Wofford 88, Chattanooga 56
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - In a key Southern Conference contest on Thursday night, the Wofford men's basketball team downed Chattanooga 88-56 at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Terriers scored the first 15 points of the game and never looked back as three players scored over twenty points for Wofford. It was the first conference loss of the season for Chattanooga.
Wofford is 9-9 on the season and 6-1 in the Southern Conference and Chattanooga is 11-9 overall and 7-1 in SoCon play. The Terriers were led by Jamar Diggs with 24 points, Cameron Rundles with 23 points and Noah Dahlman with 22 points. Tim Johnson led the team with nine rebounds. The Mocs were led by Troy Cage with 19 points.
Cameron Rundles hit two three pointers to open the game for Wofford. After four points by Noah Dahlman and five points by Jamar Diggs, the Terriers had a 15-0 lead just four minutes into the game. Six straight points in the paint by Noah Dahlman pushed the advantage to 26-6 at the 10:23 mark.
With the score 30-9 after another bucket by Cameron Rundles, the Mocs went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 32-21 with two minutes left in the half. Jamar Diggs scored seven points in the final 1:42 to give the Terriers a 39-23 lead at the break. In the first half, the Mocs were 9-of-26 from the floor. Wofford on the other hand was 16-of-29 which included five three pointers.
The Terriers opened the second half with a 10-0 run for a 49-23 lead after a bucket by Tim Johnson at the 16:53 mark. Wofford kept building the lead and after a three pointer and free throw by Cameron Rundles at 10:47 in the second half the advantage was 62-33. Jamar Diggs hit a three at 10:13 to give the Terriers a 30 point lead at 65-35.
With just under six minutes to play in the game, Kevin Giltner hit a three to extend the lead to 81-39, the largest of the night for the Terriers at 42 points. At the four minute mark, a jumper from Drew Crowell made it an 85-43 game. In the final minutes, the Mocs made three three-pointers to cut the final margin to 88-56.
Wofford shot 57.6 percent from the floor and was 57.1% from three. Chattanooga was 36.2 percent overall and was 31.8 percent from behind the arc. Wofford had a 35 to 27 advantage in rebounds and the Terriers forced 17 turnovers.
The three Terriers from Minnesota - Rundles, Diggs and Dahlman - combined for 69 of the 88 points in the game. It was the first time since February 19, 2001 at Western Carolina (Lee Nixon, Ian Chadwick, Mike Lenzly) that three Wofford players scored twenty or more points.
UNCG 87, Georgia Southern 75
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Georgia Southern recorded 12 steals on the night but could not steal the victory on Thursday night, January 20, at UNCG falling 87-75. Freshman Eric Ferguson returned to form with 24 points with a pair of blocks and a pair of thunderous dunks. Junior Ben Drayton III also chipped in 17 points and 8 assists as he narrowly missed his first double-double of the season.
The Eagles (4-16, 0-7 SoCon) had a pair of early leads but saw both advantages evaporate in the first half. UNC Greeensboro (3-15, 3-5 SoCon) shot .640 in the second half to outscore the Eagles by eight points in the final period of the game.
Sophomore Zuri James reached double-figure scoring for the third consecutive game with 11 points and three assists. Freshman Jelani Hewitt logged half of Georgia Southern's steals with six to go along with nine points. Marvin Baynham chipped in six points for his highest scoring output in three games.
Senior Rory Spencer recorded a block in the first half which moved him into a share of fourth-place on the Georgia Southern all-time blocks list. He has 86 blocks in little more than a year and a half with the Eagles.
Ferguson's strong night came as he converted on 8-of-12 attempts from the field and 12-of-13 from the free throw stripe. The freshman also led the Eagles on the boards with six. His two blocks give him 17 and a share of fifth place on the GSU freshman blocks chart.
To open the game, Georgia Southern sprinted out to a 7-0 lead in the game's first three minutes before the Spartans were able to level the score by the 14:20 point at 9-9.
Ferguson put the lead back to six points at 12:31 when his thunderous dunk quieted the Spartan faithful. The lead, however, would be short-lived as the Spartans rallied to level the score at 32-32 inside of four minutes.
The Spartans went on 12-3 run on which the Eagles were fruitless in three attempts from the field. The run gave UNCG a three-point lead in the waning moments of the first half. A steal by James with three seconds remaining in the half gave the ball to Hewitt who drained the buzzer-beater to cut the halftime deficit to four points at 43-39.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Eagles cut slightly into the advantage before the first media timeout but saw the Spartans go on a 15-4 run to take a 63-48 lead at the 11:18 mark. In the run, GSU went nearly five minutes without a field goal.
