SoCon Men’s Basketball Recaps for February 23, 2008
CHATTANOOGA 82, WOFFORD 76
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ? Khalil Hartwell and Stephen McDowell led five Chattanooga players in double figures with 19 points apiece Saturday to lead the Mocs to an 82-76 Southern Conference victory over Wofford.
The Mocs won their second straight game and their home finale as seniors Kevin Bridgewaters and Marcus Watts played their final home game.
Chattanooga overcame a combined scoring output of 48 points from Wofford’s Drew Gibson and Junior Salters.
The Mocs, 17-11, 11-6 in the SoCon, opened the game with a 15-3 spurt before four minutes had been played. The Terriers, 14-14, 7-11, chipped away with a 17-6 run to draw the score to 24-22 with 8:48 left in the first half.
Wofford took its first lead on one of Salters’ five three-pointers, giving the Terriers a 46-45 edge with 15:34 to play.
Chattanooga built as much as a nine-point second-half lead, and Wofford got as close as 79-76 with nine seconds to play. The Mocs, who were 17-for-26 from the free throw line for the game, made 5-of-6 free throws over the last 1:06 in the game to secure the victory.
With the win, the Mocs are tied for first place in the SoCon North Division with Appalachian State.
Watts finished with 13 points and a game-high seven assists. Bridgewaters added 12 points, and Nicchaeus Doaks chipped in 10 and a game-high nine rebounds.
Gibson led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, and Salters contributed 23. Noah Dahlman was the only other Terrier in double digits with 10 points, and he pulled down eight boards.
The Mocs conclude the regular season on the road at UNC Greensboro Thursday and at Elon next Saturday. Wofford is at Western Carolina Thursday.
WESTERN CAROLINA 61, THE CITADEL 42
CULLOWHEE, N.C. --- Fueled by a 24-to-8 run to open the second half, the Western Carolina men's basketball team scored a 61-42 Southern Conference victory over The Citadel Saturday afternoon at the Ramsey Center.
Western avenged an earlier loss to the Bulldogs back on Feb. 14, where it fell to The Citadel, 57-51, in Charleston.
The Catamounts were led by senior guard Eric Wilson, who turned in his best performance of the year with only the second double-double of a career. The Lincolnton, N.C., native scored a season-high 14 points to compliment his career-high-tying 10 rebounds. Wilson connected on his first six shots on the afternoon, only misfiring on his last attempt to end the game 6-of-7 from the field.
Sophomore Brandon Giles contributed 13 points for WCU, extending his consecutive double-digit scoring streak to a career-best 18 games. Many of those scoring opportunities came as the direct result of classmate Brigham Waginger's passing, helping the point guard tie a career-high with seven assists, with just one turnover. Each WCU player scored on the night, with freshman Richie Gordon and sophomore Jake Robinson chipping in seven and two tallying six points for the game.
The Catamounts (9-18, 5-12 SoCon) were able to hold the nation's sixth-ranked 3-point shooting team to their second-lowest output of the season, only allowing the Bulldogs to connect on 8-of-31 attempts from behind the line (25.8%). The Citadel came into the game averaging just under ten made three-pointers a game, and shooting 41 percent on the season, both of which were tops in the SoCon.
Western came out of the gates hot, scoring 11 unanswered points to start the game before The Citadel was able to get on the board at the 11:51 mark of the first half. The Cats, which never trailed on the day, led by at double-digits for 29 of the game's 40 minutes. WCU took an 11-point, 27-16, lead into the locker room after opening up a 15-point margin with 2:51 left in the half.
In their last ten games, the Catamounts have only trailed at the break once, in the game against Georgia Southern on Feb. 7.
The second half started almost exactly as the first with Western hitting their first four shots and not allowing the Bulldogs to knock down a shot from the field in the opening five minutes of the final stanza. The trend continued from then on, with the Catamounts opening up a game-high, 27-point lead on a Blake Gallagher lay-up with 10:09 left in the game, to put the score at 51-24.
Western cruised to just its third, double-digit winning margin, 61-42.
