SoCon Men’s Basketball Recaps for February 16, 2008
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 59, ELON 44
STATESBORO, GA. --- Georgia Southern held Elon to 44 points and senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored a game-high 25 points in the Eagles’ 59-44 men’s basketball win Saturday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The victory is GSU’s fifth straight overall and the seventh in the past eight outings. They improve to 19-8 and 12-5 in the Southern Conference. Elon falls to 10-16 and 8-10.
The 44 points allowed are the fewest by a SoCon opponent since giving up 41 to The Citadel on March 5, 1993.
“Well, we only allowed 15 in the first half,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “They are a disciplined, low-possession team and I knew the game would be like this. Our defense carried us. They are not going to let you score a lot of points. We still won by 15 because our defense carried us.”
Elon shot 25.0% (7-28) in the opening 20 minutes for just 15 points. Their first-half total was also a GSU season low.
Graham and senior Matthew Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) each recorded double-doubles, the first time two GSU teammates have done that since Dec. 12, 2006. Graham had 25 points and 11 rebounds while Fields added 14 points and tied his career high with 12 boards. It was Graham’s 30th career double-double.
The pair helped the Eagles dominate the glass 44-28.
“Louis and Matt were huge inside,” said Price. “They did a nice job defending the paint. It’s pretty impressive to hold a team to that percentage and only put them to the line two times. They only took two free throws the whole game. It’s the sign of a team playing smart and playing with their feet and not their hands.”
An 8-0 run in the first half extended Georgia Southern’s lead into double-digits for the first time. Six of those points came at the free throw line and Fields finished it off with a lay-up for a 24-13 advantage with just under five minutes left in the first period.
The Phoenix cut the margin to nine twice in the second half but another 8-0 run put the game out of reach. Four straight points by Graham gave the Eagles a 43-26 lead with 9:27 left.
Saturday marked the fourth straight game an Eagle opponent had scored less than 70 points. Elon’s 32.2 field goal percentage was the lowest allowed since UAB converted only 30.5% on Nov. 17 in the second game of the season.
“We’ve had carry over from our defense the last three games,” said Price. “It started with Chattanooga, we defended great against Wofford. We played great defense again tonight. We understand that that’s what’s going to help us win a championship.”
Montell Watson was the lone Elon player in double-figures with 14 points.
CHATTANOOGA 78, THE CITADEL 71
CHARLESTON, S.C. --- Chattanooga (16-11, 11-6) survived a three-point barrage by The Citadel (6-19, 1-15) to claim a 78-71 win in Southern Conference action. The Bulldogs hit 17 three-pointers on the day, while the Mocs hit 10. The Citadel’s 44 three-point attempts were a new school record.
The Bulldogs jumped out to the early advantage powered by Austin Dahn from beyond the arc. The freshman wing hit four three-pointers early to push the Citadel to a 13-8 advantage at 14:58.
Chattanooga quickly answered with a 21-1 run started by back-to-back three-pointers by Kevin Bridgewaters and Keyron Sheard to take a 29-14 lead. During the run, the Mocs held the Bulldogs without a field goal for 8:10. Stephen McDowell banked in a three shortly before the buzzer to end the half and give the Mocs a 43-27 halftime advantage.
The second half started as more of the same with the Bulldogs hitting three-pointers and the Mocs, answering from inside and out. The Citadel chipped away cutting the lead to eight, 68-60, with 4:59 left on a Cameron Wells jumper. The Mocs answered quickly again on a three-pointer by Marcus Watts and two Nicchaeus Doaks free throws at 4:05.
The Bulldogs closed to within seven, 73-66, on another Dahn three-pointer, his seventh of the game, with 2:07 to go. Down the stretch, Mocs held on from the free throw line to claim the win.
Doaks scored 18 points to lead five double-figure scorers for the Mocs. Watts and McDowell came off the bench to score 15 and 14, respectively. Doaks added six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Bridgewaters had 12 points, as Sheard chipped in 10 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots.
