Old Dominion 86, Georgia Southern 69
NORFOLK, Va. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball dropped a 86-69 decision to Old Dominion in the Eagles’ second domestic game of the 2013 Cancun Challenge. A hot shooting first half propelled the Monarchs to a 14-point halftime advantage. A game-high 28 points from Tre Bussey wasn’t enough for the visitors who turn their attention to a Tuesday afternoon contest against Oral Roberts in Cancun, Mexico.
“Old Dominion did a great job today shooting the ball,” said Head Coach Mark Byington. “We’ve watched a lot of tape on them and that is the best they have shot all year. I think our inexperience in our new roles hurt us a little bit today. Our offense wasn’t very good in the first half today, but I feel like we played better in the second half.”
ODU (4-1) shot the hot rock in the first half, going 16-for-27 from the field and adding eight three-pointers in the opening stanza. The hosts went on to shoot 52 percent for the night, but did not make a three-ball in the second half.
Georgia Southern’s (2-3) offense recorded 69 points on the night on 35% shooting with seven baskets from downtown. The Eagles were 22-of-28 from the free throw line to atone for a rough night at the line against West Virginia.
Tre Bussey led all scorers with 28 points as he posts his fifth-straight game of at leats 20 points to open the 2013-14 season. He scored 12 of those points from the charity stripe while going 7-of-14 from the field.
Jelani Hewitt knocked down three from downtown to kick in 23 points on the afternoon. Marvin Byanham made his 100th career appearance for the Eagles, scoring four points.
Aaron Bacote paced the Monarchs with 26 points while Jordan Baker knocked down four-of-five from downtown to finish the night with 17 points.
GSU trailed by 14 at the intermission and cut the lead to 10 early in the second period. ODU answered that by taking the lead back to 18 points less than four minutes later. After trailing by as many as 20 with 6:16 left, GSU rallied again, cutting ODU’s lead to 11 with 3:42 left. The Monarchs answered again, this time scoring six-straight points in less than a minute to put the game to bed.
College of Charleston 89, Furman 55
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Anthony Stitt tallied a game-high 21 points and College of Charleston outscored Furman 52-25 in the second half en route to an 89-55 win over the Paladins in non-conference men’s basketball action Saturday evening at TD Arena.
Charleston (2-3) converted on 17-of-28 second half field goal attempts and held Furman (2-2) to 8-of-33 shooting over the final 20 minutes to claim its 30th victory in the last 34 meetings between the former Southern Conference rivals.
After scoring the final four points of the first half to carry a 37-30 lead into intermission, the Cougars stretched their run to 14-2 and opened a 47-32 lead on Canyon Barry’s trey with 17:04 remaining. Stephen Croone drained back-to-back buckets to cut the deficit to 11 points, but Stitt netted seven straight points to ignite a 13-2 CofC run that gave the Cougars a 60-38 lead and control of the game when Johnathan Cook connected from three-point range with 13:23 to play.
Croone made 7-of-14 shots to pace the Paladins with 20 points while freshman William Gates Jr. added 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Freshman Kris Acox added a career-best nine rebounds for the Paladins, who shot just 34.5 percent from the floor, including just 3-for-16 from three-point range.
Stitt, who made 7-of-12 shots to lead the Cougars in scoring, totaled four steals and did not commit a turnover in 32 minutes of action. Barry added 15 points and Adjehi Baru and Cook scored 14 points apiece to join the guard in double figures.
Charleston shot 56.9 percnet for the game, highlighted by an 11-for-24 effort from beyond the arc. The Cougars outscored Furman 38-22 in the paint and committed just nine turnovers.
Western Kentucky 67, Samford 64
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- The Samford University basketball team turned in its best performance of the 2013-14 campaign Saturday, but dropped a heartbreaking 67-64 loss on the road against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in a First Bank and Trust Company Roundball Showcase contest held at E.A. Diddle Arena.
“I thought our guys competed and played hard tonight,” said Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer. “Western Kentucky did what it took to win and they deserved to win. Nobody is feeling sorry for us right now and we’re just going to continue to work hard. Everybody in that locker room tonight was hurting. We figured we could win this game. We played well, but we didn’t win, so playing well doesn’t matter when you don’t win.”
With just 1.3 seconds remaining, Samford (1-5) trailed Western Kentucky (3-1), 67-64, but had possession of the ball at midcourt. Junior Connor Miller took the ball out of bounds for the Bulldogs and fed a cross-court pass to Raijon Kelly where he picked up the ball just across the timeline.
Kelly, Samford’s junior native of St. Paul, Minn., and the Bulldogs’ last-second-shot specialist, gathered the pass on the right side of the court, took a quick dribble and lofted a possible game-tying attempt that nearly found the bottom of the net. Kelly’s last-second shot bounced off the side of the rim as the Hilltoppers held on for a three-point victory, 67-64.
Samford used a stellar defensive performance midway through the second half to take a 51-43 advantage over the Hilltoppers with 8:08 remaining to play in the game. The Bulldogs forced WKU into eight turnovers during the five-minute stretch and embarked upon a key 12-0 run.
From 17:44 to 11:59 in the second half, Samford didn’t allow a single Hilltopper point and received baskets of its own from Kelly, Michael Bradley, Tim Williams and Brandon Hayman. Kelly scored six of the first eight points of the rally, while it was Hayman’s layup at 12:14 that gave the Bulldogs a 47-39 advantage.