The Bulldogs (6-21, 1-17 SoCon) were led by freshman Zach Urbanus, who scored a game-high 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field including five 3-pointers. Urbanus' classmate Cameron Wells, who came into the game averaging 14.4 points per game, made only two of 11 shots on his way to four points.
The 42-point output was the lowest by a WCU opponent, 15 less than the previous low, totaled by both the College of Charleston and Presbyterian. Western also held The Citadel to an opponent-low in field goal percentage (31-percent), field goals made (15), free throws attempted (5), and free throws made (4).
For the second time in as many meetings, Western was able to gain a sizeable advantage on the boards throughout the game finishing with over twice as many rebounds as The Citadel, 45-to-21. The Cadets were only able to collect a total of three offensive rebounds despite missing 32 shots from the field. WCU also outscored the Bulldogs on second-chance points, 14-2, while also dominating the inside on the offensive end, outscoring The Citadel 26-6 in the paint.
Western Carolina will now take a five-day break before hitting the floor for Senior Day on Thursday, Feb. 28 against Wofford. The Catamounts will honor seniors Arnold Gore, Eric Wilson and Negus McKenna before the game for their contributions to the program.
UT-MARTIN 81, ELON 77
ELON, N.C. ? Gerald Robinson tallied 25 points and 10 rebounds as UT Martin staved off Elon for an 81-77 O’Reilly Auto Parts ESPNU BracketBusters men’s basketball victory Saturday evening at Alumni Gym.
The Skyhawks (16-14) broke open the game’s third and final tie at 13-13 with a 14-2 surge to build a 27-15 advantage on a jumper by Marquis Weddle with 5:09 to play in the opening period. Robinson’s trey at the 13:54 mark of the second half gave UT Martin its largest lead at 59-41.
The Phoenix (11-17) went on to reel off 31 of the contest’s last 47 points to close the gap to 75-72 on a freebie by Brett James with 1:43 remaining. Weddle went on to can two pairs of charity shots to stretch the Skyhawks’ edge to 79-72 with 34 ticks to go.
James’ dunk with 25 seconds left cut the deficit to 79-74 before Robinson converted the second of two free throw attempts three seconds later. T.J. Douglas drained a three-pointer with 12 seconds to play to pull Elon to within 80-77, but Lester Hudson sank a charity shot to seal the deal with 10 seconds on the clock.
The Phoenix defense held the Skyhawks to no field goals during the last 7:31 of the contest. Elon outscored UT Martin 38-22 in the paint, 14-13 off second chances and 21-1 off the bench. The Skyhawks outscored the Phoenix 19-14 off turnovers.
“We did some good things out there,” Elon coach Ernie Nestor said. “We just didn’t do enough of them. Against a solid team like this, you need to be very efficient with your possessions and at times we weren’t. We had some very good shots late in the game, we just couldn’t make them.”
The Phoenix fired 44.1 percent (30 of 68) from the field ? 48.8 percent (20 of 41) in the second half ? and 81.8 percent (9 of 11) from the free throw line. The Skyhawks shot 40.4 percent (23 of 57) from the floor and 78.8 percent (26 of 33) from the stripe. Each team hauled in 38 rebounds.
Hudson finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists while Weddle chipped in 20 points for UT Martin while Montell Watson (20 points, game-high seven assists), James (18 points, seven rebounds), Ola Atoyebi (11 points) and Adam Constantine (game-high and career-high 15 rebounds) led Elon.
Both teams will return to action next Saturday to conclude regular-season action as Elon hosts Chattanooga at 7 p.m. and UT Martin hosts Murray State at 7:30 p.m.
NIAGARA 76, APPALACHIAN STATE 75
BOONE, N.C. - A three-pointer from Niagara’s Stanley as time expired deflated a raucous Holmes Center crowd and handed Appalachian State University men’s basketball a heart-breaking 76-75 in its ESPNU BracketBusters matchup.
The back-and-forth game saw 21 lead changes, including five in the final minute, and nine ties. It was also a cruel reversal of fortunes for the Mountaineers who prevailed in last season’s BracketBusters with a shot in the final seconds to defeat Wichita State.
