Men's Basketball Southern Conference

Thursday's Men's Basketball Roundup

Georgia Southern 63, Wofford 49

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Wofford men's basketball team was defeated 63-49 by Georgia Southern on Thursday night at Hanner Fieldhouse. The Terriers struggled from behind the three point line and from the free throw line, shooting near season lows in both categories. Drew Crowell had his second double-double of the season.

Wofford is 15-11 overall and 8-6 in the SoCon. Georgia Southern is 12-12 overall with a 10-4 mark in conference play and are in second place in the South Division. The Terriers were led by Brad Loesing with 13 points. Drew Crowell had a career-high 14 rebounds and had 12 points. Eric Ferguson had a double-double for the Eagles, leading the team with 15 points and adding eleven rebounds. Willie Powers scored 14 for Georgia Southern.

The Eagles scored first on a three and were able to take a 9-2 lead four minutes into the contest. Wofford scored the next four points to make it a 9-6 game, but Georgia Southern answered with a 7-2 run to take a 16-8 advantage with 11:25 on the clock. A floater in the lane by Brad Loesing and a banked three pointer by Kevin Giltner cut the lead to 18-13 with 9:30 remaining. After Wofford cut the lead to three points, the Eagles hit a three for a 21-15 lead with eight minutes on the clock.

Brad Loesing hit a three from the top of the circle which cut the score to 22-18 with seven minutes left in the first half. The Eagles pushed the lead back to nine points at 29-20 with 4:17 on the clock. Wofford scored the final four points of the half, holding the Eagles scoreless for four minutes to make it a 29-24 game at the break.

To open the second half, the teams traded dunks. The Eagles then went on a 7-0 run to take a 38-26 lead with 16:30 on the clock. Wofford answered with a quick four points to cut the advantage to 38-30, but the Eagles ran off the next seven points for a 45-30 lead as the Terriers called a time out. Georgia Southern pushed the run to 9-0 before Aerris Smith scored for Wofford. Two Brad Loesing free throws made it a 48-36 game with 9:29 on the clock.

Georgia Southern added a three for a 51-36 lead before Brad Loesing hit a jumper with 8:35 remaining in the second half. With four minutes left, the Eagles pushed the lead to 57-40 after three straight shots by Eric Ferguson. Wofford scored the next four points to cut the advantage to 57-44 with two minutes left in the game. Down the stretch, the Eagles hit six of eight free throws. Lee Skinner hit a three for Wofford with four seconds left for the 63-49 final score.

Wofford shot 40.4 percent from the floor while Georgia Southern shot 48 percent overall. The Terriers were 3-of-1 from three, while the Eagles were 7-of-13 from behind the arc. Wofford was 4-of-15 from the free throw line, while Georgia Southern was 8-of-14 from the line. The Terriers had a 35-34 lead in rebounds.

The Eagles have won nine straight home games this season. The loss ended a six-game win streak in the series by Wofford. The Terriers have lost three straight games for the first time since December of 2009. Brad Loesing played most of the final eleven minutes of the game with four fouls.


Davidson 77, The Citadel 66

CHARLESTON, S.C. - De'Mon Brooks scored a career-high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds, and Davidson held off a late charge by The Citadel in a 77-66 Southern Conference men's basketball victory Thursday night in McAlister Fieldhouse.

Brooks was 8-for-9 from the field, made eight free throws and registered four steals. JP Kuhlman scored 16 points for the Wildcats (19-5,13-1SoCon), and Chris Czerapowicz netted 14.

Mike Groselle led The Citadel (4-20, 1-12 SoCon) with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Bo Holston scored 13, all in the second half.

Davidson withstood a stretch of 7:46 without a field goal late in the second half as the Bulldogs trimmed a 20-point deficit down to eight pointswith 2:01 to play.

Czerapowicz ended the drought with a triple from the corner, and The Citadel was forced to foul. Davidson went 7-for-8 from the foul line in thelast 1:20 to seal the win.