WKU’s T.J. Price connected on a running layup at 7:54 to break the Hilltoppers’ 7:48 stretch without a field goal.
The Bulldogs forced WKU into a game-high 19 turnovers and finished Saturday’s contest with nine steals. Samford turned in a sizzling 56-percent shooting performance from the field, but only knocked down a trio of 3-point baskets, all of which came off the hand of true freshman Isaiah Williams.
At the 7:54 mark in the second half, the Hilltoppers’ T.J. Price knocked down a runner and then a deep 3-point basket to trim Samford’s lead to 51-48 with 6:18 remaining in the game.
On the next two possessions, WKU’s George Fant scored four straight points to tie the score at 52-52 before Brandon Price connected on a 3-point basket to give the Hilltoppers a 55-52 advantage.
Down the stretch, Samford’s Isaiah Williams would tie the score again at 57-57, while Tyler Hood and Kelly would score layups to trim the WKU advantage to one point.
With four seconds in the game, T.J. Price made a pair of free throws to give the Hilltoppers their 67-64 lead before Kelly’s final game-tying attempt.
The Bulldogs outshot WKU on Saturday, 56.0 percent to 48.9 percent, and finished tied in the rebound battle, 24-24. Additionally, Samford outscored the Hilltoppers in points in the paint, 42-26, points off turnovers, 22-18, and second-chance points, 13-5.
The only two categories that WKU excelled in were free-throw shooting, 15-of-20, and 3-point shooting, 8-of-21. The Bulldogs finished the contest with a 5-of-9 mark from the charity stripe and a 3-of-9 performance from beyond the arc.
Isaiah Williams led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field. Samford’s freshman from Buford, Ga., also handed out three assists and grabbed two rebounds in the second start of his young collegiate career.
The Bulldogs’ Tim Williams followed with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Kelly added 10 points and four steals in 31 minutes off the bench. Bradley scored a season-high seven points Saturday as Hood and Hayman also chipped in with six points apiece.
T.J. Price led all scorers with 28 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field. WKU’s junior guard from Slidell, La., also made four 3-point baskets and finished a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line. Fant proved to be the Hilltoppers’ second-leading scorer with 17 points.
Samford had eight players score in the first half and were being paced by Isaiah Williams, Russell Wilson and Bradley with five points apiece. At the intermission, the Bulldogs trailed WKU, 34-31, as T.J. Price knocked down a 3-point basket from the right flank at the buzzer.
Price led the Hilltoppers with 15 points and four rebounds in the first half. Fant also added nine points in the opening period for WKU.
Both teams shot at least 50 percent from the field in the first half, but the Hilltoppers added a 40-percent outing from beyond the arc. Nigel Snipes and T.J. Price both connected on a pair of 3-point baskets in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Samford only attempted three 3-point baskets in the first half as true freshman Isaiah Williams knocked down a key 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down.
WKU improved to 8-0 all-time against Samford, while the Bulldogs dropped to 0-5 when playing in E.A. Diddle Arena.
USC Upstate 72, Western Carolina 58
KENT, Ohio – A 29 percent field goal percentage in the first half dug Western Carolina a hole they could not overcome as the Catamounts fell 72-58 to USC Upstate in the final game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in the M.A.C. Center.
A travel weary WCU team ends a 10-day, six-game road trip as the Catamounts will return to the Ramsey Center on Tuesday, November 26 at 7 p.m. against Limestone. Dating back to the season opener against Wittenberg on November 8 the Catamounts have played eight games in 15 days including a stretch of four games in six days that also featured a cross-country trip to Oregon.
In the first half the Catamounts 29 percent mark from the field came on 9-of-31 shooting. WCU made only four 3-pointers on 16 attempts for 25 percent from behind in the arc.
USC Upstate, who shot 58 percent in the first 20 minutes, capitalized on WCU’s slow start as the Spartans led by as many as 20 points, 43-23, with 2:42 showing before the break. A Tom Tankelewicz 3-pointer was the final basketball of the half as WCU cut the margin down to 17 points, 43-26.
The Spartans held another 20-point lead, 49-29, three minutes into the second half and a 19-point lead, 56-39, with 10:48 left on the clock. WCU found its rhythm and mounted an 11-2 run on seven points from Trey Sumler and four points from Tawaski King to cut the lead down to ten points, 60-50, five minutes later. The Catamounts trimmed the lead down to 64-58 with 1:51 left on a Sumler jumper, but USC Upstate held on and edged out the 72-58 win.
Sumler and Brandon Boggs paced the Catamounts with 16 points each. Sumler came up one rebound shy of back-to-back double-doubles as he collected nine boards; he also had five assists tying for a game-high.
USC Upstate had four players scored in double figures as Ricardo Glenn led the way with 17 points. Glenn was 7-of-9 from the floor; he also made three of his four free throws. Fred Miller followed with 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. Jodd Maxey and Ty Greene chipped in 11 and 10 points respectively for the Spartans.
The Purple and Gold ended the game at 34 percent overall, 19 percent from three and 64 percent from the line, while the Spartans cooled down slightly to end with a 47 percent field goal percentage. Upstate was 18 percent from behind the arc and 79 percent from the charity stripe.