Wofford 74, Appalachian State 68
BOONE, N.C. ? The Wofford College men's basketball team defeated Appalachian State 74-68 on Thursday night at the Holmes Center. The Terriers had a 16-point lead, but a 13-0 run by the Mountaineers erased the advantage late in the second half. Key free throw shooting down the stretch secured the win.
Wofford is 9-9 overall and 5-4 in the conference, while Appalachian State is 7-11 overall and 4-6 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Noah Dahlman with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Junior Salters added 21 points and Tim Johnson had ten points and eight rebounds. Donald Sims led Appalachian State with 19 points, including five three-pointers. Donterious Hughes added 13 points while Kellen Brand recorded a game-high 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers.
Wofford took a 28-23 lead after a jumper from Terry Martin with 4:48 remaining in the first half. The Terriers kept putting the ball in the paint and added to the lead for a 36-28 advantage at the break.
The Terriers scored the first four points of the second half to go up 40-28. The Wofford lead extended to sixteen points before a brief Mountaineer run cut it to 54-38 with 13:35 on the clock. Appalachian State then used back-to-back threes from Donald Sims to cut the lead to 56-51 with 10:08 left in the second half. The run continued for the Mountaineers as they tied the game at 56-56 at 8:32. Wofford ended the 13-0 run with a basket from Tim Johnson.
The score was tied at 60-60 before the Mountaineers took the lead at 62-61 with 5:23 left in the half. Wofford responded with baskets from Brad Loesing and Junior Salters to regain a four-point lead at 65-61. After Junior Salters hit a three, the Mountaineers answered with a three from Donald Sims for a 68-65 score with 2:04 in the half. Two free throws from Salters pushed the lead back to five points with 38 seconds left, but Donald Sims hit another three to make it a 70-68 game. Wofford was 4-of-4 from the line by Kevin Giltner and Junior Salters in the final 21 seconds to secure the 74-68 win.
College of Charleston 89, UNC Greensboro 73
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? UNC Greensboro’s Ben Stywall had a career-high 26 points, but an incredibly hot start by College of Charleston was too much to overcome as UNCG fell 89-73 to the host Cougars at Carolina First Arena on Thursday night.
The Cougars (16-4, 8-2 SoCon) came out white hot, knocking down five three-pointers in the first four minutes of the game to leap out to a 19-6 lead. College of Charleston hit their first seven shots of the game to set the tempo early.
The hot shooting was reminiscent of what UNCG had done to the Cougars in their old home ? Kress Arena ? last year when they shot 67 percent from the field to hand the Cougars their worst home loss in over 20 years.
College of Charleston finished Thursday night shooting 55.6 percent from the floor. The Cougars cooled a little after a first half display of 67.7 percent.
Tony White, Jr. had a near-perfect night to lead the Cougars. He had 17 points and three assists, going 5-for-5 from three-point range and 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. Jermaine Johnson added 16 points, while Donavan Monroe chipped in 15 points and six assists off the bench.
Stywall, a junior from Charlotte, N.C., finished with 26 points of 10-of-18 shooting from the floor to go along with nine rebounds and a career-high five steals. Freshman Damian Eargle added 22 points for UNCG (3-16, 2-8 SoCon). The Harding, Ohio native also had a season-high five blocks.
The Cougars hit 8-of-9 from behind the arc before the midway point of the half to hold a 31-14 advantage. The Spartans gained their feet from there for a while. Stywall’s put back with three minutes to go made it 47-33.
UNCG continued to hang around into the early part of the second half. A quick 8-2 burst to open the second half got UNCG to within 12 as Eargle scored the first two buckets in the run. College of Charleston stretched the lead back to 18, but Pete Brown’s putback with 11:11 to play got UNCG closer than it had been just about all night at 72-61.
But the Cougars ran off nine straight points, capped off by White, Jr.’s fifth trey of the night, to take the margin back to 20 with seven minutes to play.
Samford 69, Georgia Southern 46
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ? Turnovers and cold shooting from three-point range hurt Georgia Southern as the Eagles dropped a 69-46 Southern Conference decision Thursday night (Jan. 29) at Samford. With the loss, the Eagles dropped to 7-11 overall and 5-5 in the league ? also snapping a five-game win streak over Samford (11-9, 6-5).
Georgia Southern turned the ball over 21 times and missed all 15 attempts from 3-point range. The only three-point play on the night was when Ben Drayton III got fouled shooting from beyond the arc with 4:42 remaining and made all three free throw attempts. The 46 points were the lowest since a 42 point outing at Washington State in November 2004 (61-42).
Georgia Southern jumped out to a 5-2 lead when Tyler Troupe hit a free throw and added a jumper. The Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run over the next minute to start a 16-4 run, eventually taking a 24-11 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.
The Eagles made a run of their own, cutting the deficit to 28-21 with four minutes left. Troupe hit consecutive baskets then Drayton hit a jumper and 2-of-3 free throws when he was fouled from beyond the arc. Antonio Hanson hit a jumper with 13 seconds left but Bryan Friday nailed a three pointer in the final seconds of the half to give the Bulldogs an 11-point halftime lead.
