Davidson 91, Georgia Southern 87

STATESBORO, Ga. -­ JP Kuhlman scored 18 points to lead six Wildcats in double figures, and Bryant Barr hit a free throw with one second left to seal a 91-87 Southern Conference men¹s basketball victory over Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon in Hanner Field House.

Kuhlman was 5-for-7 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance, and the freshman also posted six assists. Steve Rossiter and Brendan McKillop each scored 15 points with Rossiter adding five rebounds and McKillop recording seven assists.

Will Archambault posted 13 points and a game-high 10 boards for Davidson (9-11, 4-4 SoCon), and Ben Allison collected 12 points and nine rebounds.  Jake Cohen finished with 11 points and six boards.

Barr¹s free throw was one of four points for the senior but turned out to be the most important of the game. Georgia Southern whittled a 21-point lead down to 90-87 on a Rory Spencer dunk with two seconds left. The Wildcats got the ball inbounds to Barr, where he was fouled with one second left. Barr hit one of two from the line to seal the win.

Willie Powers led the Eagles (5-16, 2-6 SoCon) with a game-high 25 points to go along with eight assists, and Antonio Hanson added 23. Colby Wohlleb scored 14 points, hitting 4-of-7 from the 3-point line.

The Wildcats used a 17-6 run midway through the second half to open a 21-point cushion with 10:24 to play. Barr ignited the run with a triple, and Kuhlman capped it with a pair of free throws.

The Wildcats had an 84-67 lead with 5:01 remaining, when the Eagles went on 16-2 run to close the margin to 86-83 with 1:27 to go. McKillop earned a trip to the foul line and made both, and after the OCats got a defensive stop, Kuhlman knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to give Davidson some breathing room.

Georgia Southern kept coming on, and Powers' layup with 30 seconds left made the margin five points. After a Wildcat turnover, Davidson played great defense around the 3-point line, and Powers missed a triple. The Eagles got the rebound and Powers fed Spencer underneath for the dunk, making the score 90-87 with two seconds left and setting up Barr¹s free throw.

Davidson used a 9-0 run late in the first half to push a 31-30 lead into a 40-30 advantage. Kuhlman nailed consecutive treys, and McKillop added another triple to account for the run. That spurt helped Davidson go into the locker room at halftime with a 45-36 advantage.


Appalachian State 87, Western Carolina 74

BOONE, N.C. - In front of 5,074 fans, Appalachian State University men's basketball defeated Western Carolina, 87-74, at the Holmes Center on Saturday afternoon, and narrowed the Southern Conference North Division race. Donald Sims scored 17 of his game-high 28 points in the second half as the Mountaineers moved to 11-8 on the season and 5-3 in league play. 

Western Carolina (15-4, 5-2) gained an early eight-point lead behind a strong start from Brandon Giles, who scored 13 points before the intermission. 

The Apps then tied the game at 25-25 before taking their first lead of the game on a fast break layup by Sims three minutes before the break. The junior accounted for all nine ASU points during the stretch and finished the game shooting 9-of-11 with three rebounds, two assists and two steals. 

The Catamounts regained one more first-half lead before Marcus Wright sank a three-pointer from the corner to give the home team a 35-33 lead at the intermission. Wright came off the bench to match a season high in points, with 15, on 5-of-7 shooting. He added a career-high six assists to go along with a pair of rebounds and a steal. 

WCU tied the game five times in the second half and took a pair of leads before it appeared the Apps would pull away.  Four points from Isaac Butts and layups from Wright and Nathan Healy extended a two point lead into 10 with 8:46 to play, but Western Carolina stormed back to within a point just two minutes later. 

From that point on, Appalachian was 5-of-6 from the field and sank 12-of-16 free throws to ice the game. 

Kellen Brand returned from an injury sustained in Wednesday's game at Georgia Southern to score 19 points on 4-of-8 shooting and 10-of-11 free throws.

The Mountaineers shot 62.5 percent from the field in the second half to finish the game at 53.3 percent. Western struggled from the floor early on and ended the day with a 39.1 mark. 

Giles led the Catamounts with 15 points while Richie Gordon added 14 on 5-of-7 shootings. Jake Robinson accounted for three of WCU's eight treys and ended the game with 11 points and four assists. 

