College of Charleston 77, Davidson 75
DAVIDSON, N.C. - College of Charleston's Antwaine Wiggins blocked a Stephen Curry three-point attempt as the final buzzer sounded to lift the Cougars to a 77-75 Southern Conference men's basketball victory over Davidson Saturday night at John M. Belk Arena.
The loss ended a 43-game regular-season conference winning streak for the Wildcats (20-4, 13-1 SoCon), one away from the league record of 44, set by West Virginia from 1956-60. It also ended a 27-game Belk Arena winning streak.
Trailing by one, Davidson fouled Tony White Jr., and the junior made 1-of-2. Davidson rebounded the miss and called a timeout with 2.2 seconds left to set up the final play. Ben Allison hit Will Archambault at half court, and Curry went streaking down the right side, where Archambault gave him a pass in stride.
The junior took one dribble and squared up, but Wiggins came flying past him and swatted the ball from behind his head as the horn sounded.
Curry finished the game with 25 points, four assists and four steals, while Bryant Barr tallied 16 points, all in the second half, three assists and three steals. Andrew Lovedale collected 13 points and seven rebounds.
White Jr. led the Cougars (17-6, 9-4 SoCon) with 19 points, and Dustin Scott finished with 14. Jermaine Johnson posted 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Donavan Monroe scored 10.
The game was won on the backboards, which the Cougars dominated with a 50-31 advantage, including 19 on the offensive glass. College of Charleston outscored Davidson 19-7 in second-chance points.
The Cougars erased a 14-point deficit second-half deficit with an 18-3 run over an 8:04 span, and Scott gave Charleston a 64-63 lead with a putback with 5:20 to play. With the score knotted at 68, Johnson scored on a layup, and after a Davidson turnover, Johnson was fouled on another putback attempt.
The senior made both free throws, but Lovedale answered with a layup, keeping Davidson within two with 52 seconds left. White Jr. hit a jumper for Charleston, and Curry missed two 3-pointers on Davidson's next possession, forcing the 'Cats to foul.
Andrew Goudelock made two from the charity stripe to give the Cougars a six-point lead. Barr drew a foul and made two for Davidson, making the score 76-72, and after Wiggins missed two free throws, Curry was fouled attempting a 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left. He made all three, and the 'Cats fouled White Jr. to set up the final play of the game.
Furman 72, Chattanooga 70
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Jordan Miller netted the game-winning jumper with 11 seconds left to help Furman erase an 18-point second half deficit and down the Chattanooga Mocs 72-70 in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Saturday afternoon on Carolina First Court at Timmons Arena.
The win, Furman’s third straight on Carolina First Court, improved the Paladins to 5-17 overall and 3-10 in the SoCon. Chattanooga fell to 11-13 overall and 7-6 inside the league.
With the game tied at 70-70 and under 20 seconds left, Miller took a pass on the right wing and started to penetrate before pulling up to bury a 17-foot jumper over his defender with just 11 seconds to play.
Chattanooga’s Keyron Sheard drew a two-shot foul on the other end of the court and, after missing the front end, committed a lane violation to give Furman possession with four seconds left. Neil Duval was fouled and missed two free throws on the other end, but Sheard’s desperation three-pointer from midcourt missed as time expired.
Chattanooga built a 54-36 lead with under 15 minutes remaining as Kevin Goffney converted a trio of free throws to cap a 22-6 Mocs run that spanned the halftime break. Miller, Justin Dehm and Connor Nolte combined to drain six three-pointers over the next 13 minutes to key Furman’s 34-15 run and give the Paladins a 70-69 lead on Nolte’s offensive rebound off of a Tony Anderson jumper and stick back with 1:12 to play in the game.
After the teams traded turnovers, Sheard made good on 1-of-2 trips to the line to set up Miller’s game-winning heroics.
Dehm paced all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the floor, including 5-of-11 from three-point range. Miller added 14 points while Nolte posted a season-high 13 points to go with seven rebounds. The Paladins shot 44.4% (24-54) from the field, 44.0% (11-25) from three-point territory and 68.4% (13-19) from the charity stripe.
Senior Khalil Hartwell led four Mocs in double figures with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting while grabbing nine rebounds and registering three steals. The SoCon’s second leading scorer Stephen McDowell tallied 16 points and seven boards while Nicchaeus Doaks and Goffney each scored 13 points apiece before fouling out in the final minute.
The Mocs shot 44 percent (23-52) from the floor and converted on 20-of-29 trips to the foul line. Chattanooga held a 39-28 rebounding advantage and outscored the Paladins 34-14 in the paint.
