Appalachian State 74, Davidson 66
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Omar Carter led all scorers with 25 points, and Appalachian State shot 55 percent in the second half to earn a 74-66 Southern Conference men's basketball victory over Davidson Wednesday night in Belk Arena.
Jake Cohen led the Wildcats (7-7, 1-2 SoCon) with 18 points and nine rebounds, and Brendan McKillop scored 12 points, all in the second half. JP Kuhlman finished with nine points and five assists, and De'Mon Brooks scored eight.
Carter was 9-for-17 from the floor in the game and 6-for-8 in the second period. He added a team-high seven rebounds for the Mountaineers (6-7, 2-1 SoCon), and Donald Sims netted 14 points and four assists.
The Wildcats whittled an 11-point Mountaineer lead down to 62-57 following a 3-pointer on the wing from Kuhlman with two minutes to go. The OCats played good defense, but Carter knocked down a triple from the corner with the shot clock winding down, pushing the lead to eight with 1:20 remaining.
The Wildcats were within six points again with 39 seconds left after a Cohen layup, and Carter missed two free throws at the other end to leave a small opening. Davidson tried to get a 3-point attempt for McKillop, but the Mountaineers were overplaying the 3-point line, so he whipped it inside to Cohen.
The sophomore's jumper rimmed out and the rebound went out of bounds off of Davidson. Mitch Woods got an easy layup off a long pass on the inbounds play with 22 seconds left to put the game away.
The score was tied 29-29 at halftime and knotted again at 37-37 early in the second half, when the Mountaineers used a 10-2 run to open an eight-point advantage. Carter had four points during the run, and Sims netted six.
The Wildcats got the margin down to 53-48 with 8:51 left and had chances to get closer but came away with empty offensive possessions. The Mountaineers went on a 9-3 run to open a 62-51 advantage, their largest of the game, with 3:39 remaining.
Appalachian State scored 16 points off of 16 Davidson turnovers, and the Wildcats, who entered the game shooting 74 percent from the free-throw line, went 10-for-18 (56 percent).
Western Carolina 81, Georgia Southern 58
STATESBORO, Ga. - Trey Sumler led four Catamounts in double figures with a career-high 23 points as Western Carolina cruised to an 81-58 victory over Georgia Southern in Southern Conference action at the Hanner Field House.
Harouna Mutombo banked home a lay-up with five minutes remaining in the first half to hand WCU a double-digit lead it would never relinquish the remainder of the game.
Wednesday night's win not only snapped WCU's six-game seasonal winless drought, but also halted a six-game slide against Georgia Southern in Statesboro. The victory represented the Catamounts' first road victory over the Eagles since 1998.
For Sumler, it was his fourth-straight, double-digit scoring outing. The Rocky Mount, N.C., native also dished out a career-best six assists and swiped three of WCU's 11 steals. Senior Richie Gordon finished with 18 points and five boards, while classmate Mike Williams scored a dozen off the bench with two steals and a pair of assists.
Freshman Brandon Boggs rounded out the four in double figures with 10 points and a team-best six rebounds.
GSU's Ben Drayton connected on three free throws after being fouled behind the arc to close the Eagles to within six, 25-19, with six minutes remaining before intermission. But the Catamounts embarked on a 19-to-5 run over a four-minute stretch and combined to outscore GSU 23-to-9 to close the half to lead by 20.
Out of the halftime locker room, Jelani Hewitt buried a 3-pointer to pull the Eagles back within 17, 50-33, but it would be as close as Georgia Southern would get as the Catamounts used a 14-to-2 spurt to pull out to a game-high 29-point, 64-35, advantage with 15:21 remaining in regulation. Western Carolina's lead would never dip below 22 points the remainder of the game.
Freshman Eric Ferguson led two Eagles in double figures with 21 points including nine from the free throw line while Drayton chipped in 11 points.
WCU shot a season-high 55-percent (31-of-56) from the field as it handed Georgia Southern its fifth loss in six games, forcing the Eagles into 21 turnovers.
Western Carolina will play its first home game since the end of November this Saturday as it hosts the Davidson Wildcats in the first game of a Catamount hoops twin bill. WCU will entertain the Wildcats, which fell at home to Appalachian State on Wednesday night, beginning at Noon on Saturday in a regionally-televised game on SportSouth.
NC State 87, Elon 72
GREENSBORO, N.C. - After leading for the entire first half, the Elon men's basketball team could not withstand a strong second-half surge by the NC State Wolfpack, falling 87-72 in non-conference action at the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday night. The Pack (10-4) had five players in double figures and shot 62.5 percent on the night to ward off the pesky Phoenix (6-8).
Elon's Chris Long tallied a game-high 20 points that included a 9-of-9 performance from the free throw line. The senior also had five assists - he is averaging 7.3 apg over the last three contests. Drew Spradlin added 12 points and rookie Jack Isenbarger scored in double figures for the 10th time this season with 10 points. State's C.J. Leslie was nearly perfect from the floor on 7-of-8 shooting for a team-best 19 points and was one board away from a double-double.
The Phoenix got off to a quick start, frustrating NC State into ball-handling errors and jumping out to an 8-1 advantage. The Pack didn't score its first bucket until the 16:49 mark and then made a quick run to tie the game at 10 with Lorenzo Brown's fast break dunk off an Elon turnover with five minutes gone by in the contest.
Elon responded, confidently draining five of its first eight three-point attempts and using a 16-6 stretch to take a 10-point lead, 26-16, with 11:16 remaining in the opening stanza. A scoreless drought would plague the Phoenix over the next five minutes and the visitors scored nine unanswered to trim the advantage to one, 26-25, with 6:04 before the break.
A Roger Dugas long ball at the 5:40 mark finally got the Phoenix back on the board and a Grable 15-footer pushed the lead back to 35-29 with less than three minutes to play before the half. A four-point Phoenix possession ensued after State personal and technical fouls put Long at the stripe for four shots. The guard boosted the Elon lead to 39-29.
Six straight points by the Wolfpack made it a four-point game with just over a minute remaining and Elon would head to the locker room with a 41-37 advantage.
Elon outworked the Pack on the glass in the first half, holding an 18-14 rebounding edge. The Phoenix was 6-of-12 from downtown and hit all 11 free throw attempts. NC State also struggled from the line, managing only 9-of-18 in the first 20 minutes of play.
State stepped up its defensive pressure in the final period and Leslie capped a 9-3 run with a dunk that brought the Pack contingency to its feet for the team's first lead of the night at 46-44 with 17:50 on the clock.
Elon pulled to within one on three occasions, but went cold from the floor for four minutes as NC State pushed its lead to 69-58 with 7:18 to go. Spradlin knocked in a trey to halt the run, but the Wolfpack's Tracy Smith converted an old-fashioned three-point play to keep the lead in double figures.
Down 74-61 at the 6:22 mark, Long scored four straight, turning a steal into points and putting Elon within nine. Smith missed two foul shots on the next Pack possession, but a Brown put-back off the offensive board kept momentum from swinging the Phoenix's way. Elon would claw within eight, but could get no closer against the ACC foe.
NC State shot 16-of-25 from the field in the second half and outgained Elon on the glass. State's 15-of-18 second-half performance from the stripe was also critical in changing the game. Elon was held to 8-of-27 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
Elon will get into the heart of Southern Conference play when it hosts the Samford Bulldogs in Alumni Gym on Saturday, January 8 at 2 p.m.