Samford 58, Eastern Michigan 56

YPSILANTI, Mich. --- The Samford University basketball team's Andy King tied his career-high with 20 points Tuesday as the Bulldogs held on for a thrilling 58-56 triumph against the Eastern Michigan Eagles at the Convocation Center. With the victory, Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette became the first coach in school history to reach the 200-win plateau.

"I thought that we really played tough down the stretch and we showed a lot of resiliency," said Tillette. "We had some things go wrong, we had some adversity and we were able to fight through it. I thought that our guys were really focused this year and we played a lot better than we did last season against Chicago State before Christmas. I challenged them today and I think they responded."

Samford (5-7) registered its first road victory of the season Tuesday as Tillette reached his historic milestone. The Bulldogs' skipper is the winningest coach in Samford history and owns a 200-168 all-time record. Tillette has compiled an impressive 139-93 mark against conference opponents and has piloted the Bulldogs to NCAA Tournament appearances in both 1999 and 2000.

"This was a good way to get the 200^th win," Tillette said. "I saw it in the paper this morning, but then I forgot all about it until the guys were chanting 2-0-0 in the locker room after the game. That was great and I guess it just means that I've been around awhile. These kinds of honors are like being named the tallest person in the fifth grade. If you stay around long enough, you're going to get that award.

Tuesday's loss was Eastern Michigan's (6-5) first home setback of the 2009-10 season. Heading into the contest, the Eagles were 3-0 when playing in the friendly confines of the Convocation Center.

Samford's King, who came off the bench to score a game-high 20 points, turned in the key play of the game with 1:15 left to play in regulation.

With Eastern Michigan leading 54-53, the Bulldogs worked their way through the offense and Josh Davis sent a quick pass around the perimeter to King in the left corner. King, the Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 center from Omaha, Neb., calmly gathered the pass and drained his career-high sixth 3-point basket of the game.

King's clutch 3-pointer gave Samford its critical 56-54 advantage with 1:15 left in the contest. On Eastern Michigan's next possession, Antonio Green missed a 3-point shot and the Bulldogs' Trey Montgomery came right down to score on a slashing layup to increase their lead to 58-54.

With 11 seconds remaining in the game, the Eagles' Matt Balkema scored on a tip-in layup to trim Samford's advantage to 58-56. Eastern Michigan was then forced to foul the Bulldogs four times before finally forcing Montgomery to the line with 1.2 seconds left in regulation.

Montgomery, Samford's senior point guard from Destrehan, La., missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but Eastern Michigan's Brandon Bowdry was well short on the desperation heave at the buzzer.

King tied his career-high with 20 points and also tied a career-high by knocking down six 3-point baskets. Montgomery followed with 14 points on a 6-of-7 performance from the field. He also added three rebounds and a trio of assists.

Eastern Michigan's Bowdry registered the 13th double-double of his career and the seventh this season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The Eagles' junior from St. Louis, Mo., was 6-of-13 from the field and played 39 of the game's 40 minutes.

Point guard Carlos Medlock paced Eastern Michigan with 19 points and turned in a stellar 7-of-11 performance from the floor. The Eagles senior from Detroit, Mich., was going shot for shot with Samford's King and knocked down five 3-point baskets of his own. Higgins also finished in double figures for Eastern Michigan with 12 points.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Monday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs return home from the Christmas holidays to square off against the Chicago State Cougars. The non-conference matchup will be FREE to the public and will be held in the Pete Hanna Center.

Richmond 89, UNC Greensboro 63

RICHMOND, Va. - Brandon Evans scored a career-high 22 points, but it wasn't enough to off-set a 25-point afternoon by Richmond's David Gonzalvez as the Spiders defeated UNC Greensboro, 89-63, in men's basketball action Tuesday afternoon at Robins Center.

Gonzalvez was 9-of-15 from the floor to lead Richmond (9-3). He was one of four Spiders in double figures on the afternoon. Kevin Anderson added 16 points and had four steals and three blocks. The Spiders recorded 10 blocks and 15 steals on the afternoon.

Evans' quickness gave Richmond fits all afternoon, recording his first-ever 20-point game and topping his previous high of 19 set earlier this season in a win at USC Upstate. Evans, a redshirt junior from Jackson, Tenn., was the only Spartan in double figures and also had seven rebounds and three assists.

UNCG shot 43 percent from the floor (24-for-56), but was plagued by 20 turnovers that were converted into 26 Richmond points. The Spiders shot 55.4 percent from the floor (31-for-56), the third straight opponent to shoot 50 percent or better against the Spartans. Richmond was also 11-of-22 from three-point range.

