SoCon Men’s Basketball recaps for February 2, 2008
WOFFORD 75, FURMAN 42
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Wofford College men’s basketball team downed Furman 75-42 in a Southern Conference match-up on Saturday afternoon at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Terriers scored the first 13 points of the game and built a twenty point lead at the half.
Wofford is 13-9 overall and 6-6 in SoCon play. Furman is 4-18 on the season and 3-10 in conference play. The Terriers were led by Drew Gibson with 18 points and Shane Nichols with 13 points. Noah Dahlman led Wofford with six rebounds. For the Paladins, Alex Opacic had eleven points and five rebounds to lead the team.
“We did a really nice job on defense today,” said Wofford head coach Mike Young. “Good teams are able to get a lead and keep the pedal down. We were up twenty at the half and we were able to keep up the pace in the game. Gibson was unbelievable and really had a good feeling today. He is playing as well as anyone in the last few games.”
The Terriers scored the first 13 points of the game before the Paladins’ Tony Anderson made a basket at 14:35. Wofford kept up the pace and took a 22-5 lead after a three-pointer by Drew Gibson at the eleven minute mark.
A second dunk by Corey Godzinski and a lay-up by Tyler Whatley increased the lead to 28-9 at 8:26. Drew Gibson hit a basket with under a minute to go to give the Terriers a 37-15 lead. The bucket was matched by Alex Opacic and the Terriers took a 37-17 lead into the break.
Wofford scored the first seven points of the second half, including a three-pointer by Drew Gibson, to take a 44-17 lead just two minutes into play. A three-pointer by Corey Godzinksi gave the Terriers a 28 point lead. Several times in the second half the Paladins pulled within 24 points, but Wofford pulled away to a 36-point lead at 73-37 after a three-pointer by Matt Estep at 6:12. Neither team could get much offense going in the final five minutes of the game and the final score was 75-42.
Wofford shot 56.9% from the floor and 61.1% from three. The Terriers were 75.0% from the line. The Paladins were 28.6% from the floor and 10.0% from behind the arc and 92.3% from the free throw line. Wofford had a 34-25 edge on rebounds.
The game was the final contest in a stretch of five conference games in ten days. Marcus Jackson (shoulder) was the only Terrier who did not play in the contest. Wofford improves to 6-6 in the conference, which is currently third in the South Division. The 33-point win was the largest ever by Wofford in the series with Furman. The game also marked the 100th Anniversary of the first meeting between the teams in 1908.
Wofford will have four days off until a game at UNC Greensboro on February 7 at 7:00 pm. The Terriers return home on Saturday, February 9 to face Elon at 7:00 pm.
UNC GREENSBORO 89, ELON 60
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Kyle Hines had 21 points and 11 rebounds and Dwayne Johnson had a season-high 17 points as UNC Greensboro sprinted past arch-rival Elon, 89-60, in front of a capacity crowd at Fleming Gym on Saturday afternoon.
Hines, a senior from Sicklerville, NJ who scored in double figures for the 100th time in his career on Saturday, recorded his 41st career double-double, as well, logging it with 1:51 remaining in the opening half.
He nearly moved to within 50 points and 50 rebounds from the illustrious 2,000 point / 1,000 rebound club, finishing the day at 1,951 career points and 947 career rebounds. He also had two blocks to raise his career total to 307, one shy of the Southern Conference’s career record held by Western Carolina’s Rans Brempong.
Johnson, a senior guard from Queens, NY, scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half. It was just the sixth time in 106 career games that Johnson scored in double-figures, playing quite possibly the best game of his career.
“It is the best I have seen Dwayne Johnson play in my three seasons here,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “Every good team in the Southern Conference over the last few years has had a great scoring point guard. Today, Dwayne Johnson was a great scoring point guard.
“We played with a lot of energy right from the outset I thought today. We hadn’t been home in a long time and I think that helped, but we had a lot of energy right out of the game and jumped out quickly. (Ben) Stywall got a couple of quick baskets and then other guys got into the act. Defensively, we were strong early and that led to our transition game getting going.”