Leading 13-8 midway through the first half, Davidson scored 17 straight points to open a 30-8 lead. Brooks scored six points during the run, and Czerapowicz added a pair of triples.

The Bulldogs worked the margin down to 14 points late in the frame, but Davidson had the ball last and ran a play for Czerapowicz, who got a dunk and was fouled. The sophomore hit the free throw to put Davidson ahead 38-21 at thebreak.

The lead grew to as many as 22 points in the second half before The Citadel used a 15-3 run to get back in the contest.

Davidson shot 46 percent from the floor in the game, including 52 percent in the second half, but the Wildcats committed 17 turnovers, which led to 19 Bulldog points.

The 'Cats held The Citadel to 32 percent shooting in the first stanza and 3-for-18 from 3-point range in the contest.


Appalachian State 79, Furman 69

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Freshman Mike Neal scored 18 points and Appalachian State converted on 30-of-38 free throw attempts en route to a 79-69 victory over Furman in Southern Conference men's basketball action Thursday evening on YP.com Court at Timmons Arena.

With the victory, Appalachian State improved to 10-14 overall and 6-8 in league play while snapping a three-game losing streak. Furman dipped to 12-13 overall and 6-8 in the SoCon with its second straight defeat.

Neal, who led the Mountaineers in scoring in their January 12th win over Furman, made 12-of-14 free throws and was joined in double figures by G.J. Vilarino with 13 points and Andre Williamson with 10. Appalachian State drained just three treys on the night and shot only 41 percent from the field, but buried 11-of-14 first half free throws before making good on 19-of-24 trips to the charity stripe in the second half.

Furman jumped out to a 17-8 lead in the opening seven minutes of the game behind five points from Charlie Reddick and four from Chris Toler, but the Paladins managed just one field goal over a stretch of 5:28 as the Mountaineers fashioned a 15-2 run to grab a 23-19 advantage late in the half. Richard Brown helped ignite a Furman run to regain the lead before Appalachian closed the half on a 10-4 spurt to take a 33-31 halftime advantage.

Furman forged the third deadlock of the second half on a Brown basket with 14:59 remaining to knot the contest at 41-41, but Neal scored on a driving layup and completed the three-point play at the foul line to start an 8-0 Appalachian State run that gave the Mountaineers the lead for good. The Paladins trimmed the margin back to three points on two occasions in the final eight minutes only to see Appalachian State answer at the foul line to hold on for the win.

Senior Brandon Sebirumbi led the Paladins with 14 points, Bobby Austin poured in 10 and Toler notched a career-high nine points on 4-of-7 shooting. Furman shot just 40 percent as a team, including 11-for-31 in the second half, and made only 6-of-20 three-point attempts.

Appalachian State, which completed the season sweep of the Paladins, held a 37-36 rebounding edge and outscored Furman in the paint, 30-28.

The Mountaineers return home to host Wofford on Saturday while Furman prepares to host Western Carolina on Saturday at 4 p.m.


Chattanooga 83, Elon 75

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The senior duo of Ricky Taylor and Omar Wattad combined for 46 points to lead the Chattanooga Mocs (10-16, 4-9 SoCon) over Elon (13-11, 8-5 SoCon) in Southern Conference North Division action Thursday night. Taylor (13) and Wattad (14) had 27 of those points in a second-half comeback.

Lucas Troutman hit one of two free throws at 12:11 to give the Phoenix a 57-51 lead. After a Jahmal Burroughs layup at 11:22, Wattad buried a deep three-pointer to make it a one-point ball game, 57-56, with 9:59 remaining. That was Wattad's 14th point of the second frame, turning the game over to Taylor.

Taylor tied the score at 59-all on a three-pointer in front of the Mocs bench at 9:13. Freshman Ronrico White put UTC up for good, 62-59, burying a trey from the opposite corner on the next possession at 8:32. Taylor capped the 14-2 run with an old-fashioned three-point play 23 seconds later pushing the lead to six, 65-59.

