PEORIA, Ill. - Keaton Cole drained a floating runner on the left side of the lane with 5.7 seconds remaining Tuesday night to lift Western Carolina over Bradley, 68-67, in nonconference action. The tightly contested game featured 15 ties and eight lead changes, and was not decided until the final horn in the Carter Arena.
Trailing by six points (62-56) at the four minute mark, WCU outscored the Braves 12-to-5 to close the game to rally for the victory. Redshirt sophomore Trey Sumler started the rally after being fouled on a 3-pointer attempt, stepping to the line to bury all three free throws to close back within three. Following a missed shot on the defensive end, Cole tied the game at 62 with his third 3-pointer of the game.
Knotted again at 64 following an offensive rebound slam dunk by Ishmael Hollis, the Flowery Branch, Ga., native then came up with a steal on the other end with less than 90 seconds to play. On offense, WCU worked the ball inside to sophomore Tawaski King who made a power move past Bradley post Jordan Prosser for two of his six points to push the Catamounts ahead, 66-64.
Prosser exacted a bit of revenge inside the game's final 30 seconds, dunking a missed shot on an offensive rebound to give Bradley a one-point, 67-66, lead at the 28-second mark. After a series of timeouts, WCU ended up with the ball in Cole's hands. With 5.7 seconds showing on the clock, the Toronto, Ontario, native worked his way into the paint and got off a floating runner that found the range for the one-point Catamount edge.
On the ensuing possession, Bradley guard Walt Lemon Jr., took the inbounds pass amidst Catamount pressure and drove up the court. Just inside the 3-point line, Lemon fumbled the basketball forward, nearly losing it out of bounds. Instead, it ended up in the hands of Dyricus Simms-Edwards who launched an off-balance jumper from the left wing as time expired, clanging it long off the back-side iron.
Both Cole and Sumler were held scoreless in the opening 20 minutes, but combined to record 24 of WCU's 37 second half points in securing the road victory, the Catamounts' third-straight over Bradley. Cole led four in double figures with a team-high 13 points while Sumler added 11 points, eight of which came from the free throw line.
Redshirt senior Harouna Mutombo - WCU's catalyst for much of the first half - scored 11 points with nine rebounds and four assists in the win while Brandon Boggs finished with 10. Hollis, making his first collegiate start, responded with career highs of nine points and 10 rebounds including three on the offensive end.
Bradley (5-6) likewise put four in double figures with Simms-Edwards pacing the squad with 17 points and both of the Braves' 3-pointers. Prosser finished with 15 points and eight boards, while Lemon Jr., and Taylor Brown scored 11 and 10, respectively.
Through the opening 20 minutes, Western Carolina was able to pull ahead by five points early only to see the Braves respond and take their largest lead of the first half at four points inside of five minutes. With Bradley poised to carry a three-point lead into the halftime locker room, sophomore Preston Ross buried a 3-pointer from the left corner in the closing seconds for three of his six points to send teams off the court tied at 31.
All told, neither team was able to pull away in the see-saw affair with both building largest leads of just six points.
Presbyterian 75, Furman 71
CLINTON, S.C. - Senior Al'Lonzo Coleman scored 24 points and Presbyterian converted on all 19 of its second half free throw attempts to hold off Furman, 75-71, in non-conference men's basketball action on Tuesday night at the Templeton Center.
Presbyterian (5-5) led 73-63 with under three minutes remaining when Furman mounted a furious rally. Dominic Early made the front end of a two-shot foul and, after a pair of offensive rebounds, Brandon Sebirumbi scored in the paint to trim the margin to 73-66 with 2:10 to play. Jordan Loyd, who netted a career-best nine points on the night, stole the ball from Pierre Miller on the ensuing possession and buried a pair of free throws on the other end to pull the Paladins within 73-68.
The Blue Hose worked deep into the shot clock on their next possession, but Josh Johnson missed a three and Loyd answered on the other end by draining a triple from the top of the key with 43 seconds left to cut the PC lead to 73-71. Once again Presbyterian worked the shot clock down before Khalid Mutakabbir fired a free throw line jumper that missed. Loyd grabbed the board and hurled a long pass to Bobby Austin, but the senior was unable to catch up with the full court toss giving PC the basketball with 5.2 seconds to play.
The Paladins (6-5) fouled Eric Washington on the inbounds and the guard completed PC's 26-of-28 night at the foul line by converting on both shots for the final 75-71 margin.
Furman led by as many as nine points before carrying a 37-33 lead into halftime. The Blue Hose, who trailed 37-28 with four minutes to play in the second half, continued a run in which they outscored the Paladins 19-5 to take a 47-42 lead on Coleman's layup with 15:14 to play.
The Paladins battled back with a 10-4 run of their own to regain the lead at 52-51 on Sebirumbi's three-point play with 11:47 remaining, but PC responded with a 10-0 run of its own to grab the lead for good.
Furman shot a season-best 53.3 percent from the floor, including 6-of-13 shooting beyond the arc, and made good on 17-of-24 trips to the foul line. Sebirumbi paced the Paladins with a career-high 20 points while Bryson Barnes reached double figures with 10 points and a team-high five rebounds.
Coleman, 8-of-12 from the field, added 11 rebounds to go with his 24 points while Mutakabbir totaled 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor and a 6-for-7 effort at the foul line. The Blue Hose shot 46.9 percent from the field despite connecting on only 3-of-13 three-point attempts.
