College 41
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Wofford College men’s basketball team defeated Union College (Ky.) 82-41 on Wednesday evening at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Terriers took a 19-1 lead with twelve minutes to go in the first half and never looked back.
Wofford is 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference, while Union College is 6-7 overall. The Terriers were led by Junior Salters with 25 points and Tim Johnson with seven rebounds. Corey Godzinski added ten points and Noah Dahlman had 14 points. Union was led by Kearney Demus with 10 points and Antonio Murry with four rebounds.
The Terriers got off to a fast start, hitting four of their first five shots in the game for an 11-1 lead. Wofford pushed the lead to 19-1 before a Bulldog free throw made it 19-2 at 9:57 in the first half. With 6:35 left in the half, Union made their first basket for a 23-4 score. The basket was the start of an 11-1 run for the Bulldogs to pull the score to 24-13 with 2:54 on the clock. Wofford needed just 45 seconds to go on a 10-0 run for a 36-15 lead at the half.
In the second half, the Terriers kept up the pressure and pushed the lead to 48-20 just three minutes in. A three-pointer by Junior Salters at 10:48 gave Wofford a 62-32 lead. The lead steadily increased to 40 points and the final margin was 82-41.
Wofford shot 48 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three. The Terriers shot 75 percent from the line. The Bulldogs shot 40 percent from the floor and 44 percent from behind the arc. Union connected on 54 percent of its free throw attempts. Wofford had a 34-28 advantage on the boards.
The Terriers had 12 players see the court, with only Matt Estep not playing due to injury. Joseph Tecklenburg scored the first four points of his college career. Wofford scored 33 points off turnovers.
The Terriers will travel to Georgia for a 2:00 pm game on Saturday against the Bulldogs in a game to be televised on CSS. Wofford will then take a break for the holidays and return to action on January 2 at Navy.
East Tennessee State 82, Chattanooga 70
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. --- Despite 28 points from Stephen McDowell, the Chattanooga men’s basketball team was unable to capture its second victory of the season as the Mocs fell Wednesday night 82-70 to East Tennessee State. The loss drops UTC to 1-7/0-1 on the 2008-09 campaign and 0-6 away from McKenzie Arena, while ETSU improves to 7-3.
Aside from McDowell’s team-leading 28, Ty Patterson and Nicchaeus Doaks both contributed with 10 points each for the Mocs. On the boards Khalil Hartwell brought down a game-high 10 rebounds, while Doaks recorded nine in the loss.
East Tennessee State had big nights from both Kevin Tiggs and Courtney Pigram as the two combined for 66 of the Bucs total points. Tiggs was 11-of-13 from the field in the game and led all scorers with 32 points, while Pigram had 24 points, 18 from beyond the three-point line.
At the break both teams went into the locker rooms deadlocked at 41-apiece. East Tennessee State’s Courtney Pigram led all scorers with 17 points while UTC’s Stephen McDowell poured in 12 points.
In the opening half the Mocs went 12-of-36 from the field, while the Bucs were 13-of-28. Chattanooga was clutch from the behind the charity stripe as the Mocs were 10-of-12 from the free-throw line.
The story of the game came down to shooting for both teams in the second half. In the final period ETSU shot 50 percent (15-30) from the field, compared to the Mocs’ 29.4 percent (10-34). The Buccaneers set the tone early in the period as the Bucs sprang ahead with a 14-4 run and never looked back.
East Tennessee State would lead by as many as 12 in the half, but the Mocs were able to cut the lead down to one with 4:24 left to play in the game. However a quick 6-0 Buccaneer run would extend the ETSU lead back to seven as the Bucs held on for the 82-70 victory.
Chattanooga will be back on the road Saturday, Dec. 20 in game three of its current four-game road trip as the Mocs head to Ita Bena, Miss., for a matchup with Mississippi Valley State. Tip off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET.
Michigan State 79, The Citadel 65
EAST LANSING, Mich. ? Wednesday night’s game was a lot different than the previous meeting between The Citadel and Michigan State. Last time, the Bulldogs were unable to get anybody into double-digit scoring. Unlike their previous meeting, three Bulldogs scored in double-figures in The Citadel’s 79-65 loss to Michigan State in the Breslin Center, where 14,759 people filled the arena.