Furman’s comeback from an 18-point deficit marked its largest during the Jeff Jackson era and helped the Paladins snap a three-game skid against the Mocs.
Furman visits Elon for a 7 p.m. contest on Monday before returning home to host Georgia Southern on Thursday at 7 p.m. Chattanooga travels to Samford on Monday at 8:30 p.m.
Appalchian State 77, Elon 63
ELON, N.C. -- The Appalachian State Mountaineers dominated the glass by a 41-19 margin and shot 53 percent from the field en route to a 77-63 Southern Conference men's basketball victory over the home-standing Elon Phoenix in front of 1,660 fans from Alumni Gym. ASU improved to 10-12 overall and 7-7 in the SoCon while Elon fell to 7-14, 4-9.
Kellen Brand, who went 12-of-13 from the free throw line, led all scorers with 29 points while Josh Hunter netted 12 markers and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double. A.J. Highsmith added 11 points for the Mountaineers.
A tight game at the start, Elon grabbed its final lead of the night when TJ Douglas' three put the Phoenix ahead 14-13 at the 12:12 mark. A Donald Sims jumper at the 10:04 mark gave the Mountaineers the lead for good.
Behind an 18-6 edge in points in the paint and a 10-4 lead in second chance points, ASU built a 39-29 halftime lead. Brand had 16 points at the break making 5-of-9 field goals and 6-of-7 from the line.
The Phoenix opened the second stanza with an 8-2 run to pull within three points at 41-38 on Josh Bonney's jumper at the 17:36 mark, but Elon would edge no closer.
Having seen Elon close back within five points at 45-40 with 14:04 left, the Mountaineers scored the game's next seven points to build a 52-40 edge with 11:47 still to play.
Elon once again got the deficit under 10 points when two Chris Long free throws made the score 65-57 with just 3:42 to play, but a 6-0 Appalachian spurt, keyed by four points from Brand, moved the score to 71-57 with just 2:00 remaining.
Bonney led Elon with 12 points while Devan Carter netted 10 for the Phoenix. Adam Constantine led the home squad with five rebounds. Brett James added eight points to advance his career total to 1,210 and into 19th place on Elon's all-time scoring chart. James, the SoCon's active leader in blocked shots, swatted two attempts to up his total to 95, moving him into fourth place on the school's record list.
UNC Greensboro 84, Georgia Southern 76
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Junior forward Mikko Koivisto came off the bench to score a career-high 26 points, including 17 in the second half, as UNC Greensboro defeated Georgia Southern, 84-76, in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Saturday night at Hanner Fieldhouse.
The Spartans led wire-to-wire for the win, snapping a six-game losing skid by shooting a season-best 59.6 percent from the floor (31-for-52). Koivisto was 7-of-9 from the field, including 5-of-7 from three-point range.
Junior forward Ben Stywall also had 23 points for UNCG (4-18, 3-10 SoCon), shooting 11-of-14 from the floor. Freshman forward Damian Eargle had his second double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds, shooting
6-for-9 from the floor.
Antonio Hanson, Ben Drayton and Tyler Troupe each had 21 points to account for 63 of Georgia Southern’s 76 points. Sandy Perry added 10 points for the Eagles (7-15, 5-9).
The Spartans played probably their best opening half of basketball this season, shooting 62.1 percent from the floor (18-of-29) and getting production from both the inside game and the perimeter. UNCG got out quick, forcing the tempo on the Eagles and scoring the first nine points of the contest. The lead extended to 20-7 on a floater down the lane by Daniel Oliver with 13:44 to play in the opening half.
UNCG’s offense slowed briefly as it scored just seven points in the next eight minutes, but the defense kept Georgia Southern at bay. But a quick 7-2 spurt by the Spartans, sparked by Koivisto’s third trey of the half, gave UNCG a 35-21 lead with 5:30 left in the half.
The Eagles made a late run and closed to within six, however, at the first-half buzzer on Tyler Troupe’s tip-in to make it 42-36 at the break. But that would be the last Eagle basket by someone other than Hanson for the next 7:40.
A pair of treys by Hanson in the first 90 seconds of the second half drew the Eagles to within two, 44-42, and forced an early UNCG timeout. The Spartans responded with an 18-3 run, though, capped off by a Stywall breakaway that put him over the 20-point mark for the second time this season. The run lasted nearly six minutes and gave the Spartans their largest lead to that point at 62-45.
The Eagles pecked away and got it back under single digits on a Drayton’s 15-footer, 71-62, with 7:58 to go. The Spartans extended the lead to 14 again, but Georgia Southern hung in there and a trey by Drayton got the margin back to nine with five minutes left.
