Elon 68, Wofford 61
ELON, N.C. - The Wofford men's basketball team was defeated 68-61 by Elon on Saturday night at Alumni Gym. The Terriers had a three point lead with 4:31 remaining, but the Phoenix outscored Wofford 11-3 to end the game. It was the third road contest in six days for the Terriers.
Wofford falls to 7-12 on the season and 1-5 in the Southern Conference. Elon is 11-7 overall and 4-2 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Karl Cochran with 18 points. Lee Skinner had 13 points and 14 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the year and Spencer Collins added 14 points. The Phoenix was led by Jack Isenbarger with 17 points and Lucas Troutman had 16 points.
The Phoenix scored the first six points of the game, but Wofford answered with an 8-0 run to take an 8-6 lead at the 15:22 mark after a jumper by Spencer Collins. Karl Cochran pushed the run to 10-0 with a lay-up. Elon was able to tie the game at ten and it was tied at 12 with 11:35 left in the first half. The Phoenix hit a three and took a 17-14 lead, but Wofford cut it to one point after two free throws by Spencer Collins.
Elon scored the next three points and after a three had a 23-18 advantage with 5:56 left in the first half. Lee Skinner hit two free throws, Indiana Faithfull hit a jumper and two more Skinner free throws gave Wofford a 24-23 lead with 4:17 on the clock. The Terriers kept the run going to 11-0 and had a 29-23 advantage with 1:48 remaining in the half. Elon scored the final four points of the half, but the Terriers had a 29-27 lead at the break.
Wofford scored first to open the second half, but after less than three minutes the score was tied at 33. Elon took a 36-35 lead on a three pointer, but shots by Lee Skinner and Spencer Collins gave Wofford a 39-36 lead at the 15:41 mark. The Phoenix then used a 9-0 run to take a 45-39 advantage with 11:32 on the clock after a three pointer. Wofford ended the run with two free throws by Jarell Byrd and a jumper by Karl Cochran to cut the score to 45-43 with 10:38 remaining.
After cutting the lead to one point, Elon hit a couple of three pointers for a 51-46 lead before Indiana Faithfull hit the first three of the night for Wofford to make it a 51-49 score with 7:15 on the clock. Karl Cochran hit a lay-up and a free throw to cut the lead to one. Indiana Faithfull hit a jumper to give Wofford a 54-53 lead with 5:30 remaining. The Terriers had a 58-55 advantage after a shot by Lee Skinner a minute later.
Elon tied the game at 58 and took a 62-58 lead with 1:52 left on the clock after two free throws. The Phoenix pushed the run to 9-0 as they took a 64-58 lead before Wofford answered with a three by Karl Cochran with sixty seconds left to cut it to 64-61. Elon added four free throws in the final minute to secure a 68-61 victory.
Wofford shot 37 percent from the floor while Elon shot 46 percent overall. The Terriers were 2-of-11 from with three, while the Phoenix was 7-of-21 from behind the arc. Elon was 15-of-23 from the line while Wofford was 21-of-23 on free throws. Wofford had a 33 to 30 lead on the glass. Aerris Smith fouled out of the game and Mike Young picked up a technical foul.
The Citadel 70, Georgia Southern 55
STATESBORO, GA. - Georgia Southern's two-game Men's Basketball winning streak came to an end as the Eagles fell to The Citadel 70-55 at Hanner Fieldhouse on Saturday night. The Citadel shot a season-best 60 percent from the field while the Eagles struggled from the field, making 20-of-56 shots from the field.
C.J. Reed led the Eagles for the third-straight night with 13 points and three assists. Tre Bussey had 12 points while making three baskets from downtown. Eric Ferguson finished two rebounds shy of a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The Citadel was led by 21 points from Matt Van Scyoc as the freshman made 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. Mike Groselle scored 15 with eight rebounds while Marshall Harris III had 11 points with six assists.
Georgia Southern gathered 16 offensive rebounds and at one point in the first half had pulled down half of their misses as offensive rebounds. Overall The Citadel took a 29-28 advantage on the glass. The Bulldogs, however, were guilty of 15 turnovers on the night.