The Spartan advantage grew to as many as 17 points on two separate occasions before Georgia Southern mounted a charge, primarily from the free throw line. The Eagles tallied 19 points from the stripe in the second half as they cut the UNCG lead to 10 points with 4:01 remaining.
The Eagles, however would not score a field goal in the final 5:27 of the game as UNCG took the 12-point victory.
Georgia Southern was hampered by seven second-half turnovers while securing seven second-half steals. GSU was buoyed by a .831 shooting percentage from the charity stripe making 26-of-32 including 19-of-23 in the second half.
College of Charleston 93, Western Carolina 64
CHARLESTON, S.C. - For the College of Charleston men's basketball program, its 93-64 win over Western Carolina on Thursday night at Carolina First Arena will be remembered for many years to come.
Two historic milestones would be set. First, a 36-year-old scoring record rewritten by one of the greatest players to ever don the Maroon and White, and second, a special place in the NCAA Division I record books for one of the top college basketball coaches of all-time in fifth-year head coach Bobby Cremins.
Andrew Goudelock scored a game-high 29 points en route to becoming the school's all-time career scoring leader with 2,147 career points to date. Goudelock entered the game needing just 18 points to surpass former CofC standout Ken (Gus) Gustafson who recorded 2,135 career points from 1971-75.
Ironically, he would do it the signature 'Goudelock way' on a floating jumper off the dish from sophomore Andrew Lawrence over Western Carolina's Blake Gallagher with 2:12 remaining in the first half. No one could stop him the rest of the way. He kept the crowd on their feet as he drained a follow-up three-pointer with under a minute and 10 to go to give the Cougars' a 20-point halftime lead, 48-28.
Senior Jeremy Simmons added 20 points for the Cougars (13-6, 6-1) who snapped the Catamounts' (8-11, 4-3) four-game winning streak and kept their stance in the Southern Conference regular-season race with Chattanooga (11-9, 7-1) and South Division rival Wofford (9-9, 6-1).
In fact, Simmons and Goudelock scored 22 of the team's first 27 points of the game to avenge a 100-90 barn burner of a game a year ago on the road at Western Carolina. The Cougars shot a season-high tying 57.1 percent from the field including 61.8 percent in the second half. Sophomore Willis Hall and senior Donavan Monroe contributed 10 each to the winning cause.
Freshman Brandon Boggs led the Catamounts and narrowly missed a double-double with a season-high 19 points and nine rebounds. Mike Williams scored 18 points for WCU while Trey Sumler finished with 11 points in the loss.
The historic win also sealed Cremins' 100th career victory at The College as he now joins a short list of 11 all-time head coaches to record 100-or-more victories at three different NCAA Division I schools including his former mentor and college coach, the late Frank McGuire, who coached St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina from 1948-61. Cremins also coached at Appalachian State from 1976-81 and Georgia Tech from 1982-2000.
The Citadel 81, Appalachian State 63
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Appalachian State University men's basketball fell behind early at The Citadel and was unable to make up enough ground as the Bulldogs shot 61.8 percent from the field and took away an 81-63 win on Thursday night at McAlister Fieldhouse.
Donald Sims scored 19 of the Mountaineers' (8-10, 4-4 SoCon) season-low 25 first-half points and added nine more in the second half to lead all scorers with 28 in the contest.
The senior's strong start was not enough to keep Appalachian afloat early on as the home team raced out to a 28-13 lead and increased it to as many as 19 points before the intermission.
Sims shot 9-of-16 from the floor with four treys and a 6-of-6 mark at the free throw line in the contest, in addition to grabbing two rebounds.
The Apps shot just 29.6 percent in the first half but turned around well after the intermission with a 51.6 clip in the second half to even out at 41.4 percent (25-of-58) in the game. ASU was proficient from the foul line throughout the night as well, adding 10-of-11 attempts and adding five three-pointers in 19 shots from beyond the arc.
After a scoreless first half, Petey Hausley sank 6-of-9 attempts in the second half to finish with 12 points and five rebounds. The forward's effort helped cut the deficit down to 12 points midway through the half, but ASU was never able to rally further and pull within single digits.
Cameron Wells led four Bulldogs (7-13, 3-5) in double figures with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting with six rebounds and six of The Citadel's 18 assists. Mike Groselle chipped in 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting with five boards for the Cadets.
