Wofford 81, Samford 43
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - On Saturday afternoon, the Wofford men's basketball team used a strong defensive performance to defeat Samford 81-43 at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Terriers limited the Bulldogs to only five field goals in the second half while never trailing in the contest.
Wofford is 10-9 on the season and 7-1 in the Southern Conference and Samford is 10-10 overall and 2-6 in SoCon play. Four Wofford players scored in double figures, led by Noah Dahlman with 24 points. Jamar Diggs scored 14, Kevin Giltner had 13 and Terry Martin added 12 points. Tim Johnson led the squad with 13 rebounds. The Bulldogs were led by Jeffrey Merritt with 15 points.
Both teams opened the game with three pointers, which was followed by a lay-up and free throw by Noah Dahlman for a 6-3 lead at 16:28. A three pointer by Kevin Giltner pushed the lead to four at 9-5 and the Terriers never looked back. The lead was 21-9 at the 8:53 mark, but back-to-back threes by the Bulldogs cut the advantage to 21-15. Jamar Diggs got the lead back to ten points at 27-17 with 4:59 remaining in the first half. At the break, the Terriers led 39-24.
In the second half, Wofford was able to use a 9-0 run that included five straight points by Terry Martin to take a 57-32 lead with 14:00 left in the half. Another run of seven straight points the concluded with a three by Jamar Diggs made it a 67-37 game with nine minutes remaining.
After going up 35 points with another 7-0 run, the Terriers cleared the bench with four minutes remaining in the game. Aerris Smith scored his first points of the season with 2:52 on the clock and Matt Steelman hit a three with 1:10 left in the game for the final points in the 81-43 win. It was the second straight 30-point win for the Terriers after a 32 points win on Thursday night against Chattanooga.
Wofford shot 50.8 percent from the floor and was 42.1 percent from three. Wofford had a 48 to 21 advantage in rebounds and the Terriers forced 12 turnovers.
Furman 85, Chattanooga 59
GREENVILLE, S.C. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost its second game on the South Carolina upstate swing falling 85-59 at Furman Saturday afternoon. Chattanooga, the Southern Conference North Division leader, is now 11-10 and 7-2 in the league, while the Paladins improve to 14-5, 6-2 in the SoCon South.
Jeremy Saffore and DeAntre Jefferson led the Mocs with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Keegan Bell added to his league-leading assist total with seven despite the cold shooting day for UTC.
Amu Saaka was the Paladins attack with 30 points and eight rebounds. Colin Reddick came off the bench to chip in 10 points and eight boards.
Furman jumped out early with Noah States scoring its first seven points in pushing to a 7-2 lead. After a Saffore layup cut the deficit to 10-8 at 15:02, the Paladins went to work. It built the lead to 10, 21-11, behind Saaka and Reddick, with Saaka's jumper at 7:34. That basket capped a 13-3 run for the Paladins.
Jeremy Saffore's three-point play at 7:18 gave life to the Mocs cutting the margin to seven, 21-14. It ended a spurt of nearly eight minutes with just one field goal for UTC.
But it was all Paladins from there. FU closed the half with a 16-7 run to take a 37-21 lead into the break. Saaka powered the attack with 15 first half points.
The Mocs tried to get things going with a trapping defense to open the second frame. After a three-point play by Saaka at 18:26 put the Paladins up 20, 43-23, UTC struck with the press.
It started with an Omar Wattad layup off an offensive rebound at 18:14 and subsequent free throw. That was followed by a Ricky Taylor steal and layup just 13 seconds later to make 43-28 at 18:01.
Furman responded with a 17-8 run to retake control building the lead to 24, 60-36, with 12:21 to go on a Justin Dehm jumper. Five different Paladins scored during the outburst.
Chattanooga closed the lead to 17 with seven straight points as a Troy Cage jumper, 60-43, at 10:02. But it would get no closer as Furman stayed on the gas to claim the 85-59 win.
After a season-best offensive performance Monday night, UTC had its second straight subpar shooting performance. Chattanooga managed just 33.9 percent (20-59) from the field, 13.6 percent (3-22) from three-point range and 51.6 percent (16-31) from the free throw line.
Furman on the other hand was sharp offensively. The Paladins shot 49.2 percent (29-59) overall, 41.9 percent (13-31) from behind the arc and 66.7 percent (14-21) at the line.
UTC managed to win the rebounding battle 42-39. Jefferson had eight, Saffore seven (tying season high) and Burroughs six.
