Wofford 78, The Citadel 60
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Wofford College men's basketball team defeated The Citadel 78-60 on Thursday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Terriers had five players score in double figures and had at least a ten point lead the entire second half.
Wofford is 6-8 on the season and 3-0 in the Southern Conference and The Citadel is 5-10 overall and 1-2 in SoCon play. The Terriers were led by with Noah Dahlman with 15 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Kevin Giltner scored 13, Cameron Rundles and Jamar Diggs each added 12 points, and Brad Loesing scored ten points in the win. For The Citadel, Cameron Wells had 17 points, while Mike Groselle had a double-double with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
The Bulldogs scored first in the game, but it would prove to be their only lead in the contest. Six minutes into the first half, the score was 9-8 in favor of the Terriers when a10-0 run that included six points by Noah Dahlman made it a 19-8 score with 9:16 left in the half. A long three by Kevin Giltner with 6:41 in the clock made it a 26-12 game.
Wofford was able to push the lead to 15 points at the three-minute mark with a 33-18 score. The Bulldogs however scored five of the last seven points in the half to make it a 35-25 game at the break.
To open the second half, the Terriers scored the first five points to go up 40-25 at the 18:31 mark. The lead was nineteen points with 13:48 left in the half after a lay-up by Cameron Rundles and the score was 58-40 at the midpoint of the second half.
The Citadel slowly cut the lead back down to 65-53 with five minutes left in the game. However just four minutes later the Terriers held their largest advantage of the night at 76-56 after a bucket by Cameron Rundles. Two free throws by Taylor Wagener with 57 seconds on the clock kept the lead at 78-58, but the Bulldogs scored the final points of the night for a 78-60 score.
College of Charleston 76, Furman 72
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Senior Andrew Goudelock scored 31 points, including six in the final 41 seconds, to lift College of Charleston over Furman, 76-72, in Southern Conference men's basketball action before a crowd 2,078 Thursday evening at Timmons Arena.
With the win, the Cougars improved to 10-5 overall and remained perfect at 3-0 in SoCon play. Furman dropped to 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the league as Charleston handed the Paladins their first home loss in six games this season at Timmons Arena.
After Furman's Amu Saaka knotted the game at 70-70 on a layup with 2:40 to play, the Paladins came up with stops on the Cougars' next two possessions despite Charleston earning second chances on offensive rebounds each time. Antwaine Wiggins, however, rejected Saaka's driving layup on one Paladin possession and Darryl Evans could not connect on Furman's next trip.
Goudelock made the Paladins pay by shaking loose from his defender and draining a 14-foot jumper from the right elbow with 41 seconds left to put Charleston ahead 72-70. After Saaka missed a trey, Goudelock converted on two trips to the foul line to stretch the CofC advantage to four points.
Saaka again failed to connect from long range, but Goudelock missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds to play. Evans went coast-to-coast for a layup to pull Furman within two once again before Goudelock drained another pair of free throws with 2.5 seconds left to seal the verdict.
Goudelock connected on 10-of-19 field goals and 9-of-11 free throws while adding six rebounds and eight assists for the Cougars who shot a blistering 55.8 percent (29-52) from the floor. Willis Hall and Donavan Monroe joined Goudelock in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Hall grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to help Charleston to a 32-27 edge on the glass.
Saaka netted a season-high 27 points on 10-of-23 shooting to pace the Paladins and Justin Dehm added 12 points on the strength of a 4-for-4 night beyond the arc. Furman shot 44.4% from the floor, including 7-of-22 from three-point range, and 9-of-11 at the foul line.
Charleston shot 60 percent in the first half to carry a 38-37 lead into intermission. The lead changed hands six times in the first 10 minutes of the second half before CofC used a 7-0 spurt to grab a 61-55 lead on David Lawrence's trey with 8:30 left. Furman trimmed the lead to one point on four occasions before tying the game at 70-70, but never regained the lead.
The loss was Furman's sixth straight defeat against College of Charleston and 24th in the last 27 meetings between the schools.
Samford 68, UNCG 64
GREENSBORO, N.C. --- The Samford University basketball team battled its way to a 68-64 Southern Conference road win versus the UNC Greensboro Spartans on Thursday as the Bulldogs improved to 4-2 in away games this season. The contest was Samford's first time playing in the Greensboro Coliseum.
With the win, Samford (10-5, 2-1 SoCon) registered its fifth victory in six games and improved to 6-1 all-time against UNC Greensboro (0-13, 0-3 SoCon).
Samford led by as many as 15 points throughout the first half in Thursday's game and took a 40-27 advantage into halftime. UNC Greensboro then opened the second half of play with a 13-0 run and evened the score at 40-40 with 15:04 remaining in the game.
During the Spartans' second-half rally, sophomore guard Korey Van Dussen scored 11 straight points, including a trio of 3-point baskets. UNC Greensboro's native of Zeeland, Mich., finished the game with a team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.
Samford finished the contest with three players scoring in double figures as junior Jeffrey Merritt led the way with 17 points, seven rebounds and turned in a 7-of-14 performance from the field.
Senior Josh Davis followed with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and increased his career total in scoring to 990 points. With his next 10 points, he will become the 22nd player in school history to reach the prestigious 1,000-point plateau.
The Bulldogs' Josh Bedwell added 13 points and knocked down a trio of clutch 3-point baskets. Arguably, his most important 3-pointer of the game was his deep basket from the left flank that ended UNC Greensboro's 13-0 run to open the second half.
After Bedwell's momentum-changing 3-pointer at 14:42 in the second half, Samford went on a quick 11-5 run to take a 51-45 advantage with 10:43 remaining in the game. During the Bulldogs' rally, Bedwell scored five points, Merritt added a pair of buckets and Gregg Wooten scored on a driving layup.
Despite Samford's run, UNC Greensboro charged back to tally six straight points and again evened the score at 51-51 with 7:08 remaining. The Spartans used a pair of free throws during the stretch from Trevis Simpson and received back-to-back dunks from David Williams and Aloysius Henry.
Bedwell once again answered with a key 3-point shot and propelled the Bulldogs to a 60-54 lead with 4:40 left to play. Samford's sharpshooter from Hartselle, Ala., finished 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Bedwell also grabbed four rebounds and handed out four assists in 28 minutes of play.
The Bulldogs maintained a four-point lead down the stretch before UNC Greensboro's Simpson threw down a put-back dunk to trim Samford's advantage to 62-60 with 38 seconds remaining.
On the ensuing possession, the Bulldogs broke the Spartans' full-court press and redshirt freshman Drew Windler slammed home a two-handed dunk to go up by four points, 64-60. Van Dussen quickly answered with a 16-foot jumper with 24 seconds left in the game, but Samford closed out the victory with a pair of free throws and a breakaway layup from Davis.
Davis, the Bulldogs' native of Lubbock, Texas, is the leading free-throw shooter in the SoCon and has made 94.1 percent of his attempts (32-of-34) this season, including his last 11.
As a team, Samford shot 75 percent from the charity stripe Thursday and improved its record to 4-0 this season when the Bulldogs shoot at least 70 percent from the line. UNC Greensboro finished 9-of-17 for a 52.9-percent outing from the free-throw line.
Samford only committed 11 turnovers and registered 16 assists against the Spartans. Despite being out-rebounded 34-31, the Bulldogs outscored UNC Greensboro in the paint 30-18.