Sophomore Mikko Koivisto also had 17 points for the Spartans (13-6, 7-3), including the 100th three-pointer of his career. It was UNCG’s fourth straight win and 10th in its last 12 games.
Brett James led three Elon players in double figures with 17 points. Brian Waters and Montell Watson each had 10 for Elon (7-14, 5-8), which lost its last fifth straight.
Entering Saturday’s game, nine of the last 11 meetings between UNCG and Elon had been decided by single digits, including a 61-57 win by UNCG two weeks ago at Elon. Saturday’s battle between two schools just 19 miles apart was the most lopsided, however, since an Elon 30-point win in the 1974-75 campaign.
The Spartans, playing at home for the first time since January 7 after five consecutive road games, jumped all over the Phoenix at the outset. In the first 5:09 of the contest, UNCG made 8-of-11 from the floor and jumped out to a 17-6 lead. UNCG scored on 19 of its first 23 possessions.
Meanwhile, Elon suffered from what UNCG suffered from in the first meeting ? only one person scoring. The Phoenix got 12 of their first 14 points from Brett James. In the first 13 minutes, the remainder of the Phoenix’ roster shot just 1-for-13.
UNCG ran away from there, taking a 23-point lead on Kyle Hines’ bucket that extended his nation’s best double-figure scoring streak to 69 straight. Hines’ 10th point of the afternoon with 6:25 left in the first half gave the Spartans a 39-16 lead.
From there, the Spartans stretched the lead out to 30 at the intermission, capped off by a breakaway dunk by Hines just before the final horn. The 51 points scored by UNCG were the most since December 16, 2004. The 30-point halftime lead was UNCG’s largest since December 2, 1985 ? when the Spartans played in the old Park Gym (which no longer exists and is now the site of a new academic building).
The Spartans cruised from there as Elon didn’t get the margin under 30 until the final two minutes. UNCG was over 60 percent from the floor until the final minute, long after the bench had been emptied, and finished the day at 59.6 percent from the floor. Elon shot just 39 percent from the floor. UNCG also had a 38-25 advantage in the rebounding department, including 24-9 in the opening half.
DAVIDSON 78, CHATTANOOGA 71
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. --- Sophomore Stephen Curry scored 24 points, nailing six-straight free throws late in the game, and the Wildcats got two successive defensive stops down the stretch to hang on for a 78-71 men’s basketball victory.
Trailing by 24 points at the break, Chattanooga used an up-tempo offense and a suffocating defense to mount a 26-8 run at the beginning of the second half to get back in the game and close to 56-50 with 10:36 remaining. The Mocs continued their torrid pace, closing to within 58-53 on a fast break dunk by junior forward Nicchaeus Doaks (Trenton, Tenn.) and 60-55 with 5:46 remaining before a 6-2 spurt by the Wildcats pushed their lead to 66-57.
Four straight free throws by the Mocs once again narrowed the gap to five points at 66-61, but Davidson answered right back with a three-point play by senior forward Thomas Sander to make it 69-61 with 2:24 to play. UTC would not go away as senior guard Kevin Bridgewaters (Columbia, Ky.) converted two free throws and then nailed a three-pointer off of a turnover to draw Chattanooga to within 69-66 at the 1:57 mark.
A basket by sophomore forward William Archambault then pushed the lead to 71-66 before Bridgewaters once again knocked in two free throws to trim the deficit to 71-68 with 1:30 remaining. That would be as close as Chattanooga could climb, however, as Curry converted six straight free throws down the stretch to help close out the 78-71 Davidson victory. Curry is the SoCon’s leading scorer.
An up-and-down contest right from the beginning, the first 2:53 of play saw three lead changes and two ties that left Chattanooga with an 8-7 lead. At that point, Davidson turned up the offense with an 11-0 run, fueled by three straight baskets by senior forward Boris Meno, to take an 18-8 lead at the 13:01 mark.
The Mocs then notched a mini 4-0 run to close to within 18-12 before an 8-2 burst by the Wildcats extended that lead to 26-14 with 9:53 remaining in the half. Davidson would not look back the rest of the half as they continued their hot shooting, ending the half on a 22-8 run to take a 48-24 lead into the break and set the stage for a tumultuous second half.
