SoCon Men’s Basketball Recaps for February 5, 2008
WESTERN CAROLINA 70, CHATTANOOGA 64
CULLOWHEE, N.C. ? After racing to a double-digit lead in the first half that hit a game-high 17 in the second, Western Carolina endured numerous rallies by the Southern Conference North Division’s co-leader, Chattanooga, before sinking seven of its eight free throw attempts inside the final 20 seconds to derail the Mocs, 70-64, Monday night in the Ramsey Center.
Western (7-15, 3-9 SoCon) led from start-to-finish for the first-time all season, but had to fend off the rallying Mocs as Chattanooga closed to within one point on five separate occasions in the second half but never pulled even or ahead.
“This was a great team win for us,” said WCU third-year head coach Larry Hunter during post-game interviews. “We never gave up the lead and got a couple of big stops. Eric (Wilson) is doing a terrific job of running the point for us and is keeping us all on the same page. We are executing much better and we’ve been playing some pretty solid defense.”
He added, “I think we have really been playing some good basketball in our past couple of games. I thought we needed to reward ourselves ? and our fans ? with a win, and we did against a very good basketball team.”
Sophomore Brandon Giles stretched his current double-digit scoring streak to 13 games with 20 points to lead a trio of Catamounts in double figures in the win. He connected on four 3-pointers, while also pulling down five boards and dished out three assists. During his current streak, the Auburndale, Fla., native has now reached the 20-point plateau six times.
Senior Eric Wilson tallied a pair of season-highs with 13 points and seven boards, while tying his career-best with five assists. Sophomore Jake Robinson scratched out 10 points and a career-high nine boards, including five on the offensive end.
Making his second-straight start, freshman Richie Gordon just missed his first career double-digit scoring night with a career-high nine points, adding a career-best four blocked shots in another solid all-around performance. Senior Arnold Gore chipped in eight points for WCU, including the opening bucket of the game which proved to give WCU the lead for good as the Catamounts never trailed.
Leading by 10, 22-12, at the 7:14 mark of the first half, Chattanooga trimmed Western’s advantage to five, 24-19, less than two minutes later. However, the Catamounts held the Mocs scoreless over the final 5:38 of the opening stanza as a part of a 9-0 spurt to take a 14-point, 33-19, lead into intermission.
It was Chattanooga’s lowest first half point total this season and the second lowest for a WCU opponent (WCU held Elon to 18 first half points in its SoCon opener back on Nov. 27).
Out of the halftime locker room, Western was able to stretch its advantage to a game-high 17 points on a triple by Gore 30 seconds into the frame. However, Chattanooga (14-9, 9-4 SoCon), which nearly erased a 24-point halftime deficit Saturday night against South Division-leading Davidson, methodically began to chip away at Western’s lead.
With WCU up 11, 45-34, following one of sophomore Brigham Waginger’s two 3-pointers, the Mocs embarked on an 11-to-1 run to pull to within a point for its first of five times. Following a 30-second timeout, Western went inside to Gordon, who was fouled and converted one of two free throws. A Giles jumper stretched it back out to a two possession game at four points.
At the seven minute mark, the Mocs again threatened on a 3-pointer by Kevin Bridgwaters, closing to within a point, 51-50. But Giles answered with consecutive treys on back-to-back possessions to stretch the advantage back to seven. Waginger answered UTC’s next challenge with his second triple, pushing a third one-point edge, 59-58, back to four.
The final two times Chattanooga closed to within a point was the most cause for concern for Hunter’s Catamounts. Down three, Bridgewaters slipped past the WCU defense and put one off the glass in the lane to pull the Mocs to within a point, 62-61. On the ensuing possession, Wilson was fouled and only converted one of two free throw attempts to keep the door open.
With the game still in the balance and the lead at just two, Bridgewaters drew a blocking foul on Waginger to go to the charity stripe with a chance to knot the game with 35 seconds remaining. However, the senior guard could only hit one of two tosses, forcing the Mocs to foul. Robinson hit three of his four attempts, with Giles and Wilson each going 2-for-2 inside the final 20 seconds to help seal the victory.