Going into the final minute, the Purple Eagles held a one-point, 71-70, lead before the teams started exchanging buckets. With 27 seconds on the clock, Donte Minter Salisbury, N.C./West Rowan) hit a turn-around jumper in the lane to give Appalachian a 73-72 lead. On the ensuing possession, Niagara’s Charron Fisher missed a jumper and Eagles promptly fouled Jeremy Clayton (Greensboro, N.C./Ben L. Smith) who corralled the critical defensive board.
Unfortunately for the Apps, Clayton only made one of his two free-throw attempts. Fisher grabbed the board off the miss and took the ball the length of the court, only to have his layup swatted off the glass by Clayton and out of bounds off the Mountaineers. With four seconds left, the ASU defense knocked loose Niagara’s inbound pass on an extremely well-defended play, but the ball rolled out on the right wing just out of the reach of the ASU defender into Hodge’s waiting hands. Hodge picked up the loose ball and immediately sent it skyward as time expired for the game-winning three-pointer.
Ryann Abraham (Mayaguez, Puerto Rico) led Appalachian (17-11) with 18 points, while Minter added 17. Clayton netted the 21st double-double of his career with 17 points and 12 rebounds. He also had 5 blocks and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the floor.
Niagara (18-8) was led by the nation’s leading scorer, Charron Fisher with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Hodge added 18 and Benson Engemonye had 16 points and 11 boards.
The Mountaineers shot 55.4 percent in the loss, but matched a season-high with 23 turnovers, which Niagara converted into 20 points on just 38-percent shooting.
Appalachian trailed by one, 36-35, at halftime and found themselves down nine, 53-44, seven minutes into the second half. However, the squad responded with a
12-1 run over the next three minutes to take a 56-54 lead on a three-pointer from Abraham and steal and layup by Donald Sims (Gaffney, S.C./Gaffney). The game went back-and-forth again for the next 10 minutes with ASU briefly leading by as many as four before that margin was trimmed, setting in motion the exciting final minute of action.
In the first half, the Purple Eagles ran out to a nine-point, 19-10, lead in the first eight minutes before the Mountaineers answered the charge with a 15-3 run to reclaim a 25-22 lead behind three-straight three-pointers from Abraham and two from Jeremi Booth (Altavista, Va./Altavista). Neither team would lead by more than five for the remainder of the half with a three-pointer from Abraham sending the game into intermission and 36-35 Niagara.
Appalachian returns to the hardwood Wednesday, February 27 when it travels to South Division leader Davidson. Tipoff is 7 p.m. on SportSouth.
AUSTIN PEAY 80, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 72
CLARKSVILLE, TENN. --- Austin Peay’s 12-1 run to end the first half broke open a two-point contest and the Governors went on to an 80-72 victory over Georgia Southern Saturday at Dave Aaron Arena.
The game was a part of O’Reilly’s ESPNU BracketBusters. APSU improves to 19-10 while GSU has its six-game winning streak ended to fall to 20-9.
It took the Eagles over four minutes to find the basket to start the game as they fell behind 10-0. Senior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) finally put Georgia Southern on the scoreboard with a ?3’.
GSU eventually tied the game at 26-26 on a lay-up by junior Julian Allen (Waterbury, Conn.). The Eagles found themselves down two with 3:33 to play before halftime but were able to score just one point before the break. The Governors reeled off nine straight points to end the half and Georgia Southern missed its last five shots.
The Eagles scored the first four points of the second half but the Governors answered with seven straight points for their biggest margin of the night, 49-35. A few minutes later, an 8-0 run pushed the advantage to 18.
Austin Peay shot 50% from the field, including 60% in the second half.
APSU’s Drake Reed led all players with 22 points, 16 in the first half alone. Todd Babington poured in 18 on four 3-pointers and Derek Wright added 14.
Senior Matthew Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) recorded his third straight double-double with 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Nine of those rebounds came on the offensive end.
Five GSU players reached double-figure scoring led by senior Louis Graham’s (West Palm Beach, Fla.) 17. Allen and senior Anthony Marshall (Lake Worth, Fla.) had 11 each and Foreman added 10 and six assists.