The Eagles trailed by nine points at the halftime break thanks to a 10-3 Citadel run in the final 2:30 of the first half. A three-pointer by Miller just before the horn capped the opening period which saw the Bulldogs shoot 44 percent from downtown and 58 percent overall. The Eagles shot just 35% from the field with a 13 percent mark from the 3-point range.
The Citadel strung the lead out to 14 points with 11:23 remaining. A three-pointer by Reed a minute later cut the lead back to 11 points. The teams traded three-pointers after a timeout, but five-straight Citadel points gave the Bulldogs a 55-39 lead with 8:41 left.
Ultimately the Bulldogs would score on seven-straight trips down the floor between the 12 and 8-minute media timeouts in which the Bulldogs out-scored the Eagles 16-10. Citadel's largest lead would come at 7:25 when the Bulldogs led by 18 points.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Ferguson and Bussey with 5:36 and 4:48 remaining cut the lead back to 11 entering the game's final four minutes, but a Bulldog three-pointer at 3:58 quieted the Hanner faithful, pushing the lead to 64-50.
The Eagles, however, could not make a late run and suffered the 70-55 defeat to snap a two-game winning streak.
The Citadel improved on a hot-shooting first half to go 13-for-21 in the second half from the field and finish the night at 60%. From downtown the Bulldogs went 5-of-8 in the second half to shoot 53 percent from beyond the arc. Georgia Southern shot 36 percent from the field and 26 percent from downtown.
Western Carolina 90, Chattanooga 81
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- The Chattanooga Mocs (8-11, 3-3 SoCon) lost to Western Carolina (8-11, 5-2 SoCon) Saturday night, 90-81, in Southern Conference North Division play. UTC wasted a 21-point, six-rebound effort by Z. Mason.
Trey Sumler and Tom Tankelewicz led a quartet of double-digit scorers for the Catamounts. Sumler led all scorers with 25 points to go with 12 assists, four rebounds and four steals. Tankelewicz scored his 21 points from beyond the arc making seven of nine for the evening.
Western scored 48 points in the opening half and built on that momentum to open the second. After a Farad Cobb trey got the Mocs with six, 48-42, WCU went on a 14-4 run. Brandon Boggs' dunk at 16:16 put his squad up 16, 62-46.
Chattanooga chipped away at the lead. It got within nine twice when Mason nailed a trey from up top to cut it to six, 68-62, at 8:51. Two Drazen Zlovaric free throws nearly two minutes later made it a four-point deficit, 70-66 with 7:10 to play.
Sumler answered with a three-ball on the Catamounts next possession. A defensive stop and two free throws from Tawaski King extended the margin back to nine, 75-66, with six minutes to go.
Like Thursday night's 19-point comeback, the Mocs never quit. Unlike the last game, the big shot just didn't fall. The squad hit just one shot in the final 8:51, a three-point by Dontay Hampton. UTC did make 16 of 19 from the free throw during that stretch.
Gee McGhee tied his season high with 19 points, while chipping in four rebounds, two assists and two steals. He and Mason were the lone Mocs in double digits as Ronrico White had nine points and a team-high five assists.
Boggs and King had 19 and 18 points, respectively. They combined with Sumler and Tankelewicz for all but seven of Western's 90 points. As a team, they shot a blistering 53.4 percent (31-58) including 12 of 22 from beyond the arc. WCU also shot well from the free throw making 84.2 percent (16-19) hitting all eight attempts in the last three-plus minutes of the contest.
Tankelewicz got the Catamounts off to a great start. He scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half hitting five of seven from three-point range. Western hit eight treys in the first 20 minutes and would have salted it away early if not for two factors: Mason and the Mocs rebounding.
Mason had 10 points and five rebounds in the opening frame. Those five boards led a 24-13 effort on the glass. UTC had more offensive rebounds (11) than the Catamounts had defensive (10). The home team ended up with a 41-33 advantage on the boards led by Zlovaric with seven.
Davidson 77, College of Charleston 68
DAVIDSON, N.C. - De'Mon Brooks led four Davidson players in double figures with 17 points as the Wildcats defeated SoCon rival College of Charleston, 77-68, in men's basketball action Saturday evening at Belk Arena.
The backcourt duo of Nik Cochran and JP Kuhlman contributed 15 points each for Davidson (11-7, 6-1 SoCon), while Tom Droney enjoyed his best game of the season with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting, six rebounds and three assists.