ASU made a late comeback on the boards to finish with a 37-36 advantage, after WCU was dominant in rebounding for much of the contest. Josh Hunter led all players with nine boards to go along with seven points. 

The Catamounts turned 19 offensive boards into 21 second-chance points, compared to just six points on seven offensive rebounds for ASU. 

Samford 70, UNC Greensboro 67

GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG's Brandon Evans had a three-pointer from the top of the key bounce off the front of the rim as time expired and Samford came away with a 70-67 win in an eventful Southern Conference men's basketball game at Fleming Gym on Saturday afternoon.

Midway through the second half, Samford coach Jimmy Tillette collapsed in front of the Bulldog bench, suffering a seizure. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for observation in was listed in stable condition.

Trey Montgomery led Samford with 18 points. The Bulldogs (9-10, 3-4) shot 66.7 percent from the floor in the second half (14-for-21) to rally from a seven-point halftime deficit.

Ben Stywall led UNCG (4-16, 3-6) with a pair of career-high with 26 points and 19 rebounds. He was 14-of-15 at the free throw line and 6-of-9 from the floor in recording his fourth straight double-double and 10th this season. Evans added 15 points and Mikko Koivisto chipped in 11 points.

The start of the game was a continuation of the first meeting six weeks earlier in Birmingham. UNCG finished that first meeting on an amazing 40-9 run en route to a 33-point win. The Spartans began this game on a 13-3 run over the first eight minutes. However, the Bulldogs slowly climbed back into it after trailing by as many as 13.

After calling its second timeout in the first 10 minutes of the game, Samford went on a 16-6 over the next five minutes to climb back within three at 24-21. But the Spartans scored the next seven points in a 90-second span, capped off by a Koivisto trey, to extend the advantage back to double digits.

Samford chipped away again, holding UNCG without a field goal for the final 3:10 of the first half and the first three minutes of the second half. A pair of free throws by Stywall in the closing seconds gave UNCG a little breathing room and a 35-28 lead at the break. But the Bulldogs ran out on a 9-1 spurt in the first 2:14 of the second half to take their first lead of the day, 37-36.

The struggles on offense continued for UNCG as it ran to just two field goals in a 10-minute span, but a nifty no-look pass by Korey Van Dussen found Stywall for a layup and a 45-44 lead.

Samford rattled off the next eight points, though, as UNCG coach Mike Dement got two technical fouls nearly simultaneously and was ejected with 11:49 to play. The Bulldogs converted three of the four ensuing free throws and then followed with a three-pointer by Kaylin Johnson to turn UNCG's 45-44 lead into a 50-45 Samford advantage.

Samford's Jeffrey Merritt followed with a lay-up to make it 52-45 and 20 seconds later Matthew Friday was whistled for a foul. Tillette collapsed near the Samford bench following the foul call with 10:14 to play. He was tended to by medical staffers and was carried to the UNCG athletic training room several minutes later.

The Bulldogs didn't score for three minutes after that as UNCG slowly climbed back on top, 53-52, on two Stywall free throws with 7:46 remaining. Samford regrouped, however, and went on a 13-2 run, with Montgomery scoring seven of the points, to take a 65-55 lead with 3:04 left.

The Samford lead was still nine with a minute to play when UNCG made a late charge. Stywall scored to make it 67-60 with 37 seconds left. After a turnover, Koivisto knocked down two free throws to cut it five. Gaby Bermudez hit one of two at the line for Samford with 26 seconds left, but Kendall Toney's three from the left wing made a one-possession game, 68-65, with 18 seconds left.

Montgomery hit one of two at the line with 15 seconds on the clock to make it a four-point advantage. Toney missed a three-pointer with 10 seconds to go, but Stywall put it back to make it 69-67. Montgomery was fouled again with five seconds left and missed the first to leave the door open. He made the second and the Bulldogs called a timeout to set their defense.

Evans got off a contested shot from about 21 feet, but it hit the front of the rim.


The Citadel 70, Furman 60

Charleston, S.C. -- The Citadel tallied 16 straight points as part of a 22-2 second half run to erase an eight-point deficit on its way to a 70-60 victory over Furman in Southern Conference men's basketball action Saturday night at McAlister Field House.  The win upped The Citadel's record to 10-10 overall and 4-4 in SoCon play while Furman slipped to 9-10 overall and 3-5 inside the league.  

