Akron 83, UNC Greensboro 59
AKRON, Ohio - Akron shot a season-best 58.9 percent from the floor and had four players in double-figures as it downed UNC Greensboro 83-59 in men's basketball action on Friday night at Rhodes Arena.
The Zips (6-3) won for the sixth time in their last seven games, while UNCG (2-7) suffered its third straight loss. Akron limited the Spartans to just 35.3 shooting from the floor on the night. The Zips' previous season-best field goal percentage was 46.3 percent in a win over Drake.
Brandon Evans led UNCG with 13 points and seven rebounds. Anthony Hitchens had 14 points for Akron, while Chris McKnight had 12 points and six assists.
"They are a good defensive team and they denied us from doing what we wanted to do," said UNCG coach Mike Dement. "They denied us from reversing the ball and denied our perimeter and took us right out of what we wanted to do. Brandon Evans was able to drive a little bit against it, but we struggled to run some things against that and we weren't comfortable. They were very physical, which is a positive for them. We talked to our guys about it beforehand, but we just didn't handle it well."
Both teams got off to a slow start with the scored tied 4-4 nearly five minutes in. Akron scored the next 14 points, however, to open up an 18-4 lead, holding UNCG without a field goal for nearly seven minutes in the process.
The Spartans got back to within eight on three-pointers by Mikko Koivisto and Montel Smith, 27-19, with 6:15 left before the intermission. But Akron responded with an 11-3 run to push the lead back out to 16, 38-22, with a minute to go before half.
Midway through the second half, Akron put it out of reach with a 15-5 run. The spurt, capped off by consecutive treys by Brett McClanahan and Steve McNees, gave the Zips a 66-39 lead with seven minutes to play. Akron was 6-of-9 from three-point range in the second half.
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday when they visit Richmond for a 12 noon start.
South Carolina State 93, Furman 91 (OT)
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Carrio Bennett's three-point play with 4.2 seconds remaining in the game proved to be the difference as South Carolina State outlasted Furman 93-91 in overtime on Friday evening on Carolina First Court at Timmons Arena.
With the victory, the Bulldogs improved to 6-2 on the season while Furman dropped to 5-4 after suffering its third straight defeat. Bennett, a Berea, S.C., native, drove down the middle of the lane, drew contact and got his shot to go with just over four seconds to play to break a 90-90 tie. The junior followed by draining the free throw to complete the three-point play and give the Bulldogs a 93-90 lead.
South Carolina State fouled Furman on the inbounds pass to send senior Darryl Evans to the foul line for two shots. Evans buried the first free throw to trim the lead to two points before attempting to intentionally miss the second shot. His attempt bounced off the back rim and Jordan Miller grabbed the rebound for Furman, but had the ball knocked out of bounds as time expired. After reviewing the final play, three tenths of a second were placed on the clock, but Furman was unable to tip a shot towards the basket on Noah States' inbounds pass as the clock expired.
Jason Flagler scored a game-high 19 points to lead five South Carolina State players in double figures. Darnell Porter, Brandon Smalls and Arsenio Williams each netted 16 points while Bennett added 12 to go with four rebounds and six assists. Williams posted a double-double adding 12 rebounds.
Evans tallied a career-high 19 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and 10-of-14 from the foul line to lead five Paladins in double figures. Jordan Miller poured in 16 points and Justin Dehm totaled 13 while Bryson Barnes and Amu Saaka scored 12 apiece. The Paladins shot 46.0 percent (29-63) and made 26-of-35 free throws, but connected on only 7-of-26 three-point attempts.
The lead changed hands three times and the game was tied on four occasions in overtime prior to Bennett's three-point play putting the Bulldogs ahead for good. S.C. State shot 50 percent (31-62) from the field for the game and converted on 25-of-35 trips to the foul line. The Bulldogs scored 23 points off of 15 Furman turnovers while the Paladins managed just 10 points on 13 South Carolina State miscues.
After Furman grabbed a 2-0 lead to start the game, South Carolina State lead for the next 38-plus minutes before Justin Dehm capped a furious Paladin rally with a game-tying layup to knot the contest at 77-77 with 1.8 seconds left in regulation. Furman had trailed 71-61 with 3:35 left before Dehm scored four of the Paladins seven points on a 7-0 run.
South Carolina State pushed the advantage back to six at 76-70 with 37 seconds left after three players combined to sink 5-of-6 shots from the charity stripe, but Bryson Barnes trimmed the margin back to three on a trey with 25 seconds to go. Khalif Toombs converted 1-of-2 free throws on the other end to up the Bulldog lead to four before Evans' driving score pulled Furman to within 77-75 with 11 second left. Toombs missed both free throws to set up Dehm for the game-tying layup with under to seconds left.
South Carolina State travels to face Iowa on Monday night. Furman will travel to Columbia, S.C., to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Monday in a game that will be televised live by SportSouth. Tip-off is set for 7:06 p.m.