Elon 90, Gardner-Webb 82
ELON, N.C. - On a hot-shooting night from Alumni Gym, the Elon men's basketball team pulled off a 90-82 victory over the visiting Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs in Tuesday night non-conference action. Phoenix sophomore Roger Dugas dumped in a career-high 21 points on 8-of-10 from the field, knocking down a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. The forward also pulled down a personal-best and game-high 10 rebounds in the winning effort. Elon moved to 3-5 overall, while Gardner-Webb fell to 6-5 on the season.
"I thought this was our best offensive performance of the year," noted Elon head coach Matt Matheny. "We are making strides in our motion offense and as a result we got good looks and had good shooters knock down shots. We played the whole game as if each possession was the most important possession."
Both teams shot above 50 percent in the contest and the squads combined for 19 three-pointers. Gardner-Webb shot a blistering 61.4 percent while the Phoenix nailed 54.5 percent from the field. Elon had a stellar performance from the free throw line, knocking down 18-of-21 from the stripe.
Elon's Drew Spradlin led all scorers with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. In the last three contests, the junior guard is averaging 21.0 points and connecting on 57 percent from the field. With three long balls on the night, Spradlin moved into 10th place all-time on the school's career chart with 99. Chris Long scored 13 points, at one point connecting on three consecutive treys in a span of 95 seconds. The guard took over sixth place on Elon's career three-point list with 130. Freshman Jack Isenbarger also added 10 points. Gardner-Webb also had four players in double figures, with Jon Moore posting 17 points to lead the way.
Elon used a 16-5 run that spanned halftime to pull ahead, 52-39 with 17:19 to play. The Bulldogs capitalized on Phoenix turnovers and keyed off an offensive board that led to a Luke Davis bucket from downtown, scoring 10 points in less than a minute to cut the advantage to three, 52-49.
Gardner-Webb extended its run to 16-2, taking its first lead since midway through the first half, 55-54 at 14:04. The lead changed hands seven times, with neither team gaining an advantage of more than five points over next nine minutes.
Dugas' fourth trey of the night capped a 9-2 Phoenix run that lifted Elon to an eight-point advantage, 78-70, with 5:22 to play. The triple put Dugas over the 20-point mark for the first time in his career.
GWU managed to trim the lead to four, 78-74, but a Spradlin old-fashioned three-point play put Elon on top, 83-76, with under three minutes remaining. Strong free throw shooting closed out the victory for the Phoenix.
Elon racked up 16 assists on 30 buckets with eight of nine players garnering an assist. The Phoenix held a slight 28-27 edge on the glass while the Bulldogs owned the paint, 42-28.
Trailing 12-10 early in the first half, Elon used a 12-2 run that included five Isenbarger points to take a 22-14 advantage at the 12:13 mark. The visitors answered, scoring nine unanswered to retake the lead, 23-22, at 7:49. Spradlin halted the run with a triple and after a few lead changes and a couple of ties, the Phoenix scored 14 of the final 20 points in the half to lead 44-36 at the break.
The Phoenix will look to make it back-to-back wins when it hosts Lynchburg on Sunday, December 12 at 2 p.m. in Alumni Gym.
College of Charleston 79, East Tennessee State 59
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The College of Charleston men's basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to win its third in a row and give Andrew Goudelock a nice parting birthday gift with a 79-59 rout of East Tennessee State Tuesday night before 3,137 fans who braved the winter chill for the celebration at Carolina First Arena.
Goudelock was one of four Cougars (7-3, 2-0) to finish in double figures as he scored his 22nd point on his 22nd birthday after being fouled on a driving layup with 3:53 remaining in regulation. It gave CofC its largest lead of the ballgame, 77-50, but as fate would have it, he would miss his free throw attempt after the media timeout and head coach Bobby Cremins would sub him out to give the freshmen and walk-ons some earned playing time against the Buccaneers (3-4, 0-1).
Goudelock, who is currently on a 10-game double-digit scoring streak and is now 201 points away from breaking Ken Gustafson's all-time career scoring record of 2,135 points, swore he didn't plan the missed free throw on purpose in the postgame press conference. He had a slow shooting night with only five points in the first half, but made up for his scoring drought as the Cougars improved its percentage from the floor to 45.2 percent in the second. Goudelock has recorded 1,935 career points to date.
For the second-straight contest, CofC got off to a hot start with an early 13-4 run which included long-range threes from senior Donavan Monroe, sophomore Andrew Lawrence and Goudelock. Monroe knocked down 10 of his 16 points in the first half which marked the first time for him to reach double figures this season before halftime.
The defending Atlantic Sun Conference champions only managed to score 20 of their 24 first-half points in the paint including its first 14, due to CofC's defense that resulted in a 0-for-9 shooting performance from beyond the arc. The Bucs did not get their first basket outside of the paint until the 3:50 minute-mark and trailed by 12 at halftime, 36-24.
The Cougars learned from their second-half mistakes against Georgia Southern on Saturday night to spurn off any possibility of an ETSU comeback by sprinting out to a 16-8 run to stretch the lead out to 20+ for good. The win avenged a 77-71 road loss at ETSU a year ago in Johnson City, Tenn. Both teams had rekindled an old Southern Conference rivalry with a home-and-home series over the last two seasons.
CofC will enjoy a bye week to focus on and prepare for final exams prior to a Wednesday, Dec. 15 non-conference tilt at Charleston Southern. The game will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. (ET) at the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, S.C.