Austin Dahn led the Bulldogs with a season-high 17 points after nailing five 3-point field goals. Bryan Streeter contributed 10 points and four rebounds to give him a season-high in both categories. Cameron Wells collected 14 points, a career-high of five steals and dished a season-high of six assists.
The Bulldogs struggled from the field, hitting 23-of-59 shots. The Citadel stayed in the game with their strength from behind the arc, shooting 40 percent. Another hot spot for the Bulldogs was the foul line, where they shot 81.8 percent with Wells shooting a perfect 4-for-4.
Michigan State started the game with an 8-0 run with the Bulldogs earning their first basket with 16:15 on the clock after a 3-pointer by Zach Urbanus, which would be the only points on the game for Urbanus. The Spartans continued to run away with the game in the first half, getting ahead by as many as 18.
As the end of the first half drew closer, the Bulldogs began to pick up the pace. With 1:13 left in the half, the Spartans were up by 12 after a layup by Goran Suton. The Bulldogs responded with a layup by Streeter, which cut the lead to 10. With the Spartans up, 41-31, the Bulldogs continued to chip away at the lead, getting within eight after back-to-back free throws by Wells and Dahn.
The Citadel went into halftime down, 41-33. Dahn led the Bulldogs at the half with eight points, followed by Wells and Streeter with six, respectively. The Citadel shot 36.4 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from behind the arc in the first half. With a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line, the Bulldogs were outshooting the Spartans from the stripe.
Both teams had seven turnovers in the first half. Michigan State was led by Raymar Morgan in the first half with 13 points and seven rebounds. The Spartans shot 57.1 percent from the field, and outrebounded the Bulldogs, 20-16, in the half.
Michigan State scored the first basket out of the break with a jumper by Morgan. Wells responded back to cut the lead back down to eight. The second half was a much better half for the Bulldogs, who managed to keep the game within reach for most of the half.
It was a back-and-forth battle for the first six minutes of the game, where one team would score and the other
Gardner-Webb 96, Western Carolina 90
CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Western Carolina men's basketball had its four-game winning streak snapped, falling at home to Gardner-Webb, 96-90, Wednesday night in non-conference action in the Ramsey Center.
Junior forward Jake Robinson scored a season-high 23 points and was one of four Catamounts in double figures. However, Western Carolina just could not keep pace with Gardner-Webb's Grayson Flittner who finished with a game-high 31 points including five 3-pointers and a perfect 10-for-10 showing from the free throw line.
It was an even game in the first half with the score knotted at 49 at the break. Flittner gave the Bulldogs an early advantage to start the second half draining a three-pointer less then a minute in. The game would be tied three times before Gardner-Webb took the lead for good with another 3-pointer to make the score 60-57.
At one point in the second half, WCU missed seven-straight 3-point attempts before Robinson connected from long range with 2:17 to play, cutting the deficit back to single digits to seven, 88-81.
Western Carolina did try to make it interesting in the last minute of the game cutting Gardner-Webb's lead to five, 90-85, after Richie Gordon hit a bucket and was fouled. He completed the three-point play by hitting the free throw with 37 seconds remaining. Gardner-Webb was 8-of-10 from the free throw line after that to keep the Catamounts at bay. Robinson drained a trey to trim the lead to four, but Flittner hit a pair of free throws with one second left to ice the game.
Gardner-Webb hit a total of 12 three-pointers in the game including Flittner's five, and shot a sizzling 55.8 percent from the field. Western Carolina attempted 34 three-pointers in the contest and only connected on eight for 23.5 percent.
Junior Brandon Giles was second on the team in scoring with 17 points and also had four rebounds. Harouna Mutombo bounced back into double figures, adding 11 points and Brigham Waginger rounded out the double figure scoring with 10.
Western Carolina heads back on the road to face No. 23/24 Marquette Friday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tip time is set for 7:30 pm local time, 8:30 pm ET. The game will be televised through ESPN's signature broadband sports TV network, ESPN360 and ESPN360.com.