College of Charleston 73, Appalachian State 64
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Mountaineers fell behind early against the potent College of Charleston offense and despite outscoring the Cougars in the second half, Appalachian State University men's basketball suffered a 73-64 defeat on Saturday afternoon at the Carolina First Arena.
Appalachian trailed by as many as 15 points early in the second half before cutting the deficit to single digits on four occasions. The Apps never pulled closer than nine points after the intermission as the Cougars seemingly always found an answer to Mountaineer runs.
The Apps (8-11, 4-5 SoCon) shot 37.5 percent in the first half and 40 percent after the break to finish at 39.3 percent with three treys in nine attempts. Charleston shot a scorching 54.8 percent in the opening period but was cooled off by the ASU defenders to finish the game at 44.8 percent.
Donald Sims led Appalachian for a second-straight game with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting with four of ASU's eight assists and three rebounds.
CofC (14-6, 7-1) won the battle of the boards by a slim 37-35 margin, paced by nine rebounds by Jeremy Simmons. Simmons led the Cougars with 18 points and scored his 1,000th career point in the second half.
Anthony Breeze made his first start of the season for the Black and Gold and produced a career-best 10 points in the first half before sustaining a head injury. The junior added a pair of rebounds in 15 minutes on the floor.
Andre Williamson came off the bench for the first time this season and responded with 10 rebounds, four points and a huge block on CofC's Andrew Goudelock in the second half after the Mountaineers cut the score to 55-46 with 13 minutes to play.
CofC's newly-minted career scoring leader was limited to a modest 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting for the night with just one three-pointer in seven attempts. It was Goudelock's second-lowest output of the season and lowest in conference play this season.
CofC shot just 26.1 percent from downtown on the night. ASU totaled eight assists and eight turnovers while CofC notched 10 assists to seven turnovers, including four Mountaineer steals. Jeremi Booth led ASU with two steals and added nine points and five rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.
Omar Carter started sluggish in the first half, missing his first five shots before sinking 4-of-10 field goals after the break to finish with 10 points, eight rebounds and a pair of assists.
The home team's 73 points marked its lowest in eight league contests and snapped a string of five games with at least 76 points, but improved to 7-1 in home contests on the season.
Charleston jumped out to an early double-digit lead before Sims got rolling and scored 12 of ASU's final 19 points in the first half as the Apps trailed 42-31 at the intermission.
The Mountaineers return home to Boone on Thursday night for a Southern Conference final rematch from last season as Wofford visits in the only regular season meeting between the teams. The game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast regionally on SportSouth.
Elon 84, Georgia Southern 62
ELON, N.C. - Lucas Troutman dunks shook the rim on several occasions, bringing the Alumni Gym capacity crowd to its feet as the Elon men's basketball team rolled to an 84-62 victory over the visiting Georgia Southern Eagles in a Southern Conference showdown on Saturday night. Troutman came off the bench and poured in a career-high 17 points while Drew Spradlin added a game-high 21 with his 15th double-figure performance of the season.
Elon (10-10, 4-5) won its second straight contest and improved to 7-2 at Alumni Gym this season. The 22-point victory is Elon's largest-ever over a SoCon opponent since joining the league in 2003-04. Georgia Southern dropped to 4-17, 0-8 on the year.
The Phoenix was active on defense all night, forcing 24 Georgia Southern turnovers and racking up 10 steals. Senior guard Chris Long forced five miscues, tying his personal best, as Elon scored 33 points off Georgia Southern turnovers. Spradlin, who is averaging over 19 ppg against league opponents this year, led the squad on the boards as well with seven rebounds. Rookie Ryley Beaumont earned his first career start and contributed six points and five boards. Eleven Elon players scored in the victory.
Georgia Southern was led by Jelanie Hewitt's 18 points. The guard knocked down 7-of-12 from the field.
Troutman ignited the crowd early with two dunks, including a one-handed slam that gave the Phoenix a 20-11 advantage with 11:05 on the clock. The rookie scored eight of Elon's first 20 points in the contest. The Phoenix's stifling defense limited GSU to only one field goal over the next five minutes as Elon made good from the free throw line and pushed its lead to 28-14 with 7:27 to go. The Phoenix hit 13-of-17 from the charity stripe in the opening 20 minutes of action.
The Elon lead grew to 15 at the 2:29 mark before Hewitt knocked down a three-pointer that sparked a quick 7-0 run and trimmed the home team advantage to 36-28 with less than a minute to play. Elon answered and a Sebastian Koch trey to close the half put the Phoenix up 40-28.