Elon, the SoCon North Division leader, cut the margin to two twice. The first came on a Troutman slam off a nice feed from Sebastian Koch at 5:08, 67-65. Two Burroughs free throws extended the lead back to four before another Troutman basket made it 69-67 at 4:27.

Taylor scored the next five points on two free throws and a dagger of a three-pointer at 2:19 off a nice pass from Wattad. Up seven, 74-67, the Mocs kept the pedal to the floor. Taylor made a steal on the ensuing Phoenix possession and Drazen Zlovaric (Novi Sad, Serbia) followed Taylor's missed layup hitting his own to make it a nine-point game, 76-67, with 1:53 to go.

After starting three-for-eight from the free throw line, Chattanooga hit nine of its last 10. That included five-for-six in the game's final 43.3 seconds. Wattad's 14 second-half points came in the first 10 minutes, while Taylor's 13 came in the final 10.

Burroughs tied his career high of 11 points while setting a new high with game-high nine rebounds. Zlovaric added 12 points and eight rebounds, while Wattad grabbed eight boards of his own.

Elon had five players in double figures led by Koch's 20. Jack Isenbarger had 14 points and eight assists, while Troutman tallied 13 points. Drew Spradlin and Ryley Beaumont added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Chattanooga shot 49.2 percent making 30 of 61 from the field and 45.8 percent from three-point range hitting 11 of 24. UTC made 58.3 percent (7-12) from beyond the arc in the second half.


UNCG 71, Samford 69

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- For the eighth consecutive game, the outcome of the Samford University basketball team's Southern Conference matchup came down to a final possession. This time, the Bulldogs were on the short end of the stick as they missed their last five shots in a hard-fought 71-69 loss to the UNCG Spartans in the Pete Hanna Center.

With Thursday's setback, Samford (9-15, 6-7 SoCon) had its two-game winning streak snapped and suffered a loss for only the third time in nine outings. Heading into the contest, the Bulldogs were victorious in six of their last eight games and four of their last five.

UNCG (10-15, 8-5 SoCon) continued its hot streak Thursday. The Spartans tallied their eighth win in nine games and bounced back from a difficult 93-85 loss at Furman on Saturday.

Samford trailed UNCG Thursday, 71-68, with 1:29 remaining in the game. At the 1:12 mark, the Bulldogs' Drew Windler was fouled on a driving layup attempt and went to the line for a pair of free-throw attempts. Windler, Samford's talented 6-foot-9 center, knocked down the first shot to make the score, 71-69, but then missed the second attempt.

The Spartans' Trevis Simpson grabbed the rebound, but on the ensuing possession turned the ball over by stepping out of bounds with 50 seconds to play.

Following a Samford timeout, the Bulldogs ran through a designed play and found Windler open for a lead-changing 3-point basket at the top of the key. Windler, who is Samford's best 3-point shooter on the season at 43.6 percent, missed the attempt with 35 seconds left in the game, but the Bulldogs' Tyler Hood grabbed the offensive rebound.

Samford then took another 30-second timeout and with 23 seconds remaining, true freshman Raijon Kelly missed a 3-point attempt from the left flank. The rebound bounced all the way down the right sideline and went out of bounds off a diving UNCG player with 18 seconds to play.

On the Bulldogs' final possession of the game, Jeffrey Merritt attempted a wide-open 3-point shot from the left wing. The shot looked good coming off his hand, but hit the front rim, skidded across the top and rolled around the rim before it came off the right side near Windler.

Windler was able to get a hand on the rebound and tapped it up towards the basket, but the attempt never crossed over the cylinder and fell back down to the right side. The Spartans' David Williams then pulled down the final rebound as time expired for the 71-69 UNCG win.

Thursday's contest was eerily similar to the first meeting between the teams when UNCG's Williams was able to hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer. This time, it was Samford's turn to win at the buzzer, but the shots just didn't fall.

The Bulldogs shot 40 percent from the field and 21.9 percent from 3-point range. Samford attempted 32 shots from beyond the arc, but only made seven.