Junior Stephen McDowell led four Mocs in double figures with 15 points including four 3-pointers, while Bridgewaters added 13 with three assists and a pair of steals before fouling out. Forwards Nicchaeus Doaks and Marcus Watts finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Western’s win avenged a 30-point, 85-55, defeat the Mocs handed the Catamounts at the McKenzie Arena back on Jan. 12. UTC commanded the glass in the first meeting, out rebounding WCU by 28, 59-to-21. On Monday, Western held the SoCon’s top rebounding team six below its seasonal average of 40 per contest to win the battle of the boards, 35-to-34.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 80, UNC GREENSBORO 78
STATESBORO, GA. --- Georgia Southern senior Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored a game-high 25 points and sophomore Antoine Johnson (Atlanta, Ga.) made a key stop at the end of the game to give the Eagles an 80-78 victory over UNC Greensboro Monday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
GSU avenges a loss earlier in the season to the Spartans and improves to 15-8 overall and 8-5 in the Southern Conference. UNCG drops to 13-7 and 7-4. Up next for the Eagles is a home date Thursday against Western Carolina.
It was a record-setting night for both teams. GSU senior Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) became the school’s all-time assist leader and currently has 538 for his career. His surpasses Charlton Young (1989-93) who had 530. UNC Greensboro senior Kyle Hines blocked five shots to become the SoCon’s all-time leader with 312.
“If there was ever a termed “hard-fought” game, that was certainly it,” said GSU head coach Jeff Price. “It was hard-fought by both teams. I’m sure as a fan it was great to watch (but) it wasn’t particularly great for me to watch. I mean we were getting stops when we needed to, but (it
was) an exciting basketball game (and) hard-fought. They are awfully good. They have so many weapons offensively and we didn’t have many answers defensively. But luckily we were playing really well on the offensive end tonight.”
Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds to go in the game but came up with a steal just as the final buzzer sounded.
“Well, I told him he made up for it,” said Price. “I mean, obviously you want him to knock those down, but he came down and did a really nice job on the defensive end, got in front of his man, stayed in front of his man and got a steal which we had to have. We got stops (but) I wasn’t happy with our defensive effort. But I thought that we wore them down.
They only played seven guys. And I really thought the reason they missed those shots the last two minutes of the game is that they were tired. That was kind of our plan going in, to get a little deeper off the bench, pressure, wear them out and we got stops in the last two minutes of the game.”
The two teams combined to score just six points in the final 3:58. GSU senior Matthew Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) hit a lay-up to tie the game for the 12th time at 76-76 with 3:58 to play and Graham put the Eagles on top for the final time just over a minute later. He doubled the lead with his final points of the night at the 1:54 mark but Kevin Oleksiak cut the margin to two with a second-chance lay-up with 1:18 remaining.
The Spartans missed their first chance to win the game with 12 seconds left when a long-distance ?3’ by Oleksiak rimmed out. Johnson came up with the rebound and was fouled, setting up the dramatic final moments.
Graham, the conference’s co-player of the week, shot 11-for-17 from the floor and blocked two shots. In his last three games he is averaging 25.7 points.
“He has been great the last six, seven games putting up numbers. He’s averaging 25 a game or something. He’s been a real warrior inside for us. I thought tonight we really matched them physically and I think that’s a problem we’ve had a little bit against bigger teams like Chattanooga, App State and Davidson. Greensboro is strong inside and I think we did a nice job of matching them defensively.”
Oleksiak, who tallied 29 in the first meeting Jan. 5 in Greensboro, led the Spartans with 20 points and Hines contributed 19 points and nine boards to go along with his five blocks.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 63, THE CITADEL 48
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Tony White, Jr. scored 17 points and freshman Jeremy Simmons pulled down a career-best 10 rebounds leading College of Charleston to a 63-48 Southern Conference victory over The Citadel before 3,371 at John Kresse Arena on Monday.
Charleston, which improved to 10-12 overall and 5-7 in league games, plays at Appalachian State at 7:00 on Thursday. The Citadel fell to 5-16 and 0-12. The Bullodgs are at Appalachian State on Saturday at 3:30. The Cougars beat the Bulldogs for the 12th straight time.
Freshman Andrew Goudelock scored eight points in the first half including one-of-two free throws with 5:40 left that capped a 12-0 Charleston run for a 20-8 lead. The Cougars led 30-18 at halftime.
The Citadel's Austin Dahn hit a 3-pointer with 13:43 left that cut Charleston's lead to 37-33. The Cougars responded with a 10-0 run capped by a layup by Simmons to grab a 49-35 lead with 7:12 remaining in the game.
Freshman Cameron Wells led the Bulldogs with 17 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Dahn added 11 points while Tyrell McDowell had seven.
Charleston got 12 points from Goudelock, 10 rebounds from Jermaine Johnson and a career-high tying five rebounds by sophomore guard Tony White, Jr.
For the game, the Cougars shot 49.0 percent from the floor connecting on 25-of-51 field goals. The Bulldogs were limited to just 33.7 percent from the field hitting 18-of-55 attempts.