Men's Basketball Southern Conference

The Citadel, Chattanooga Close Opening Round With Wins

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Game 4: #3N Chattanooga 82, #6 Georgia Southern 62
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chattanooga dominated the paint and the glass and shot a staggering 85.7 percent from the floor in the second half Friday, beginning its Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship title defense with an 82-62 win over Georgia Southern in the first round of the tournament at Bojangles' Coliseum.

Chattanooga (15-17), the third seed in the SoCon's North Division, held a 49-20 rebounding advantage and scored 54 points in the paint to just 26 for the Eagles (9-23). UTC was 18-for-21 from the floor in the second stanza and finished the game a season-best 66.7 percent from the field (34-for-51).

Ridge McKeither led the Mocs with a game-high 19 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Chris Early had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards, while Josh Odem finished with 13 points.

Rory Spencer's 15 points paced Georgia Southern, the South Division's sixth seed. Antonio Hanson and Willie Powers had 12 each for the Eagles. Spencer's seven rebounds paced GSU, which did not see another player finish with more than two.

Chattanooga led 40-29 at halftime and never saw its lead dip below 13 after the break. The Mocs opened the second half on a 23-6 run, seeing their lead swell to 28 at 63-35 with 12:04 to play.

GSU would cut it to 16 points at 75-59 on Ben Drayton's jumper with 3:52 to play, but the comeback would go no further.

Georgia Southern's Colby Wohlleb drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Eagles an early 6-0 lead, but Chattanooga rattled off a 10-0 run, capped by consecutive buckets from DeAntre Jefferson.

A Drayton 3 finally snapped the Eagles' 5-minute, 14-second scoring drought, and the teams would find themselves tied at 18 with 8:48 to go in the first.

The Mocs would take over from there, as they turned in a quick 13-0 spurt over the next 3:14 to grab control. McKeither had seven points in the run.

Georgia Southern would whittle the lead back down to seven at 36-29 on a Tyler Troupe layup with 2:32 left in the first, but Sam Watson had a pair of baskets before the break to put Chattanooga up by double digits to stay.

The Mocs advance to face College of Charleston, the No. 2 seed from the South Division, Saturday at approximately 9:30 p.m.

NOTES: Chattanooga had 37 defensive rebounds to just nine for the Eagles. ... GSU tied its season low with just eight turnovers. The Eagles forced 24 from Chattanooga, turning them into 27 points. ... Chattanooga's bench outscored Georgia Southern's 45-5.

 

Game 3: #4S The Citadel 55, #5N Samford 43
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Cameron Wells scored a game-high 17 points as The Citadel took a first-half lead that it would not relinquish and topped Samford 55-43 in the opening round of the 2010 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship.  

Wells (17), Harrison DuPont (13) and Austin Dahn (10) combined for 40 of The Citadel's 55 points. The Citadel, the South Division's No. 4 seed, shot 36 percent from the field compared to Samford's 31.4 percent.

Leading Samford in scoring was Trey Montgomery with 16 and Bryan Friday with 11. The Bulldogs were the fifth seed in the SoCon's North Division.

The Citadel held its largest lead of the game, 43-25, with less than 10 minutes to go. Samford would chip away and eventually pull within six with less than a minute and a half to go, but The Citadel made its final six free throw attempts to put the game away.

Samford opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from Montgomery and Jeffrey Merritt. The 6-0 lead proved to be the largest in the first half for Samford, as a Zach Urbanus layup started a 7-1 run by The Citadel that would eventually tie the game at 7.

There were three ties in the first half with The Citadel leading by as many as nine points, an advantage it would hold at the half with the score 27-18. The final tie of the half came with less than 10 minutes to go as the teams were knotted at 11. Two free throws by Cameron Wells sparked a 9-0 run for the The Citadel. Samford pulled within six with 22 seconds remaining, but a trey by Wells with four seconds left in the half put the cushion back at nine for The Citadel.

The teams were almost even in rebounding in the first half, with Samford holding a slight 16-14 edge. Samford ended the game with a 37-32 advantage on the boards. The Citadel was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line in the opening half, while Samford went 1-for-2.

Wells was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line for the game, and The Citadel connected on 16 of its 18 attempts from the charity stripe compared to Samford's 6-of-12 mark.

With the win, The Citadel advances to the quarterfinals where it will face the No. 1 seed in the North Division, Appalachian State. The Citadel won the only regular-season matchup between the two teams, edging the Mountaineers 62-58 in Boone, N.C.

One game remains in the first round of the 2010 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship. Chattanooga, the No. 3 seed in the North Division, will take on Georgia Southern, the No. 6 seed in the South Division. Elon and UNC Greensboro earned their spots in the quarterfinals earlier in the day.

NOTES: This marks the first time that The Citadel will meet Appalachian State in the quarterfinals of the tournament. All of the previous meetings came in the first round where the Mountaineers hold a 7-1 advantage. ... With the win, The Citadel evens its tournament record against Samford. The two teams met in last year's tournament with Samford earning a 76-67 victory.