College of Charleston 79, Wofford 54
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Wofford men's basketball team had a lead at the half but the rest of the game was all College of Charleston in a 79-54 defeat at Carolina First Arena on Thursday night. The Terriers led 34-32 at the break, but the Cougars outscored Wofford 47-20 in the second half, which included six three pointers.
Wofford is 12-11 on the season and 9-3 in the Southern Conference and the College of Charleston is 16-7 overall and 9-2 in SoCon play. The Cougars move into first place in the Southern Conference South Division. The Terriers were led by Noah Dahlman with 22 points and nine rebounds. The Cougars were led by Andrew Goudelock with 25 points and Antwaine Wiggins with 13 points. Trent Wiedeman had eight rebounds for Charleston.
The Cougars opened the game with two three pointers. Wofford answered with a couple of buckets from Noah Dahlman, however the College of Charleston had a 12-4 lead four minutes into the game. The Terriers scored the next six points to make it a two-point game three minutes later.
The game was tied at 21, 23, 25, and 27 before the Terriers took their first lead of the game at 29-27 with 3:32 left in the first half on a bucket by Noah Dahlman. The Cougars regained the lead with a three by Andrew Lawrence, but Dahlman answered again to take a one-point lead. After Tim Johnson hit a bucket and free throw, the lead was four points. The College of Charleston added one more bucket before the break and the Terriers had a 34-32 half time lead.
To open the second half, the Terriers turned it over twice and Andrew Goudelock hit two three pointers to take a 38-34 lead. The Cougars had an 8-0 run to begin the half and were up 40-34 three minutes into play. The College of Charleston continued to push the ball and the run was extended to 18-5 as the Cougars were up 52-39 with under twelve minutes to go in the second half.
College of Charleston kept hitting shots and outrebounding the Terriers on both ends of the court as they took a 60-42 lead with 7:28 left in the game. The Cougars kept up the pace and Wofford could not keep up down the stretch and the final score was
Wofford shot 44.0 percent from the floor and was 25.0 percent from three. College of Charleston was 46.9 percent overall and was 38.5 percent from behind the arc. Wofford was outrebounded for the first time in seven games by a 38-26 margin.
Noah Dahlman became Wofford's NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader with a bucket at 11:11 in the first half. He has moved into sixth place on the all-time scoring list, moving ahead of Ian Chadwick (1,789 from 1997-2001). Nathan Parker saw his first action of the season after missing time due to a shoulder injury. The Terriers lost their first game of the season after leading at the half. Taylor Wagener had a career-high five points in the game.
Furman 59, The Citadel 55
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Seniors Amu Saaka and Noah States combined to make 3-of-4 free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds as Furman held off The Citadel, 59-55, and snapped the Bulldogs four-game winning streak in Southern Conference men's basketball action on Thursday night at McAlister Fieldhouse.
Furman, which completed a regular season sweep of the Bulldogs, improved to 17-6 overall and 9-3 in SoCon play. The Citadel slipped to 9-14 overall and 5-6 in the league. The win marked Furman's eighth triumph away from Timmons Arena this season, the most since the 1986-87 campaign.
With the Bulldogs trailing 56-51, Cameron Wells drained a jumper from the top of the key with 1:56 left to pull The Citadel within three points. Bo Holston stripped the ball away from Saaka on the other end and Wells converted again to trim the margin to one point with 1:25 remaining.
After Wells missed on the Bulldogs' next possession, Saaka drew a two-shot foul and converted both attempts to up the Paladin lead to 58-55 with 29 seconds left. Austin Dahn missed on a 24-foot three-point attempt that would have tied the game and States managed to make 1-of-2 at the charity stripe with seven seconds to play to seal the victory after rebounding Dahn's miss.
States and Darryl Evans paced the Paladins with 12 points apiece while Brandon Sebirumbi and Saaka added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Saaka grabbed nine rebounds and States added eight boards. Jordan Miller, returning from illness after missing three games, added five points and five assists.
Furman shot just 39.6 percent from the floor, but the Paladins connected on 8 three-pointers and scored 14 points off of The Citadel's 10 turnovers. Furman matched a season-low with just eight turnovers.
Dahn and forward Mike Groselle each tallied 15 points for the Bulldogs while Wells added 10 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Groselle notched a double-double grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Citadel shot just 38 percent from the field and made only 5-of-26 three-point attempts. The Bulldogs used a 38-33 rebounding edge and 8-for-10 effort at the foul line to stay in the game.
Furman trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before a furious rally gave the Paladins a 30-28 lead at intermission. The Citadel tied the game twice early in the second half, but Furman pushed the lead back out to eight points on a 6-0 run keyed by back-to-back baskets by States.