The teams tied at 28 rebounds apiece as Andre Williamson pulled in a game-high seven. The junior scored three points in the contest as well.
Anthony Breeze notched a season-high nine points on 3-of-5 shooting with three free throws for the Apps. The junior chipped in four rebounds and a pair of assists as well.
Marcus Wright scored seven points off the bench to accompany three rebounds, an assist and one of ASU's two steals.
Appalachian scored 18 second-chance points from 12 offensive rebounds and scored 12 points off of 12 Citadel turnovers. The Bulldogs held a 44-34 point advantage in the paint but were held without a single fast-break basket.
Furman 74, Samford 55
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Senior Jordan Miller scored 21 points to lead four Paladins in double figures and Furman buried a season-high 15 three-pointers to pull away from Samford, 74-55, in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Thursday evening at Timmons Arena.
The win improved the Paladins to 13-5 overall and 5-2 in the SoCon while Samford slipped to 10-9 overall and 2-5 in league play. Furman's 13-5 record marks its best start since beginning the 1990-91 season with a 14-5 mark on its way to a 20-win campaign and SoCon regular season crown.
Miller, who scored 20 of his game-high 21 in the second half, keyed the decisive run of the game with under 10 minutes to play. Leading 47-46, Furman's Miller buried three-pointers on three of the Paladins' next four possessions to jump start a 15-0 run that upped the margin to 62-46 on Amu Saaka's trey with 6:58 left. The Paladins, 10-of-15 beyond the arc in the second half, did not let the Bulldogs get closer than 12 points the rest of the way while improving to 6-2 all-time versus Samford.
Furman shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half and finished at 55.6 percent (25-45) for the game. The Paladins' 15 treys tied for the third best output beyond the arc in school history and best performance since draining 15 threes in a loss at Chattanooga in 2008.
Miller was 7-of-14 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from three-point range, while adding four rebounds and four assists. Noah States tallied a career-high tying 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting to go with a team-best seven rebounds. Saaka and Darryl Evans each reached double digits with 14 points apiece as the Paladins improved to 12-0 this season when holding the opposition to under 70 points.
Furman limited Samford to just 44% shooting, including 6-of-20 from the three-point line, and outrebounded the Bulldogs 31-17. John Peterson and Gregg Wooten led Samford with 11 points each.
Each team failed to hold a seven-point lead in the first half and the game headed to intermission tied at 30-30. Furman grabbed the lead for good when Miller netted the first of his six second half treys just 29 seconds into the period.
Elon 77, Davidson 70
ELON, N.C. - Drew Spradlin scored 28 points and corralled eight rebounds to lead Elon to a 77-70 Southern Conference men¹s basketball victory over Davidson Thursday night in Alumni Gymnasium.
Clint Mann scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Wildcats (8-11, 2-6 SoCon), and Nik Cochran scored 11. Jake Cohen recorded 10 points and five rebounds, and JP Kuhlman tallied 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Spradlin connected on 10-of-16 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point land for the Phoenix (9-10, 3-5 SoCon) and had 18 points in the first half. Chris Long scored 16 points, making 8-of-13 free throws, and Lucas Troutman posted 11 points and five boards.
The Wildcats led 36-33 at halftime and had a six-point cushion after a pair of Tom Droney free throws midway through the second stanza, which featured five ties and three lead changes. Long and Spradlin hit consecutive triples to erase that deficit and took its first lead since early in the game on a Troutman dunk with 6:49 remaining.
Cochran answered with a triple, but Brett Ervin put Elon ahead for good with a 3-pointer from the wing with 6:12 to go. Leading 67-65 following the last media timeout, Elon used a 6-2 spurt to put some distance between the teams.
After Droney hit a free throw to make the margin five points, Davidson got a defensive stop but couldn¹t score. With Davidson Forced to foul with 34 seconds left, Long hit two free throws to push the lead back to seven.
A dunk by Mann brought the OCats within five again with 22 seconds to go, and Long hit 1-of-2 from the line to give Davidson a last chance. But Cochran missed a triple, and Troutman hit 1-of-2 free throws to finish the scoring.
With the scored tied 14-14 in the first half, Davidson used an 11-3 run to open a 10-point cushion midway through the stanza. Cochran, Cohen and Brendan McKillop capped the stretch with consecutive 3-pointers. Trailing 32-21 with 5:11 left in the period, Elon finished the half on a 12-3 spurt. Spradlin had six points during the run.