Chattanooga 75, Georgia Southern 63
STATESBORO, Ga. - Ty Patterson and Josh Odem combined for 47 points as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team claimed a 75-63 win at Georgia Southern (3-13, 0-3) on Wednesday night. It was the fourth consecutive win for Chattanooga (9-6, 1-1), all by double digits.
Patterson scored a career high 25 points on the night on 8-11 shooting from the field, 7-9 from three-point range. He also collected a team-high seven rebounds.
Odem also posted a new career high with 22 points to go with six rebounds and two assists off the bench. He hit 6-9 from the field, making all four three-point attempts, as well as 6-6 from the free throw line.
Willie Powers led Georgia Southern with 25 points and five rebounds. Powers scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half.
Ben Drayton put the Eagles up 12-10 early with a three-pointer with 11:38 left in the first half, but the Mocs answered with a 10-0 run to lead 20-12 on a Josh Odem jumper at 7:58. GSU closed to within six before Ty Patterson took over hitting four long-range three-pointers in a row to give the Mocs a 32-18 advantage at the break.
Neither team could find much of an offensive flow early. The Mocs shot 50 percent (12-24) in the first frame but turned the ball over 16 times. Defensively, Chattanooga held the Eagles to just 24.1 percent (7-29 shooting. The Mocs held GSU without a field goal for nearly four minutes twice and for more than six minutes once.
Chattanooga opened the second half a little sluggish on offense not making their first basket until 16:54 on an Odem three-pointer pushing the Mocs lead back to double digits 35-23. The lead grew to 18 on another Odem trey at 7:13.
The Eagles would not fade away closing to 11, 67-56, on a Powers three with 1:55 remaining. Keegan Bell answered with a layup at 1:35. Odem calmly drained another three with 1:01 to play to push it to 72-58. Then the Mocs held on for the 75-63 win.
Chattanooga shot 50 percent from the field making 22 of 44 shots on the night, but turned the ball over 27 times. The Mocs hit 14 of 23 from three-point range, 60.9 percent. The 14 threes made ties the season high set against Mississippi Valley State, while the 60.9 percent is a new high.
The Eagles are the fourth straight team the Mocs held under 40 percent shooting as GSU was limited to 34.3 percent (23-67) from the floor. It did record 16 steals on the night.
The Citadel 62, Appalachian State 58
BOONE, N.C. - The Mountaineers cut a 13-point deficit to just one several times in the second half, but were unable to regain a lead as Appalachian State University men's basketball fell, 62-58, against The Citadel on Wednesday.
It was a game of back-and-forth runs, as the Bulldogs used a 12-0 spurt to gain a 20-10 advantage early in the contest. Donald Sims then scored ASU's next nine points as the Apps fought to within three. From that point, a 10-2 outburst helped The Citadel (8-7, 2-1 SoCon) to a 34-25 halftime lead.
Sims would go on to lead Appalachian (7-7, 1-2) in scoring for the fifth time in six games with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including three long balls. The junior added a pair of assists, a steal and a rebound. He was the only Mountaineer in double-figure points for the game.
The junior followed a pair of Marcus Wright jumpers with five points of his own to cap a 9-0 run that pulled ASU back within four points with 10 minutes to play in regulation.
Appalachian then closed the gap to a single point on three occasions down the stretch but each time was followed by a made basket on the other end.
With just over a minute remaining, a pair of Kellen Brand free throws cut the score to 57-55 and the defense frustrated The Citadel for 30 seconds before Cameron Wells found an open Austin Dahn in the corner for a three.
Andre Williamson sank a free throw and a layup in the final half-minute, but two more free throws by The Citadel sealed the win.
Williamson scored seven points on 3-of-4 shooting off the bench and added four rebounds, while Isaac Butts led the team with 10 boards to go along with four points, two assists, a block and a steal.
Wells led the Cadets with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting while Dahn added 14 points on four treys. The Citadel drained nine shots from downtown in the game, including 7-of-11 before the intermission, compared to a 6-of-20 night from downtown for the Apps.
ASU hauled in 15 offensive rebounds for 21 second-chance points and finished with 38 boards in the game, compared to just 26 for the Bulldogs.
The game marked the first meeting between Buzz Peterson and Ed Conroy as head coaches. The Citadel's Conroy served on Peterson's staff at three schools from 2000-06.