UNCG outrebounded Richmond, 32-30, including 13 offensive rebounds. The Spartans couldn't convert, however, accumulating just nine second-chance points on the afternoon.

"We got it to six a couple of times and we had a couple of calls go against us and if that doesn't happen maybe it's different," said UNCG coach Mike Dement. "But they are a good team. It seemed like they make defensive mistakes and we make defensive mistakes. They get some open looks from those mistakes and we get open looks from their mistakes. The difference is that they knock down those shots. Gonzalvez knocked down a lot of shots.

The Spiders, coming off a win over No. 13 Florida on Saturday night, struggled early as the Spartans scored the first eight points of the game - six of them coming from Evans. However, after an early timeout, Richmond responded with 10 straight points to begin a 15-2 run and get back into the game.

The Spartans continued to hang around, trailing by two 29-27 after a Kyle Randall runner from the baseline with 3:20 left before the break. But along with a controversial charge call went against UNCG, the Spiders went on an 11-2 run and headed to the locker room with a 40-31 lead. Instead of Ben Stywall going to the free throw line down five, the charge call gave Richmond the ball and the run continued.

UNCG (2-8) hung around early in the second half, trimming the deficit to six a couple of times, but Kevin Anderson's trey started an 8-2 spurt by the Spiders gave them their biggest to that point, 59-46 with 12:20 to play. UNCG didn't get back to within single digits after that.

"It seemed like every time we would get on a little run, they would come back and hit a three-pointer," said Dement. "We weren't very strong with the ball, either, today, and that is a real problem."

Senior Ben Stywall, a native of Charlotte, N.C., finished with nine points and nine rebounds for UNCG. The nine rebounds moved him into fourth place on the school's career rebounding list with 725, three better than Demetrius Cherry.

The Spartans take a break for the Christmas holiday, returning to action on December 28 when they host Wake Forest at the Greensboro Coliseum. Game time is set for 7 p.m.


Georgia State 85, Georgia Southern 65

ATLANTA, Ga. - With several Eagles still recuperating from injuries and missing the top defender, Georgia Southern fell to Georgia State, 85-65 at the Georgia State Sports Arena Tuesday night. Georgia State hit 62 percent from the field for the game and outrebounded the Eagles in the second half 19-9 to take the win. Georgia State senior guard Trae Goldston was the game's top scorer with 28 points as three other Panthers scored in double figures. The Eagles' junior guard Johntavious Rucker had the game-high total in rebounds with nine.

Senior guard Antonio Hanson tied his season-best total with six three-point baskets and finished as the Eagles leading scorer with 20 points, also matching a season-best. Junior point guard Willie Powers nearly missed a double-double with his 10th straight game by with double figures in scoring 11 points and eight assists. Senior forward Sandy Perry contributed 10 points off the bench for Georgia Southern.

After a solid shooting first half at 50 percent, the Eagles shot only 35.7percent overall and only 30 percent from behind the circle in the second half. Plagued by a scoring drought in the first three minutes of the second period, Georgia Southern picked up only two points while Georgia State's Goldston hit two three-pointers and Dukes had two jumpers to extend its lead to 14. Ben Drayton III hit a three-pointer and Powers added two free throws to bring the score to 52-43, Panthers, but back-to-back baskets by Goldson, a trey and jumper, quickly halted an Eagle run.

Trading points evenly over the next five minutes to a 70-58 score, the dry spell struck both teams over the next five minutes as Georgia State scored only one basket and had four free throws and Georgia Southern picked up only two free throws by Powers in that span. The Eagles had only five more points, off a three from Hanson and dunk from Perry to account for the final score.

"We have got to get our legs underneath us and recommit to playing defense the way we did at the beginning of the year," said Eagles head coach Charlton "C.Y" Young. "If we give up 60 percent shooting from the field, we are not going to win. That's the problem we have to fix."

Hanson and Goldston were the big scorers of the first half, each with 17 points. Hanson had five three-point baskets while Goldston scored 10 points in a row for the Panthers to help them take a 12-point lead, 31-19, at the 6:11 mark.  The Eagles went on a 7-0 run over three minutes at the end of the first half to cut the least to three points, 37-34. Perry hit a jumper in the paint, then rebounded a Panther miss and set up a fast break basket by Rucker. Hanson hit his fifth trey and then countered a Hampton jumper with one of his own. Goldston hit a three with six seconds left for the six-point Panther halftime lead, 42-36.

Georgia Southern's 55.6 percent three-point field goal percentage from in the first half and 42.1 mark for the game was almost double what the Panthers have allowed this season. Georgia State was ranked number one in the nation (games through Dec. 20) for three-point field goal defense, allowing opponents a success rate of only 23 percent from behind the three-point arc.

