College of Charleston 77, Charleston Southern 69
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Senior Jeremy Simmons registered a career-high 26 points and a season-high 12 rebounds to lead College of Charleston to a 77-69 victory over Charleston Southern in a clash of intracity rivals held Wednesday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
It marked Simmons' seventh career double-double as the Cougars (8-3, 2-0) claimed their fourth win in a row after an eight-day layoff between games to focus on final exams at The College.
CofC sprinted out to a 15-9 run in the opening minutes of the game behind Simmons' play inside, but CSU would close the gap to two with five-straight unanswered points. The Cougars retaliated with an 8-0 run of their own and scored the last seven of 10 points prior to the half, to take a 39-31 advantage into the locker room.
CofC could never shake off the Buccaneers (5-6, 0-1) as both teams showed off their long-range skills in a three-point shootout in the second half of play.
The Cougars, who had been up by as many as 13 points at the 16:44 minute-mark, saw their lead slip away within a six-minute stretch. A long-range three by CSU rookie Sheldon Strickland gave the Bucs their first lead of the ballgame, 56-55, with 10:30 left in regulation. Strickland would end the night with a game-high 27 points.
CofC responded quickly after the called timeout as senior Donavan Monroe knocked down a three to put the Cougars back up, 58-56. A three-pointer by sophomore Andrew Lawrence cushioned the lead and CofC never looked back. Monroe and senior Andrew Goudelock were the other players in double figures with 10 and 20 respectively.
Up next, the Cougars will host a rematch with Clemson before a sold-out home crowd on Wednesday, Dec. 22 at Carolina First Arena. Tipoff with the Tigers is slated for 7 p.m. (ET) and the game will be televised live nationally on Fox Sports Net.
Wake Forest 69, UNCG 67
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The UNCG Spartans eventually left the building, but as far as the Wake Forest Demon Deacons were concerned, they never went away.
UNCG entered Wednesday night's game winless and left with the same distinction. In between, it nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the program's history, absorbing a 69-67 defeat when it was unable to get off a last-second 3-pointer.
"I can't let this get us down," guard Brandon Evans said. "It lets us know we're going in the right direction. We're getting better. If we keep competing, we're gonna be pretty good."
The Spartans, who overcame a six-point halftime deficit, turned this into a tense, one-possession game and had a chance to tie after Kyle Randall hit a leaner while being fouled with 12.1 seconds to go to make it 68-67.
"I just tried to stick my head down, go to the basket and hope something good would happen," Randall said.
Randall missed the resulting free throw, but that almost worked to the Spartans' advantage.
When Wake's Travis McKie went 1-for-2 at the foul line, the Spartans had the ball with 9.5 ticks left and a chance to win the thing. Had Randall made his free throw, Wake would have almost certainly had the last shot.
Down two, the Spartans were not fixated on the game-winner, however. The intent was for a post player to set a screen at the top of the key to liberate Randall. From there, he was to go to the goal.
"Our defense was fine," Randall said. "We were going for the two and for the three only if it was the last option."
Ultimately, they couldn't get a chance at either. Wake center Ty Walker, the 7-footer who blocked four shots on the night, popped out in anticipation of the 3-pointer. Distracted, Randall lost his dribble and time expired before Korey Van Dussen could heave one.
"I wish we could have executed better when we had the ball with five seconds left," Randall said. "I wish I hadn't turned it over."
The Deacs effectively won it on the glass, outrebounding the Spartans 41-28 to offset UNCG's plus-seven in turnover margin.
"I was proud of our guys because we got down a couple of times and each time, we made big plays to get back in it," coach Mike Dement said. "Earlier in the year, if we got down by five, we had a tendency to go down 10 or 12. This time, we fought back a couple of times and put ourselves in position to get something at the end."
Randall went 5-for-7 from the floor in a 15-point effort to lead four double-figure scorers for the Spartans. Van Dussen had 14, Aloysius Henry contributed a dozen and Evans finished with 11.
Henry, defended on this night by Walker and another 7-footer, Carson Desrosiers, has scored between 10 and 15 in all but one game, a four-point outing at East Carolina. The junior-college transfer was well known to Deacons coach Jeff Bzdelik, who was recruiting him for Colorado last spring.
The Spartans' schedule does not let up. They're at Clemson on Saturday.
"I thought we took a big step in playing an ACC team on the road," Dement said. "We played our best defensive game tonight."