The Phoenix pounded the glass in the first half, outgaining the Eagles, 23-15. Troutman and Spradlin each scored 11 points in the period.
Georgia Southern got off to a quick start to begin the final stanza, capitalizing on Phoenix turnovers and using an 8-3 run to make it a seven point game, 43-36, at the 17:38 mark. Elon wasn't fazed and scored nine of the next 11 points, capped by a Troutman dunk off a Spradlin steal that made it 54-38 in favor of the home team.
Elon fed off the energized crowd and ran off a 25-4 streak to put the game out of reach. Beaumont sparked the crowd, throwing down a dunk off an offensive board and put Elon on top, 66-40, at the 9:11 mark. Georgia Southern would never get closer than 21 for the remainder of the contest.
Elon shot 41.2 percent from the field, scoring 34 points in the paint. The Phoenix got to the line 30 times compared to 21 attempts by Georgia Southern - Elon is 9-1 when it gets to the stripe more times than its opponent.
The Citadel 68, Western Carolina 46
CHARLESTON, S.C.- The Citadel Basketball team extended its winning streak to three consecutive games behind Cameron Wells' game-high 27 points in front of 2,143 in attendance at McAlister Field House. Fellow senior Austin Dahn also reached double figures, scoring 13 points, to become the third player on the current squad to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau. Mike Groselle rounded out double-digit scorers with 15 points for the Cadets who had another solid outing from the floor, hitting 25-of-43 (.581).
Wells continued on his scoring tear with 19 or more points in each of the last four games, hitting 9-of-13 from the floor and a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc against WCU. The senior guard also managed perfection (7-7) from the charity stripe, joining backcourt teammate Zach Urbanus who was 4-of-4. Groselle powered past the Catamounts defense to hit 7-of-9 field goal attempts, highlighting a post game that finished with 24 points in the paint. Dahn completed the trio by converting 5-of-6 field goals, hitting a pair from beyond the arc, and tied Groselle for a team-high six rebounds. Urbanus was the catalyst to the offense with six assists, while Wells was instrumental on the defensive end with four steals. The victory moves The Citadel to 8-13 overall and 4-5 in the Southern Conference.
Harouna Mutombo finished as the only Western Carolina player in double figures with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He was followed by starters Trey Sumler (nine points), Mike Williams (eight points) and fellow reserve Keaton Cole who tallied seven points. Sumler snatched a game-high seven boards, finishing with two on the offensive glass. Held to 3-of-18 (.167) from beyond the arc, WCU struggled from field goal range (17-56, 30.4 percent).
Building a 43-15 lead at the intermission, The Citadel closely matched Western Carolina in scoring in the start of the second half. Wells, who scored four points over the first 5:23, combined with Dahn and Groselle to give the Bulldogs a 52-23 lead.
Williams scored six of the Catamounts 18 points during a run that took 7:32 off the clock to pull within 57-41 of The Citadel. Williams hit a 3-pointer and took advantage of an old fashion three point play when he drew a foul by Dahn to make for the slimmest margin of the half.
The Citadel broke through with a layup by Wells and after drawing a foul from Williams, Dahn knocked down the front of a one-and-one to make for career benchmark 1,000th point with 5:28 remaining. The Dogs hit six free throws over the next 4:15 of the contest to make for the 66-44 lead. Senior John Reynolds capped off Citadel scoring with a turnaround jumper from the baseline with 18 seconds remaining for the 68-46 final.
For the third straight half, dating back to Thursday's meeting against Appalachian State, the Bulldogs shot 60-pecent or better (.679), converting 19-of-28 from the floor. Wells pumped in 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field, along with a pair of 3-pointers. He was joined in double figures by Groselle (10 points), while Dahn managed 4-of-4 from the floor, including a trey, to close with nine points at the intermission.
Falling behind early, 4-0, the Cadets responded with a 13-2 run highlighted by seven points from Wells to assume a 13-6 lead. Mutombo broke a 3:05 drought when he knocked down a 3-pointer for the Catamounts. The Citadel retaliated by hitting six of the game's next seven shots, including a pair of 3-pointers by Eykyn and Dahn, over a three minute span to take a 27-10 lead.
The Bulldogs followed a Gordon layup with four straight buckets, including a pair by Wells, to assume the 36-12 advantage. The Citadel closed out the first half with points by Dahn, Groselle and Wells to take a 43-15 lead at the intermission. The 15 points is the fewest first half points allowed by The Citadel this season, breaking an earlier mark of 20 points scored by Georgia SoutHern on Dec. 2.