Dahn led all scorers with 26 points on eight-of-14 shooting from behind the arc. Wells added 20, 19 in the second half, to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The Chattanooga win, coupled with Appalachian State's 24-point loss at UNCG, pulls the Mocs even with the Mountaineers for the SoCon North lead with three games remaining in the league schedule.
WESTERN CAROLINA 65, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 57
CHARLESTON, S.C. --- Brandon Giles scored 25 points and Arnold Gore added 14 points to lead Western Carolina to a 65-57 Southern Conference win over the College of Charleston before 3,104 at John Kresse Arena on Saturday.
With the win, the Catamounts improved to 8-17 overall and 4-11 in league play. The Cougars fell to 12-14 and 7-9. College of Charleston is at Elon at 7:30 on Wednesday while WCU plays host to UNC Greensboro at 7:05 on Thursday.
Giles tallied 11 points and the Catamounts closed the opening half on a 11-5 run to take a 30-27 lead at intermission.
In the second half, Charleston capped a 9-2 run with a couples of free throws by Marcus Hammond to take a 36-32 lead with 14:05 left. WCU battled back and eventually built a 42-38 lead with 9:49 remaining.
A dunk by Charleston's Donavan Monroe capped a 7-0 outburst and gave the Cougars a 45-42 lead with 8:36 left. But, a layup by Gore and two free throws from Giles gave Western Carolina the lead for good at 46-45 with 7:19 left.
WCU eventually stretched its lead to 54-45 with 4:27 remaining. Charleston answered with an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 54-53 with 2:43 left, but the Catamounts answered with a pair of jumpers by Giles and WCU connected on 9-of-10 free throw attempts over the final 29 seconds to secure its first-ever win at Kresse Arena in seven tries.
Jake Robinson added 13 points off the bench for the Catamounts including three 3-pointers. WCU held a 24-6 advantage on points off turnovers as its defense forced 21 Charleston miscues on the night.
WCU shot 39.3 percent from the floor hitting on 24-of-61 attempts. Charleston, which outrebounded the Catamounts 43-30, shot 35.3 percent connecting on 18-of-51 attempts.
Andrew Goudelock led the Cougars with 15 points, while Tony White, Jr. added 12. Charleston's Jermaine Johnson had a game-high 10 rebounds.
DAVIDSON 86, FURMAN 51
DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Will Archambault scored a career-high 28 points and Stephen Curry added 26 as Davidson cruised past the Furman Paladins 86-51 in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Saturday afternoon at Belk Arena.
The Wildcats shot 58.1% (18-31) from the field in the first half and opened the game on a 19-0 run on their way to a 46-22 halftime advantage. Davidson buried 7-of-15 first half three-pointers and didn’t allow Furman to post a basket until the 11:56 mark.
Davidson connected on 11-of-24 three-point attempts for the game and shot 48.5% (32-66) from the floor. The Wildcats held a 40-26 edge on the boards and committed just nine turnovers while forcing 16 Furman miscues.
Archambault made 11-of-14 field goal attempts, including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc to best his previous career-high of 19 points. Curry, who scored a career-best 41 on Wednesday against UNC Greensboro, made 8-of-16 field goals and 5-of-9 from three-point range.
Senior George Brozos led Furman with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-for-3 from long range. Connor Nolte added 13 points. The Paladins converted only 19-of-49 (38.8%) field goals, but made 8-of-21 three-point attempts.
The game marked the sixth time in the last seven outings that Furman found itself behind at least 8-0 before netting its first points of the game. Davidson won its 15th straight game and 27th consecutive SoCon regular season contest.
The loss drops Furman to 5-20 overall and 4-12 in SoCon play. Davidson improves to 19-6 overall and 17-0 in the league.
UNC GREENSBORO 79, APPALACHIAN STATE 55
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? The frontcourt duo of Kyle Hines and Ben Stywall combined for 41 points as UNC Greensboro snapped a four-game losing skid with a 79-55 win over Appalachian State in front of a capacity crowd at Fleming Gym on Saturday afternoon.
