St. John's 64, College of Charleston 53
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - D'Angelo Harrison scored 21 points and JaKarr Sampson added eight points and 10 rebounds as St. John's defeated College of Charleston, 64-53, in the ESPN Charleston Classic presented by Foster Grant on Thursday night.
The Red Storm (2-0) opened up an 11-point lead midway through the first half and were not pushed by the Cougars (1-1), who are hosting the eight-team event.
Harrison had a 3-pointer and seven quick points to put St. John's ahead 22-11 with less than six minutes gone. College of Charleston never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Nori Johnson led the Cougars with 11 points while Trent Wiedeman had 10.
The two programs had never played before, though they share some significant connections. College of Charleston's basketball architect coach John Kresse, played at St. John's for Red Storm great Joe Lapchick and was an assistant for Lou Carnesecca.
Kresse came down South, "Noo Yawk" accent intact, and turned the Cougars into giant killers - most notably defeating Maryland in the 1997 NCAA Tournament before nearly toppling eventual champ Arizona in a 73-69 loss.
Kresse spoke with the Red Storm players at coach Steve Lavin's invitation, sharing stories of the program that Lavin's trying to rebuild.
The TD Arena court is named after Kresse, who watched from the stands and was congratulated by people on both sides.
Also in the stands was former Cougars' coach Bobby Cremins, who grew up in New York City before finding success on and off the court down South.
St. John's is in the midst of a four-game opening week, following up Tuesday's season-opening victory over Detroit with three games in Charleston.
The Red Storm didn't look like they had tired legs, though, running right from the opening tip.
Christian Jones and Garrett had six points each and Harrison had five as St. John's opened up a 22-11 lead with nine minutes left in the half. The lead grew to 32-18 in the opening half, before the Cougars trimmed it to 10 points at the break.
The Red Storm kept the pressure up in the second half and Charleston struggled to stay in the game.
Greene and Harrison had layups to put St. John's ahead 46-28 with 14:42 left.
#2 Lousville 80, Samford 54
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Samford University basketball team faced its highest-ranked opponent in nearly six years Thursday as the Bulldogs dropped an 80-54 decision on the road against the second-ranked Louisville Cardinals in front of 20,016 fans at the KFC Yum! Center.
"I'm proud of our guys and the effort that they gave in the second half, but we must become a tougher team," said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer. "I know Louisville is the second-ranked team in the country, but when you give up 28 offensive rebounds it's going to be hard to beat any team. We must become a much tougher team."
Samford (1-2) outscored Louisville (2-0), 41-38, in the second half of play, but the damage had already been done as the Cardinals leapt out to a 42-13 halftime lead. The Bulldogs shot 53.3 percent from 3-point range in the second period and only committed five turnovers in the final half, as opposed to 16 in the first half.
Samford was led in scoring for a third straight game by true freshman Tim Williams. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-8 forward from Chicago, Ill., paced the team with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and pulled down six rebounds. Sophomore guard Raijon Kelly added 11 points and knocked down a team-high three 3-point field goals.
"We didn't get the win that we wanted tonight, but I know that we will get better from this point on and it was a memorable experience to play in this arena against Louisville," said Williams. "It was tough going up against someone like (Gorgui Dieng), but I just tried my best to front him in the post and block him out from getting offensive rebounds."
In the first half, Louisville shot 41.7 percent from the field and outscored Samford, 24-0, in the paint. The Cardinals also bested the Bulldogs in points off turnovers, 20-3, and second-chance points, 15-0. Louisville finished Thursday's contest with 53 rebounds, 28 on the offensive side of the court.
"In the first half, I think our guys displayed a little bit of stage-fright," Seltzer said. "This is definitely a different venue for our team, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Louisville had five guys on the court and we had five guys on the court. We ought to know that every time to strap it up and compete, you're going to have to give your best and I don't think we started the game playing at our best tonight."
Chane Behanan, the Cardinals' 6-foot-6 sophomore forward from Cincinnati, Ohio, pulled down 18 rebounds and added 12 points to register his first double-double of the young 2012-13 season. Louisville's starting center Gorgui Dieng also posted a double-double Thursday with 10 points and 13 rebounds in 23 minutes of playing time.
The Cardinals' Russ Smith led all scorers with 18 points on a 7-of-14 shooting performance from the field. Louisville's explosive junior guard from Briarwood, N.Y., also knocked down a game-high four 3-point baskets and tallied two steals.
"I thought that we were going to compete a little bit harder than we did in the first half," said Seltzer. "That part of it was disappointing, but for the most part I was pleased with our effort in the second half and we'll get better."
Samford came out strong in the second half of play and used four quick 3-point baskets to trim Louisville's hefty lead to 49-25 with 15 minutes left to play. During the Bulldogs' rally, sophomore guard Connor Miller drained a pair of 3-pointers, while fellow sophomores Tyler Hood and Kelly connected on one apiece.
Midway through the second half, Samford used a deep 3-point field goal from Kelly, a smooth jumper from Hood in transition and a long 3-point basket from Levi Barnes in the corner to again cut Louisville's advantage to 24 points, 58-34.
The Bulldogs shot 39.1 percent from the field Thursday and 45 percent from 3-point range. Samford's outing against Louisville marked its best 3-point shooting performance of the season.