Senior Justin Dehm, who scored five points, became the 39th player in Furman history to eclipse 1,00 career points when he buried a three-pointer midway through the second half.
Chattanooga 75, Georgia Southern 66
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball team out-lasted Georgia Southern (4-20/0-11) 75-66 Thursday night in McKenzie Arena. Chattanooga improves to 14-10 with a Southern Conference best mark of 10-2.
Ricky Taylor and Omar Wattad scored 19 points apiece for the Mocs. Taylor (4-4) and Wattad (5-7) combined to shoot 9-11 from three-point range in keying UTC's 12-19 performance from beyond the arc. The Mocs' 63.2 percent shooting from three-point land ties for the second-best in school history.
The Eagles' Ben Drayton led all scorers with 24 points passing the 1,000-point mark for his career. He added four rebounds and five assists.
Chattanooga opened the second half with an 11-2 run to jump out to an 18-point lead, 52-34, on a Wattad layup in transition at 15:31. But Georgia Southern countered.
GSU posted a 21-5 run of its own over the next five-plus minutes to close to within two, 57-55, at 10:19 on a Drayton three-pointer. The Eagles hit all five threes they attempted during the spurt.
The Mocs battled back with three-pointers by Keegan Bell and Wattad. The lead went back to six on the latter's trey at 6:57. Georgia Southern got within three twice including 69-66 on a Jelanie Hewitt three-pointer at 1:29, but Chattanooga closed with six straight points for the win.
Chris Early had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists (tying career high) for UTC. He was pivotal down the stretch answering each time the Eagles got back to a three-point deficit in the final minutes.
He responded to a Drayton fastbreak layup with a strong three-point play at 1:41 to get the lead back to six. Early answered Hewitt's three with a jumper in the paint to shut the door on the Eagles.
Bell chipped in 12 points, nine assists and two steals in 39 minutes of game time. Hewitt had 10 points and four assists for GSU.
There was just one lead change and one tie in the game. The Eagles opened scoring the game's first five points. Three straight three-pointers by Taylor (2) and Wattad put the Mocs up 9-5. Back-to-back Eagles field goals tied it at nine.
Chattanooga led by as many as 11 in the first frame on a Bell layup at 9:30. The Mocs shot 65.2 percent from the field (15-23) before intermission which is its best shooting start of the season.
The two teams combined for 39 turnovers with 20 for Georgia Southern and 19 for UTC. The Mocs took better advantage of the Eagles' miscues with 25 points off turnovers to GSU's 14.
It was a strong performance from the field. Chattanooga hit 59.1 percent (26-44) from the field, while Georgia Southern tickled the twine at 54.9 percent (28-51). With all the made shots, there were just 46 rebounds between the two schools, 23 apiece.
Davidson 62, Samford 49
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - JP Kuhlman scored a game-high 15 points, and Davidson buried a season-high 12 3-pointers to post a 62-49 Southern Conference men¹s basketball win over Samford at the Pete Hanna Center Thursday night.
The game was played in front of an estimated 200 fans as Samford made the contest a "closed-door event" because of sleet and icy road conditions in the area.
Brendan McKillop hit four triples in the first half and finished with 12 points, while De'Mon Brooks posted 11 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats (11-12, 5-7 SoCon).
Josh Davis and Gregg Wooten each scored 10 points to lead Samford (11-12, 3-8 SoCon).
The Wildcats went 12-of-25 from 3-point range while holding the Bulldogs, who came into the game shooting 36 percent from long distance, to 2-of-17.
Davidson shot 46 percent in the first half and hit 8-of-15 triples, including four from McKillop, to open a 33-24 lead at halftime. The Wildcats held Samford to 29 percent from the field in the period.
Leading 33-46 midway through the second stanza, the Wildcats scored eight straight points to open a 54-33 cushion. Jake Cohen and Kuhlman each hit 3-pointers, and Brooks added a pair of free throws.
Down by 20 points with 6:05 to play, Samford worked the margin down to nine points with 56 seconds left. But Brooks got free for the long pass on a press breaker, was fouled and made two free throws, and Kuhlman hit another two from the charity stripe after securing a defensive rebound to put the game away.
The Wildcats opened the game with an 11-2 run, capped by a conventional 3-point play by Brooks. McKillop hit two triples during the spurt.
Trailing 25-15 late in the frame, Samford went on a 7-3 run, capped by two Josh Bedwell free throws, to trim the margin to six. But Chris Czerapowicz came off the bench to score Davidson's last five points of the half, giving the 'Cats a nine-point lead at the break.