In addition to Curry’s 24 points, senior guard Jason Richards added 15 points, five rebounds and a game-high six assists while Archambault rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14 points. Sander added nine points and seven rebounds while Meno finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
For Chattanooga, Doaks finished with a career-high 26 points on 9-of-11 shooting and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and Bridgewaters added 15 points on the night. Senior forward Marcus Watts (Clinton, S.C.) added 11 points and a team-high five assists while junior guard Stephen McDowell (Indianapolis, Ind.) added 10 points.
APPALACHIAN STATE 69, WESTERN CAROLINA 64
CULLOWHEE, N.C. --- Appalachian State men’s basketball used timely free-throw to stave off Western Carolina and persevere with a 69-64 win in the long-standing rivalry. Donte Minter and Donald Sims led five Mountaineers in double-figures with 13 points each.
Down by four inside the final minute Saturday night, Western Carolina sophomore Brandon Giles drained his fourth 3-pointer of the contest to pull the Catamounts to within a point of its arch-rival, Appalachian State. However, the Mountaineers connected on 5-of-6 free throw attempts inside the final 30 seconds to hold off the feisty Catamounts, 69-64, in front of the largest crowd in the Ramsey Center this season.
"I thought it was a really good college basketball game," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter during post-game interviews. "It was a rivalry game and I thought both teams really went at each other with a lot of intensity. Both teams at times played great defense, and had some good offensive execution. That ballgame could have gone either way."
Western (6-15, 2-9 SoCon) put three players in double figures led by the 12th-straight double-digit outing from Giles. The Auburndale, Fla., native finished with a game-high 19 points including four 3-pointers to continue his streak of having reached double figures in each SoCon game this season. Senior Arnold Gore scored all 12 of his points in the first half, including a career-high tying three 3-pointers, with sophomore Jake Robinson also tallying a dozen points on 5-of-8 shooting with one trey.
Senior Eric Wilson scored a season-high seven points and dished out three assists, while freshman Richie Gordon posted a solid all-around performance. The Atlanta, Ga., native tied his personal conference-game highs for points with five, set a SoCon-high for rebounds (5) and a swiped a career-best three steals in a career-high 26 minutes of court time.
Western continued its recent trend of hot starts, racing out of the gates to grab an early nine-point advantage, 12-3, inside the game's first three minutes. But the Mountaineers, utilizing three, 3-pointers, used a 13-to-4 run to knot the game at 16 at the 12:57 mark, and a fourth trey from freshman Donald Sims gave the Apps their first lead, 19-18. Appalachian State took its largest lead of the opening half at the 7:04 mark, pulling out to a six-point advantage, 26-20.
All told, ASU used a 23-to-8 surge to erase WCU's nine-point lead and build its six-point advantage.
Yet, over the next five minutes, the Catamounts compiled a run of their own, outscoring their mountain-rivals 13-to-3 to push back in front, 33-29, with two and a half to play before intermission. ASU's Eduardo Bermudez drained a jumper with time dwindling in the opening 20 minutes to knot the score at 40 at halftime.
Western used a jumper by Robinson and a second 3-pointer from sophomore Brigham Waginger to pull out to its largest lead of the see-saw second half, 53-48, midway through the final stanza. But Appalachian State was able to claw back in from the free throw line, scoring five of its next seven points from the charity stripe.
Tied at 57, Wilson gave Western a three-point advantage with a triple from the left wing with 4:22 to play. The lead stood until Sims drew contact on an apparent 3-point attempt from the left corner in front of the ASU bench and drained all three subsequent free throws. The Apps - which have won nine of their last 10 games and eight-straight over the Catamounts - took the lead for good at the 1:54 mark on a jumper by sophomore guard Kellen Brand that broke the game's ninth tie at 60 setting up the finish.
Appalachian scored eight of its final 11 points from the free throw line.
The Mountaineers (14-7, 9-3 SoCon) put five players in double figures with senior Donte Minter and Sims each scoring 13 in the win. Bermudez finished with 11 with Brand and Ryann Abraham each tallying 10 points.