After Furman extended its lead back to eight points at 42-34 on a pair of Justin Dehm free throws with 14:40 to play, The Citadel took control with a 22-2 run, included a 16-0 spurt, which turned a 44-40 Paladin advantage into a 56-44 Bulldogs lead.  The Citadel held Furman scoreless from the 11:57 mark until Amu Saaka connected on a jumper with 4:10 remaining.  

The Bulldogs, who shot 45 percent from the floor in the second half while holding Furman to 36 percent shooting, made 12-of-14 free throws over the final 2:31 of the game to secure its third straight victory over the Paladins.  The loss marked the fourth defeat for Furman in its last five games.

Furman shot 50 percent in the first half to grab a 30-29 lead at the break.  After Zach Urbanus put the Bulldogs ahead 32-30 with a three-pointer to open the second half, Bryson Barnes and Dehm drained treys to key a 10-0 run to give Furman a 40-32 lead with 15:08 left.  The Paladins made just six field goals over the final 15 minutes.

Cameron Wells led The Citadel with 22 points and 12 rebounds while Bryan Streeter added 14 points and 10 boards.  The Bulldogs shot just 37.7 percent from the field, but hit 8-of-20 three-point shots and connected on 22-of-29 trips to the foul line.  The Citadel, which committed just eight turnovers, managed a 37-30 edge on the boards and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds.

Saaka, a junior, paced the Paladins with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting.  Colin Reddick posted 13 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots while Barnes added seven points and a team-high nine rebounds.  Furman shot 42.9 percent (21-49), but made only 4-of-14 shots from three-point range.


Elon 83, Chattanooga 80

ELON, N.C. -- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost 83-80 at Elon in Southern Conference North Division action Saturday night.  The Mocs are now 11-9, 3-4 in SoCon play, while the Phoenix improve to 4-15, 2-6 in the league.

Ty Patterson led the Mocs with a career-high 28 points to go six rebounds and two steals.  Ridge McKeither posted his second double-double with 16 points and a career-high 11 boards.

Elon's Drew Spradlin matched Patterson with a career high of his own with 30 on the night including eight three-pointers.  Chris Long tied his high of 25 points while adding four rebounds and seven assists.

The Mocs were up 15-13 after a Daniel Watts jumper brought the Phoenix within two with 14:33 to go in the first half.  Chattanooga went on a 10-0 run capped by a Patterson three-pointer at 12:19 to make it 25-13 for the Mocs.  UTC extended the lead to as many as 14 points, 33-19, while holding Elon without a field goal for 5:30.

The Phoenix answered with a 20-0 run, hitting six three-pointers, four by Spradlin, to take a 39-33 lead on a Spradlin trey at 2:33.  Elon out-scored UTC 29-8 over the final eight minutes ending the half with a 48-39 lead.

Elon hit 12 of 18 attempts (66.7%) from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.  Spradlin alone hit six.  The two teams combined to hit 19 threes as the Mocs had seven with three each by Taylor and Patterson.

Spradlin put the Phoenix up 11, 50-39, with a basket at 18:01.  With Elon leading 52-41 at 17:27, the Mocs tightened up defensively holding the Phoenix without a field goal for 7:31 propelling an 18-2 run to re-take the lead on a Jasper Williams three at 11:42.

Long and Spradlin hit back-to-back threes to put the Phoeniz back on top 60-59 at 9:07.  It was the Mocs turn to respond as Patterson hit a three and then a slam dunk off a steal to make 64-62 Mocs at 7:53.

Two Long free throws knotted the score at 73-all with 3:45 left.  Patterson drained a three on the ensuing possession to put the Mocs back up, but Spradlin immediately answered to tie it at 76 with 3:12 remaining.

A McKeither layup was sandwiched by one-for-two free throws by Terrance Birdette and Adam Constantine to make 78-all.  McKeither put the Mocs up two, 80-78, at 1:24.  Birdette made a layup off a steal in the frontcourt to give Elon the lead for good, 81-80, with 39.8 left.  After two Long free throws with 15 seconds left, the Mocs could not muster a tying three in the final seconds.

McKeither had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the second half as the Mocs won the battle on the glass 39-33.  Despite the advantage, Elon's 12 second half second chance points, after zero in the opening frame, were pivotal in the loss.

Ricky Taylor added 13 points for the Mocs, all in the first half.  Birdette chipped in 11 for the Phoenix.