PC outscored Furman 40-28 in the paint and 12-6 on second chance points.
#3 Kentucky 82, Samford 50
LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Against its highest-ranked opponent in over five years, the Samford University basketball team dropped an 82-50 decision against the third-ranked Kentucky Wildcats Tuesday in front of 21,984 fans at Rupp Arena. The attendance was the largest to watch a Samford basketball game in school history.
With the loss, Samford (3-7) had its two-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 1-2 when playing on the road this season. The Bulldogs will next be in action after Christmas in a road matchup at Sam Houston State on Dec. 28.
Kentucky (10-1), which was Samford's highest-ranked opponent since the Bulldogs opened the 2006-07 season at No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Florida on Nov. 10, 2006, extended its home winning streak to 41 games Tuesday. Under the tutelage of Head Coach John Calipari, the Wildcats have not been defeated in Rupp Arena.
Kentucky scored the first 11 points of the game and jumped out to an early 15-5 advantage following a layup from Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. At the 12:48 mark in the first half, Samford used a jumper from Drew Windler and a driving layup from Jeffrey Merritt to trim the Wildcats' lead to 20-9.
The Bulldogs continued to grind out buckets in the opening period despite only shooting 9.1 percent from 3-point range. Samford finished the first half 1-of-11 from beyond the arc, but following a layup from Windler and the team's lone 3-point basket from Tyler Hood, the Bulldogs trailed Kentucky 29-18 at the third media timeout.
The Wildcats closed out the first half with a 16-4 run to take a 45-22 advantage into the intermission.
Samford played better in the second half of play and was only outscored by Kentucky, 37-28. The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 43.5 percent from the field, but only 18.8 percent from 3-point range (3-for-16).
Windler and Hood both scored 11 points to boost Samford's offensive attack, while the Wildcats finished with four players scoring in double figures.
Kentucky's Doron Lamb tallied a game-high 26 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field and Darius Miller added 17 points and five assists. The Wildcats' Marquis Teague and Kidd-Gilchrist finished with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Samford's Windler scored his 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, while Hood went 3-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe. Senior Matthew Friday came off the bench to provide a spark for the Bulldogs as the 6-foot-8 center scored eight points on a 4-of-5 shooting performance. His lone miss came from beyond the arc.
Kaylin Johnson also came off the bench for Samford and dropped in seven points in only 14 minutes of playing time. Merritt followed with six points, five rebounds and a pair of assists in a game-high 35 minutes of game action.
Samford's bench outscored Kentucky's reserves 22-7, while the Wildcats did their damage on second-chance points (18-4) and points off turnovers (18-5).
Kentucky finished the game with seven blocked shots, but was held below its season average of 10 per outing. Samford only committed 14 turnovers Tuesday, while the Wildcats committed seven miscues.
#4 Louisville 69, College of Charleston 62
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The College of Charleston had No. 4 Louisville on the ropes for much of the game and just missed a chance to be the second Southern Conference team to knock off a Top 25 opponent in as many days, falling 69-62 on Tuesday night at the KFC Yum! Center.
Charleston (9-2) led 59-58 with 4:03 to play but Louisville scored the next eight points after wearing down the Cougars with a full-court assault on defense.
Pitino said Kyle Kuric's move to the middle of the College of Charleston's zone late in the game was the game's critical move. He credited his son and assistant coach, Richard Pitino, with the idea.
The move paid off as Kuric hit a go-ahead jumper in the paint with 3:12 to play, giving Louisville a 60-59 lead. It was the start of an 8-0 run over a 70-second span for the Cardinals (11-0).
Kuric finished with 17 points and Gorgui Dieng added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Cardinals.
Antwaine Wiggins had 23 points and seven rebounds for Charleston (9-2), which tied a season-high with 12 3-pointers.
The Cardinals trailed 57-55 with 5:06 to play but went on a 9-2 run over the next 3 minutes, capped by a 3-pointer by Chris Smith that put them ahead 66-59 with 2:06 left.
A layup by Trent Wiedeman rolled out after breaking Louisville's full-court press with 2:54 left that would have given the Cougars a one-point lead. Louisville pushed the ball up the court and Russ Smith hit a transition 3-pointer 6 seconds later to make it 64-60.
Louisville trailed at the half for just the second time this season.
Andrew Lawrence nailed a 24-footer to give the Cougars a 31-30 lead with 2:51 remaining and later hit Wiggins with a no-look wraparound for the assist on the half's final basket.
Louisville faced an eight-point deficit with 15:06 remaining but cut the lead to 49-47 on 3 by Russ Smith less than 2 minutes later. Charleston's Matt Sundberg answered at 12:58 to stretch the lead to five but Louisville's pressure defense held the Cougars in check for the next 5 minutes.
That sparked a 6-0 Louisville run, punctuated by consecutive dunks from Dieng and Behanan to give Louisville a 53-52 lead with 8:25 to play.
Charleston ended its scoring drought and retook the lead on Anthony Stitt's 3-pointer at 7:52 before Kuric made a 13-footer in the lane to tie the game at 55-55 with 5:30 to play. Charleston led 59-58 after Wiggins' two free throws with 4:03 left but Louisville scored eight consecutive points, starting with a jumper by Kuric at the 3:12 mark.
Down 66-62, Wiedeman missed a layup with 36 seconds remaining and Louisville hit three of its final four free throws to close out the game.