Like the Wildcats, College of Charleston (12-7, 4-3 SoCon) had four double-figure scorers, led by Andrew Lawrence who scored 18 points on 6-of-17 shooting and paced the Cougars with five rebounds and four assists. Adjehi Baru and Anthony Thomas both had 13 points and Trent Wiedeman added 10 points off the bench.
The first 20 minutes of action featured six ties and seven lead changes before Davidson broke a 29-29 deadlock with 10 straight points, highlighted by three layups from Droney, who had 10 points in the frame. Cochran also added double-digits prior to intermission with 13 as the Wildcats went to the break up, 44-34.
The Wildcats finished the game shooting 48.1 percent to College of Charleston's 45.8 percent, and held a 37-28 advantage on the glass, led by eight boards by Jake Cohen. Cohen also had nine points and two blocks.
Along with the nation's top free-throw shooting team going 14-of-16 from the line in the first half, Davidson held a 24-12 advantage on the glass, including eight offensive boards, which led to 14 second-chance points in the period.
For the game, the Wildcats went 21-of-24 (.875) at the stripe.
After Davidson took its largest lead of the contest, 48-34, early in the second half, the Cougars slowly chipped away and cut the deficit to five, 64-59, on a Matt Sundberg trey with 6:12 to play. College of Charleston wouldn't get any closer as Kuhlman put the game out of reach with a 3-pointer of his own to stretch the Wildcats lead back to double figures with 1:40 left.
Samford 72, Appalachian State 68
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Appalachian State University men's basketball was unable to overcome the hot shooting of a Samford squad that continued to roll as it dropped a 72-68 decision to its Southern Conference opponent on Saturday at the Pete Hanna Center.
The Mountaineers (7-10, 3-3 SoCon) dropped their first road contest to the Bulldogs (7-12, 5-1) in four years and fell to 0-2 on its two-game roadtrip over the weekend while Samford won its fourth-straight to remain atop the SoCon North.
Both squads treated fans to an exciting and competitive first half as each shot better than 53.0 percent from the floor, including a combined 9-of-16 from beyond the arc as the first half featured four ties and four lead changes.
Samford jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead, but Appalachian countered with an 11-2 run to grab a 15-14 lead less than eight minutes into the contest.
Back-to-back threes from Tab Hamilton and Mike Neal pulled the Mountaineers within two (12-10) before another Hamilton connection from deep and a layup from Jay Canty gave the Apps their first lead at the 12:32 mark.
The Bulldogs responded with six of the next eight points to regain the lead momentarily before Neal nailed another long range shot to make it 20-20 with 10:34 left on the clock.
Both squads would trade blows throughout the next several minutes before Samford was able to gain some separation by grabbing a 37-32 lead at the 3:56 mark, but the Mountaineers responded with another three and a pair of free throws to tie the game just 30 seconds later.
A pair of buckets, including a fastbreak dunk from Tim Williams, gave the Bulldogs a 46-41 edge at the break as the two squads combined to shoot 35-of-56 (58.9 percent) through the first 20 minutes of action.
Appalachian came out strong in the second half as Hamilton and Nathan Healy connected on a pair of three-pointers to give the Mountaineers a 47-46 lead with 18:57 left to play.
The Bulldogs battled back to grab a 56-50 lead thanks to a 10-3 run over the next three minutes, but two quick buckets by the Apps made it 56-55 and forced a Samford timeout with just over 13 minutes left to play.
Samford would maintain its slim lead over the next six minutes before putting some separation between itself and the Mountaineers with a quick 6-0 run that made it 65-58 with 6:14 left to play.
Appalachian was able to cut the deficit to just two points (67-65) when Healy connected from beyond the arc with 2:38 remaining, but a crucial three-point play from Williams gave the Bulldogs a 70-65 lead one minute later and Samford held on for the win.
Canty led the Mountaineers with 19 points whil Hamilton poured in 16 and Healy and Neal each finished with 11. Michael Obacha grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds.
Samford was paced by 20 points from Clide Geffrard, Jr. while Raijon Kelly added 15 and dished out seven assists. The Bulldogs shot 54.5 percent (30-of-55) from the floor while the Mountaineers connected on 48.0 percent (24-of-50) of their shots.