The Eagles got to within five with 1:44 to play on a pair of free throws by Drayton, 81-76. UNCG’s Pete Brown was fouled on the ensuing possession and knocked down a pair to take the lead back to seven with 1:08 left.
Hanson missed a runner in the lane on the Eagles’ next possession and the Spartans were able to run out the clock from there.
Wofford 74, Samford 61
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Wofford College men’s basketball team defeated Samford 74-61 in a conference match-up on Saturday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena. Tim Johnson posted a double-double for the Terriers as he scored 13 points with 12 rebounds.
Wofford is 10-11 overall and 6-6 in the conference, while Samford is 11-12 overall and 6-8 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Junior Salters with 15 points, Tim Johnson with the double-double, and Noah Dahlman with 13 points. Samford was led by Andy King with 19 points, including five threes, and six rebounds and Josh Davis with 14 points.
After the first four minutes of play, the score was tied at five. Wofford then used threes from Kevin Giltner and Junior Salters to take a 15-9 lead at 11:50. A three by Matt Estep, followed by back-to-back threes from Corey Godzinski pushed the lead to 28-12 at the 7:29 mark. The Bulldogs chipped away and reduced the Terrier lead to 35-26 at the half.
In the second half, Samford four three pointers in the first five minutes of action to cut the lead to 46-43. Wofford was then able to take a seven point lead at 52-45 with a lay-up from Noah Dahlman. The Bulldogs pulled within five points again at 54-49 with 9:34 on the clock.
The Terriers were able to go on an 8-3 run to take a 64-52 lead with just 3:14 left in the game. Two free throws each from Jason Dawson and Junior Salters gave Wofford a 70-56 advantage with 1:23 remaining. The Bulldogs were unable to cut into the lead much further in the closing moments of the game and the Terriers picked up the 74-61 victory.
Noah Dahlman returned to the line-up after missing one game to injury and he led the team in scoring for the twelfth time this season. It marked the first time since the Georgia game (Dec. 28) that all Wofford players were available to play. Wofford swept the first regular season series against Samford.
The Citadel 75, Western Carolina 66
CULLOWHEE, N.C. ? Demetrius Nelson scored 29 points and grabbed nine boards as The Citadel scored 18 of its final 24 points ? including its final eight of the contest ? from the free throw line to hand Western Carolina a 75-66 loss Saturday night in Southern Conference action at the Ramsey Center.
Nelson tallied 15 of his career-best 29 from the charity stripe as the Bulldogs held a commanding 41-to-14 edge in free throw attempts. Cameron Wells scored 15 for the Cadets, including nine from the line, with Austin Dahn totaling 10 points in the win.
The loss ? just WCU’s second at home this season ? snapped the Catamounts’ six-game home winning streak and ended its run of having defeated the last eight conference foes in a row. The Bulldogs (15-10, 10-4 SoCon) won their seventh-consecutive game over the past two weeks.
Despite the defeat, Western remains in a first-place tie with Chattanooga ? two-point, 72-70, losers at Furman on Saturday ? atop the SoCon’s North Division with identical league ledgers of 7-6. Appalachian State completed the seasonal sweep of Elon to move into sole possession of third in the tight standings at 7-7, with Samford falling at Wofford to drop to fourth at 6-8.
Junior Adrian Gailliard scored his conference career high 13 points off the bench for the Catamounts on 5-of-6 shooting. The Sewell, N.J., native added four rebounds and a steal before fouling out inside the two minute mark. Sophomore Richie Gordon, who was saddled with early foul trouble, posted his second-straight game in double figures with 12 points in 18 minutes of playing time after being whistled for his fifth personal with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation.
Junior Brandon Giles was the third Catamount in double digits with 11, while red-shirt freshman Harouna Mutombo and junior Jake Robinson each chipped in eight points. Brigham Waginger boarded seven missed shots and dished out four assists in the loss.
WCU was able to take one-point leads on two separate occasions in the second half, pulling ahead for the first time in the game at the 13:36 mark on a three-pointer by Robinson, 40-39. Gailliard gave the Catamounts what proved to be their final advantage on a three-point play, dropping in the free throw for a 54-53 edge.
Inside the final four minutes, The Citadel’s Zach Urbanus made his only two field goals of the night on consecutive possessions, burying two triples after the Catamounts had pulled within one point, 61-60, with 3:57 to play in the second half. His two treys stretched the lead back out to seven, 67-60. The Bulldogs closed out the game by making eight of its final 12 free throw attempts while WCU struggled from the floor, shooting just 2-of-9 over the final 2:45.
Western Carolina was beaten on the boards for just the second time all season at home as the Bulldogs held the advantage, 39-to-31.