Georgia Southern 74, Wofford 53
STATESBORO, Ga. ? The Wofford College men’s basketball team was unable to stop a sharp-shooting Georgia Southern team and was defeated, 74-53, on Thursday night at Hanner Fieldhouse. Georgia Southern shot 58 percent from the field for the game and 66 percent in the second half.
Wofford is 7-8 overall and 3-3 in the conference, while Georgia Southern is 5-11 overall and 4-4 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Noah Dahlman with 16 points and Tim Johnson with 13 points. Both players had six rebounds. Georgia Southern was led by Julian Allen with 14 points and ten rebounds, while Antoine Johnson added ten points.
The score was tied at seven four minutes into the game. After a three pointer by Antonio Hanson at 12:30, the Eagles had a 16-12 advantage. Georgia Southern was able to put together a 7-0 on the way to a 25-14 lead at the 8:45 mark.
Wofford scored the next five points on a lay-up from Tim Johnson and a three from Junior Salters to make it a 25-19 score with 7:46 left in the first half. The Eagles pushed the lead back to 28-18 before Noah Dahlman responded with six straight points in the paint for a 28-25 score with 5:51 on the clock. A three pointer from Jason Dawson at 2:39 tied the game at 32-32. Julian Allen scored a basket at 2:14, which were the final points of the half as the Eagles had a 34-32 advantage at the break.
Georgia Southern used a 14-3 run in the first seven minutes of the second half to take a 48-35 lead. A jumper by Junior Salters ended the run, but the Eagles continued to score. Back-to-back three pointers by Ben Drayton gave the Eagles a 56-38 lead with 11:17 left on the clock.
The lead for the Eagles was 60-44 at the 7:44 mark. While Wofford was able to add a couple baskets, the Georgia Southern lead was 66-51 with 3:48 remaining in the game. The Terriers could not get any closer and the final score was 74-53.
Wofford shot 38 percent from the floor and 24 percent from three-point range, while the Eagles shot 58 percent from the field and 42 percent from behind the arc. Georgia Southern had a 37-26 advantage on the boards and had nine steals on the night.
Samford 55, Elon 51
ELON, N.C. ? Trey Montgomery poured in 20 points as Samford grinded out a 55-51 Southern Conference men’s basketball victory over Elon Thursday night at Alumni Gym.
The Bulldogs (9-8 overall, 4-4 SoCon) also received 14 points and four assists from Bryan Friday and six rebounds from Andy King en route to claiming their second road win of the year.
The Phoenix (4-11, 1-6) received game highs from Brett James (21 points, three blocked shots), Adam Constantine (seven rebounds), Josh Bonney (six assists) and Ola Atoyebi (four steals) and won the battle of the boards by a 28-24 margin.
James has now scored at least 20 points in three games this season and nine contests for his career. Meanwhile, Bonney pulled down a career-high six caroms.
Samford outscored Elon 36-24 in the paint and 14-12 off turnovers and committed 11 turnovers to 13 by the Phoenix. The Bulldogs shot 51.1 percent (23 of 45) from the field ? 59.1 percent (13 of 22) in the second half.
Of its nine missed shots from the floor in the second stanza, Samford converted five put-backs to account for 10 of its 12 second chance points. Meanwhile, Elon fired 42.9 percent (21 of 49) from the floor ? 30.8 percent (8 of 26) in the first half.
The game featured five ties and 14 lead changes. Elon built a 42-37 lead when James drained a three-point bucket with 10:20 remaining. Samford proceeded to score on 10 of its last 13 possessions while holding the Phoenix to nine points the rest of the way.
The Bulldogs used a 13-3 spurt to go ahead 50-45 on a put-back by Jim Griffin with 3:51 left. James scored on a layup to bring the Phoenix to within 50-47 with 3:18 to go, but Elon would inch no closer.
Chattanooga 72, UNC Greensboro 54
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Kevin Goffney had 21 points and eight rebounds to lead Chattanooga past UNC Greensboro, 72-54, in Southern Conference men’s basketball action at Fleming Gym on Thursday night.
Goffney hit 10-of-20 shots from the floor to lead the Mocs (9-10, 5-3 SoCon) to their fifth straight win and first place in the Southern Conference’s North Division. Coupled with Western Carolina’s loss at The Citadel, the Mocs hold a half-game lead in the topsy-turvey Northern half of the league.
Landon Clement led the way for a shorthanded UNCG squad with 17 points. Ben Stywall chipped in with 11 points, his seventh straight game scoring in double figures.
The Spartans (3-13, 2-5) were able to hang around by defending Chattanooga’s three-point threats well. The Mocs, who entered the game shooting 35.6 percent from behind the arc and making 8.8 per game, were just 2-for-19 from three-point range, missing 14 in a row from behind the arc. But UNCG was just 8-of-19 from the free throw line in the second half and Chattanooga was able to slowly get some separation in the second half.
UNCG held Chattanooga’s leading scorer Stephen McDowell to eight points in the game and snapped his streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer. McDowell had made at least one three-pointer in 39 consecutive games, the third-longest active streak in the nation. McDowell
came into the game averaging 20.1 points per game.
Due to injury and illness the Spartans had a short bench with only eight scholarship players in uniform. That got compounded by the fact that Damian Eargle picked up two fouls in the first 2:17 of the contest and Ben Stywall picked up three before the game was eight minutes old.
The Spartans hung in though with a strong defensive effort for most of the first half and the half became a series of runs. Chattanooga went six minutes between field goals. That helped UNCG offset an early 6-0 Mocs spurt with a 13-2 run of its own to hold a 20-16 lead with seven minutes to play before the intermission.
The Mocs went back to their trapping defense and turned up the heat with 11 straight points, five of them by Goffney, to open up a seven-point lead. Consecutive treys by Landon Clement and Kendall Toney, though, began a 10-1 spurt for UNCG to give them the lead again, 30-28, only to see the Mocs close out the half with nine straight points.
UNCG had just two field goals in the first nine minutes of the second half as Chattanooga slowly stretched the lead to 14, 51-37.
The Citadel 66, Western Carolina 52
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Demetrius Nelson and Zach Urbanus scored 16 points each to lead The Citadel to a 66-52 victory over Western Carolina on Thursday night.
Nelson's output gave him 1,001 points for his career, making him the 25th player to surpass that mark at The Citadel (9-10, 4-4 Southern Conference).
Western Carolina (9-8, 4-3) led 28-27 at halftime, but the Bulldogs were 14 of 20 from the field (70 percent) in the second half, and shot 61 percent (25 of 41) for the game.
The Catamounts shot only 37.5 percent from the field (9 of 24) in the second half.
The teams were tied at 35 when The Citadel went on a 16-2 run for a 51-37 lead with 7:56 left in the game. The lead reached 62-42 on Nelson's jumper with 3:23 remaining.
Cameron Wells added 10 points for the Bulldogs.
Brandon Giles led Western Carolina with 11 points. Harouna Mutombo tallied nine points while Blake Gallagher added eight for the Catamounts.