Turnovers and cold shooting plagued the Eagles to start the second half as Samford went on a 17-4 run to the first media timeout, surging ahead 53-29 and would never look back.
Troupe and Drayton led the Eagles with nine points each. GSU shot 35.2 percent for the game, went 8-of-11 at the free throw line and out-rebounded Samford 38-27. The Bulldogs finished 48 percent from the field, hit 9-of-23 from long distance and 10-of-11 at the line.
Trey Montgomery scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the second half. Friday finished with 14 and Curtis West and Josh Davis added 10 points each. Montgomery also added seven rebounds for Samford, which also recorded 12 steals in the game.
Western Carolina 63, Furman 54
CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Western Carolina built a 14-point second half lead and weathered a late Furman rally to down the Paladins 63-54 in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Thursday evening at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee, N.C.
With the victory, Western Carolina improved to 10-9 overall and 5-4 in the SoCon while completing the two-game regular season sweep of the Paladins. Furman dropped to 3-16 overall and 1-9 inside the league.
After trailing by as many as nine points in the opening minutes, Furman trimmed the Catamount lead to 19-18 on a pair of Connor Nolte free throws with 4:55 left in the first half, but Harouna Mutombo sparked a 15-2 Western Carolina run over the next 7:17 with seven points of his own as
the Catamounts pulled out to a 34-20 advantage with 17:38 remaining in the game.
Furman rallied late as Jordan Miller converted a layup followed by two free throws with 3:09 left to slice the lead to 55-52, but Brandon Giles answered with a three pointer as the shot clock expired on WCU’s next possession and the Catamounts forced Furman into two turnovers and 0-for-3 shooting from the field the rest of the way to pull away for the 63-54 triumph.
Giles led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-22 shooting while Mutombo reached double figures with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field. Kendall Russell added nine points and 10 rebounds for the Catamounts and Greg Avery came off of the bench to contribute 11 boards.
Western Carolina shot 34 percent from the floor, a season low for a Furman opponent, but managed a 41-33 edge on the glass. The Catamounts also forced Furman into 22 turnovers and attempted 68 shots to Furman’s 43.
Miller paced Furman with 11 points while Bryson Barnes and Nolte added 10 apiece. Barnes snagged a career-best 11 rebounds to notch his first collegiate double-double and register his third straight double figure scoring performance. The Paladins shot 44 percent (19-43) from the field and 78 percent (14-18) from the charity stripe.
The Citadel 60, Elon 58
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Despite shooting just 35.4 percent from the field, the Elon Phoenix men's basketball squad erased an 11-point second half deficit, but fell just short of knocking off The Citadel Bulldogs in Southern Conference action on Thursday night, falling 60-58. Elon, which played its fourth straight game decided by four points or less, dropped to 5-13 overall and 2-8 in SoCon action. The Citadel upped its mark to 12-10, 7-4.
The Citadel scored the first six points of the game before a Monty Sanders layup got Elon on the board 1:23 into the contest. The Bulldogs responded with back-to-back threes from Austin Dahn and Zach Urbanus to build a 12-2 edge just over three minutes into the game.
Elon tried to dig itself out of the hole throughout the rest of the period, closing to within five points multiple times before finding itself on the short side of a 32-26 halftime margin.
After Adam Constantine nailed a jumper to start the second half, the Bulldogs’ Demetrius Nelson converted an old-fashioned three-point play and then hit a jumper before Cameron Wells added another jumper to push The Citadel's lead to 11 points at 39-28.
Elon closed the gap to five points at 50-45 following Constantine free throws with 8:49 to play.
Chris Long's three with 6:21 showing on the clock kick-started an 11-0 Elon run which was capped by a Devan Carter three that gave the Phoenix its only lead of the game at 57-56 with just 3:56 remaining.
After The Citadel called a 30 second timeout, Wells layed a ball in to put the Bulldogs up 57-56. The lead grew to 60-56 on a Dahn trey with 1:57 left.
Long was fouled driving to the hole and sank both from the charity stripe to close the gap to just two points at 60-58 with 1:36 still to play.
The teams traded missed three-pointers before The Citadel missed two attempts with less than 30 seconds to go. Constantine grabbed a rebound and Elon called a timeout with 17.4 seconds to play.
The Phoenix brought the ball down the floor and found Carter who drove just inside the three-point line and pulled up for a jumper from the top of the key. His attempt with three seconds left drew the back of the iron and Wells grabbed the carom to seal the game.
Brett James and Ola Atoyebi each scored a team-best 15 points while Constantine finished the night with a game and season-high 11 rebounds. He also equaled a career-high with three blocked shots. James tied a career-best with seven free throws made, helping Elon equal its season-high with 21 free throws knocked down.
Nelson led all scorers with 17 points for The Citadel while Dahn ended the night with 11 points and Wells chipped in 10 markers. John Brown grabbed 10 rebounds for the Bulldogs. The Citadel held Elon to just 35 percent shooting from the field and enjoyed a 35-31 advantage in rebounds.