Hines finished with 26 points, 19 of them in the second half. He played just 27 minutes after sitting nearly eight minutes of the first half with two fouls. It was his 74th consecutive game with 10 or more points, the longest current streak in the nation. Stywall added 15 points, 12 of those in the first half. The duo of Hines and Stywall combined to shoot 16-for-21 from the floor, while the rest of the squad shot just 11-for-30. It was enough though for the Spartans to shoot 53 percent from the floor for the game. Stywall also had a game-high nine rebounds.
It was Hines 10th game this season with 20 or more points and the 43rd of his career. With five rebounds on Saturday, he is now seven shy of the 2,000-point, 1,000-rebound milestone entering Tuesday night’s nationally televised game at Davidson. That game, tipping off at 7:02 pm ET, will be shown on ESPN2. Ninety-five players in college basketball history have achieved the milestone, but only five of those have ever had 300 or more career blocks. Hines now has 326 after recording two rejections on Saturday.
With Saturday’s result, the Southern Conference’s North Division got a little more cloudier. Where UNCG looked like it was falling out of the race in the last 15 days, it suddenly found itself back in it after Saturday’s loss. Appalachian State, 4-4 in its last eight games, dropped to 11-6 in the league (16-10 overall). Chattanooga, after beating The Citadel in Charleston, is the same, while UNCG is now 8-7 in league play (14-10 overall). Appalachian State must also play at Davidson still, while UNCG still has to host Chattanooga on February 28.
UNCG point guard Dwayne Johnson had eight assists and just one turnover. It was the 34th time in his career he has had five or more assists in a game, including 11 times this season, and now has 397 assists in his career. Only four Spartans have ever recorded 400 or more assists.
In its worst loss this season, Appalachian State got 12 points from Donte Minter, but he was limited by foul trouble for a good portion of the afternoon, as well. The 6-8 forward played just 25 minutes. Minter came in having scored 20 or more points in three straight games.
“We played a complete game today,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “We’ve talked about trying to do that lately because we have been inconsistent in that regard. We were good offensively, we were good defensively. We didn’t let them get into a lot of transition like they did up there back in January (a 91-68 Mountaineer win). We gave it up a little at the end of the first half, but we came right out to start the second half and picked it back up.”
The Mountaineers, who lost at Fleming for the fourth straight year, were their own worst enemy as UNCG built a 10-point lead midway through the half. Three turnovers in a span of 90 seconds by Appalachian State ? raising their total to nine over the first 10 minutes ? helped UNCG get out to a 21-11 lead.
After both big men - Hines and Minter picked up their second fouls, the Spartans continued to stretch the lead. UNCG led 30-16 when Mountaineer coach Houston Fancher decided he had to take the chance and send Minter back out for the final four minutes of the half. That move seemed to get the offense started as the Mountaineers closed the half out by making three of their final four from the field and cut the deficit to 35-26 at the break.
UNCG played a span of 7:35 without Hines in the first half due to his two fouls. He left with UNCG leading 21-12 and came back just briefly in the final minute in a quick offense-to-defense substitution. Instead, it was Stywall who did the damage, finishing the first half with 12 points and seven rebounds. That, along with 14 Appalachian State turnovers in the first half, helped UNCG overcome 2-for-8 shooting from behind the arc in the opening half.
UNCG regained its double-digit lead early in the second half, however. Stywall and Hines got it going quickly as the Spartans scored 12 of the first 17 points of the second half to take a 47-31 lead with 14 minutes to play. The duo hit the first three field goals of the second half to get things rolling.
The UNCG run continued from there as the lead hit 20 with 11:40 to play when an inside move by Hines gave the Spartans a 54-34 lead. Appalachian State got to within 17 at 57-40 on two free throws by Donald Mims, but UNCG scored seven straight to open a 19-8 run that pushed the lead back to 28, capped off by a Kendall Toney three-pointer with 3:28 to play.
The 24-point margin equaled UNCG’s biggest win over the Mountaineers. UNCG won by 24 over Appalachian State back in January 2002, 87-63. The Mountaineers hold a 15-13 advantage in the all-time series.