Georgia Southern is off for a week, returning to action at Coastal Carolina at Kimbel Arena on Tuesday, December 29th followed by a Saturday, Jan. 2 date at Auburn to being the new year. The Eagles will return to Hanner Fieldhouse to play host to conference foe Chattanooga on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.

No. 23 Clemson 79, Western Carolina 57

CLEMSON, S.C. - Brandon Giles connected on a lay-up in the lane that pulled Western Carolina to within five points, 56-51, at the 8:48 mark of the second half on Tuesday night after having trailed by as many as 14 points to 23rd-ranked Clemson.

However, the senior's scoop shot was followed by an eight-minute WCU scoring drought as Clemson (11-2) scored 19-straight points during the decisive second half run that enabled it to pull away from the Catamounts for the 79-57 win Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.

"I didn't think we were as consistent as we needed to be tonight," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter following his squad's first loss in 34 consecutive days, snapping its nine-game winning streak. "We did not rebound well and had some breakdowns on defense that really hurt us. I thought we came out well in the second half but just stopped hitting the shots late. I also think we just didn't get as much production from the others like we needed to. Our attention to detail was not sharp tonight."

Harouna Mutombo scored Western Carolina's first 12 points including consecutive 3-pointers to open the game and prompting Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell to call a quick timeout. Mutombo finished with a season-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Giles was the only other Catamount reach double-figure scoring with 12 points, dishing out a season-best four assists, while Richie Gordon finished with eight points.

Entering the game tied with WCU Hall of Famer, Henry Logan, atop the school's career steals chart, senior Brigham Waginger - who set the school's single-season steals record a year ago - swiped two in the loss to move into sole possession of first place. His record-breaking steal came at the 12:34 mark of the first half as the South Webster, Ohio, native picked David Potter's pocket near mid-court.

Trevor Booker scored a season-high 31 points to lead four Tigers in double figures with his younger brother, Devin, adding 10 - both one shy of their respective career highs - in the win, Clemson's fourth-straight. The elder brother, Trevor, also blocked four shots and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds. Also reaching double digits for Clemson were Tanner Smith with 13 and Demontez Stitt with 10.

Behind Mutombo's hot start, Western Carolina raced out of the gates for its largest lead of the game at six points early in the first half. But the Tigers responded with a 9-to-2 spurt to pull ahead by five, 19-14, setting off a see-saw affair.

Junior Anthony Phillip, making his first appearance for the purple and gold on Tuesday night, buried his first points on a 3-pointer with 3:20 remaining in the first half to close the margin to two, 31-29. Yet, the Tigers used a 12-to-3 scoring spurt which featured 12-straight points to close the half and take a 43-32 lead into the locker room.

The Catamounts used an early run in the second half to cut into the Clemson lead, with Richie Gordon's layup with 13:32 remaining pulling Western Carolina to within four at 49-45. Nearly five minutes later, Giles hit a layup with 8:48 remaining to make the score 56-51, and from there the Bookers took over, combining for 14 of Clemson's 19-straight points that put the game out of reach.

During the decisive run, WCU committed three turnovers that directly led to six Tiger points, and also missed seven-straight 3-point attempts before Mutombo drained a trey at the 1:06 mark.

Western Carolina will break for the holiday before returning to the hardwood on Wednesday, Dec. 30 as it hosts mountain-rival, UNC Asheville in a inter-conference showdown in the Ramsey Center. Tip-off for the afternoon matinee is set for 2:00 pm.

Hawaii 84, College of Charleston 71

HONOLULU -- Petras Balocka scored 19 points and added 13 rebounds as host Hawaii downed the College of Charleston, 84-71, before 7,119 in opening round action in the 2009 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic at Stan Sheriff Center on Tuesday.

The Cougars, who play SMU at 2 AM eastern on Dec. 24, fell to 5-5.  Hawaii improved to 6-4.

The Rainbow Warriors shot 60 percent (29 of 48) from the field, including 5 of 7 on 3-point attempts. The Cougars shot 37 percent (28 of 75) from the field and 25.9 percent (7 of 27) from 3-point range, but stayed in the game because they committed only six turnovers to Hawaii's 21.

Hawaii led 39-27 at halftime and opened the second half on a 12-4 run to take a 52-31 lead with 14:44 to play. Charleston closed within 65-62 with 4:01 remaining before the Warriors scored six straight points to put the game out of reach.

Hiram Thompson scored 15 points and Dwain Williams added 11 for Hawaii.

Andrew Goudelock led all players with 29 points on 12-of-29 shooting. Donavan Monroe and Tony White, Jr. added 12 and 10 points each, respectively.

Jeremy Simmons had eight points and seven rebounds for Charleston.