Windler paced the Bulldogs' offensive attack with 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the floor. He knocked down a team-high three 3-point field goals and went 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Hood, Samford's sophomore forward from Kingston, Tenn., finished with 16 points and eight rebounds. He also finished 7-of-14 from the field in 30 minutes of playing time.

Kelly lit up the stat sheet with 10 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists, but went 0-for-5 from 3-point range.

UNCG's Simpson led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the floor. He also attempted a game-high 13 3-pointers and connected on four of them. The Spartans' high-flying sophomore tallied seven rebounds and turned in a perfect 5-of-5 performance from the free-throw line.

Junior guard Derrell Armstrong came off the bench for UNCG to register 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, while true freshman Nick Paulos chipped in with 12 points on a 5-of-8 shooting performance from the floor. Senior forward Aloysius Henry also turned in a huge game for the Spartans with seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Samford dominated the glass in the opening half and held a 23-16 rebounding advantage at the intermission. In the second period, UNCG turned things around on the boards by out-rebounding the Bulldogs, 28-16.

Samford won the turnover battle Thursday, 11-10, but was outscored in points off turnovers, 11-7. The Bulldogs scored 30 points in the paint, as compared to 24 from UNCG, but the Spartans went 16-of-20 from the free-throw line as compared to a 10-of-16 outing from Samford.

 
College of Charleston 62, Western Carolina 58 

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Brandon Boggs led three Catamounts in double figures with 15 points, but it wasn't enough as the College of Charleston escaped the TD Arena with a four-point, 62-58, victory over the Catamounts Thursday night in Southern Conference action.

The Cougars led by as many as seven in the closing moments with WCU's Keaton Cole burying a pair of highly contested 3-pointers to keep the game within striking distance. However, the Cougars managed 8-of-10 from the free throw line including four made tosses inside the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.

Boggs added a team-high tying seven rebounds to accompany his 15 points while Cole scored 12 including three 3-pointers. Trey Sumler finished with 11 points and seven boards while Harouna Mutombo chipped in seven. Ishmael Hollis also added seven rebounds off the bench for the Catamounts.

Nori Johnson scored 17 points to lead three Cougars in double figures while and Adjehi Baru grabbed a career-high 17 boards. Baru finished with nine points despite 1-for-8 shooting, scoring seven points from the free throw line. Wiggins recorded 15 points and seven rebounds and Andrew Lawrence added 12 points and six rebounds for the Cougars (15-10, 7-7 SoCon).

Western Carolina (10-16, 4-9 SoCon) led by as many as nine in the first half, opening the game on a 12-to-3 run through the first six minutes. However, the Cougars erased the early deficit with 14-straight points to take a five-point, 17-12, lead midway through the half.

After going seven and a half minutes between field goals, the Catamounts were able to recover and managed a four-point, 28-24, lead into halftime. The Catamounts limited the Cougars to a total of six made field goals including three 3-pointers on just 20-percent shooting in the first half.

WCU led by as many as six early in the second stanza as Tawaski King made a strong move in the paint to put the Catamounts on the board first after intermission. But an eight-point swing on a 9-to-1 spurt by the Cougars pushed the home team out in front four minutes into the frame. CofC would manage a five-point cushion midway through the half on a Jordan Scott 3-pointer, 46-41.

Mutombo drained an open 3-pointer from the right wing with five minutes to play in regulation to hand Western Carolina a one-point, 48-47, lead. However, after a pair of empty trips for the Catamounts, Charleston retook the advantage a minute later on a trey by Antwaine Wiggins and Baru converted a layup to put Charleston ahead 52-48 with 3:05 left. The Catamounts cut the deficit to 52-51 but Lawrence scored four straight points from the foul line to give the Cougars a 56-51 lead with only 54 seconds left.

All told, Thursday's game saw four ties and 12 lead changes. WCU limited the Cougars to just 27.1 percent (16 of 59) shooting from the field for the game. Charleston managed a 53-to-43 edge on the boards including 27 offensive rebounds.