Offensively, the Bulldogs received eight points apiece from Hood and Clide Geffrard, Jr. In his most significant playing time of the 2012-13 season, true freshman Geffrard, Jr., came off the bench to add three rebounds and an assist. He also finished 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.
"Clide is coming off a leg injury to where he is about 85 to 90 percent right now, but I think that the longer he played tonight, the better he got," Seltzer said.
No. 2 Louisville marked Samford's highest-ranked opponent since Nov. 10, 2006, when the Bulldogs played at the No. 1-ranked and defending national champion Florida at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla. Samford was defeated by No. 1 Florida, 79-54, and the Gators went on to win the 2007 national championship.
The Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 7 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs travel to Memphis, Tenn., for another difficult early-season showdown against the 16th-ranked Memphis Tigers at the FedExForum.
#7 Kansas 69, Chattanooga 55
LAWRENCE, Kan. --- The Chattanooga Mocs went toe-to-toe with No. 7 Kansas losing 69-55 Thursday night in Allen Fieldhouse. The loss drops Chattanooga to 1-1 on the season, while the Jayhawks improve to 2-1.
It was the Farad Cobb show as the freshman wowed the crowd reminding fans and media around the historic barn of a performance by former Texas great Kevin Durant raining threes, Cobb set a UTC freshman record with seven three-pointers made, six in leading his squad to a halftime lead.
Ben McLemore scored a game-high 25 points for the Jayhawks. Elijah Johnson chipped in 18 points and four assists, while Jeff Withey posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The first half belonged to the Mocs. They trailed 2-0 before scoring the next seven points to start the pendulum swing firmly in their favor. It was 12-9 UTC when Cobb took over. He hit six of his seven treys pushing the Mocs to a 12-points lead, 36-24, at 1:49. Three of his treys forced 30-second timeouts from the KU bench as it used all four 30's in the first 20 minutes of the game.
Cobb scored 18 points in 10 first-half minutes. His played keyed a 36-28 UTC lead at the break.
The Mocs kept up the pressure to start the second stanza. Z. Mason got it back to a 12-point lead, 42-30, with a high-arcing three-pointer. Unfortunately, KU limited UTC without a field goal over the next 12-and-a-half minutes when Cobb drilled his seventh three with 5:30 to play. It prompted a 27-7 run giving the Jayhawks a 57-49 lead.
That was as close as Chattanooga would get. McLemore and Johnson scored 13 apiece to lead the Jayhawks to a come-from-behind victory,
Mason had 13 points, five rebounds and two blocks for UTC. Drazen Zlovaric chipped in 10 points of his own.
The Mocs return home to host the CBE Classic Sub-Regional Sunday through Tuesday, November 18-20. Southeast Missouri, Troy and Louisiana Tech come to the Roundhouse for a round-robin format.
SEMO is UTC's first opponent Sunday at 3 p.m. Troy (Monday) and Louisiana Tech (Tuesday) follow at 7 p.m., the next two days.
Wichita State 79, Western Carolina 63
WICHITA, Kan. - Four Catamounts scored in double figures paced by a team-high 18 by redshirt junior Trey Sumler, but Western Carolina dropped its opener in the Triple Crown Cancun Challenge to Wichita State, 79-63, Thursday night at the Koch Arena. Cleanthony Early scored 21 points off the bench to pace the Shockers to their third-straight win to start the 2012-13 season.
Sumler stretched his current string of double-digit scoring outings to a career-long tying 10-straight dating back to last season, shooting 7-of-13 from the floor including four 3-pointers while dishing out six assists. Classmate Tom Tankelewicz likewise buried four treys for 12 points while Brandon Boggs and Tawaski King chipped in 11 apiece.
The Shockers (3-0) raced out to an early lead over WCU by scoring the game's first eight points, holding the Catamounts off the scoreboard until the 16:07 mark when Boggs connected on a jumper. Wichita State built its lead to as many as 11 points in the first eight minutes of the game before the Catamounts clawed their way back in.
Using points from five different players, WCU used an 11-to-2 run over a four-minute stretch to pull back within a pair, 21-19, with nine minutes remaining before intermission. However, the Shockers outscored the Catamounts 25-to-6 over the final eight minutes of the half to pull out to a 19-point, 46-27, lead at the break.
In the second half, Western Carolina managed to pull within 13 points twice but both times it was answered by a Shockers' run to keep the double-digit advantage. All told, the Catamounts outscored Wichita State, 36-33, in the second half.
Carl Hall added 16 points to Early's 21 for Wichita State while Evan Wessel poured in 11 points.
Wichita State was near flawless from the charity stripe, finishing 26-of-27 from the free throw line while the Catamounts had trouble getting the charity tosses - connecting on one of just four attempts.
"I thought we played very well at times during the first half. In the second half, I felt we were half a step slow. Maybe it was effort. They beat us to loose balls and got too many second chance shots. I'm a little bit disappointed in that," said Wichita State head coach Greg Marshall during post-game comments on ShockersRadio.com. "But Western Carolina continued to fight. That WCU team, they came in here to compete and try to win. They were battling to the very end of the game."
Western Carolina remains on the road this Saturday, Nov. 17, as it faces the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 pm at the E.A. Diddle Arena.