Furman 84, Appalachian State 65
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Sophomore Kris Acox posted career highs with 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead five Paladins in double figures as Furman downed Sun Belt Conference member Appalachian State, 84-65, in non-conference men’s basketball action on Wednesday night at Timmons Arena.
Furman’s starting front court of Acox and junior Kevin Chuisseu combined to connect on 9-of-10 field goal attempts, and the Paladins (1-1) shot 54.7 percent from the floor to notch their first victory of the season and second straight win in the series with App State (0-2).
Juniors Larry Wideman and Stephen Croone scored 10 and nine points, respectively, in the first half as Furman shot 58 percent and buried five treys to race out to a 47-30 lead at intermission. Acox, who missed the final 14 games of last season with a broken foot, scored the first three points of the second half and Wideman capped a 13-7 spurt on a jumper with 14:37 left to give the Paladins a 60-37 advantage.
Midway through the period, William Gates Jr. drained a three and Acox converted on back-to-back layups to help Furman extend the margin to 69-43 with 10:51 remaining. Paladin head coach Niko Medved was able to play all 12 players that dressed as Furman cruised to the 19-point win.
Acox finished 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-6 at the foul line to total 14 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes of action. Croone, Wideman and Kendrec Ferrara each tallied 12 points, while Gates Jr. added 10 points.
The Paladins, who led wire-to-wire for the victory, posted a 42-32 edge in scoring in the paint, a 39-29 advantage in rebounding and the Furman bench outscored Appalachian State 30-8.
Junior Frank Eaves paced the Mountaineers with 20 points on 5-of-16 shooting, and forward Tommy Spagnolo added 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Furman held App State to just 39.3% (22-56) shooting on the night.
Mercer 74, Kennesaw State 66
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer men’s basketball team went up by as many as 25 on Wednesday night before surviving a late Kennesaw State rally in a 74-66 victory at Hawkins Arena.
Mercer went to 2-1 on the year while Kennesaw State fell to 0-3 with the loss.
Head coach Bob Hoffman won his 128th game on the Mercer sidelines, moving into a tie for third most in program history. Junior Jibri Bryan scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the first half as the Bears blitzed the visitors out of the gate.
After a scoreless first two minutes, a fast break layup for junior Phillip Leonard and a fallaway jumper by senior Darious Moten staked the Bears to a 4-0 lead. Key to the quick start was senior T.J. Hallice, who rejected a KSU shot and stepped in the lane for a steal in the opening minutes.
Mercer’s lead swelled to 12 by the 9:07 juncture as junior Ike Nwamu went coast to coast for a fast break layup that capped a 10-2 charge. The Bears continued to maintain control and ultimately went ahead by 17 as Bryan canned a jumper at the final buzzer of the half.
Early in the second half, Hallice scored five points in a 41-second span to push Mercer’s lead to 22. With 7:50 to play, Mercer led 62-37 when the Owls began a late charge to make things interesting.
Kennesaw State outscored Mercer 22-4 over the next 5:01, highlighted by four 3-pointers in just over two minutes of play to get within seven (66-59) with 2:49 to go. Six free throws down the stretch helped the Bears salt away the victory, which marked Mercer’s fourth-straight against the in-state opponent.
Moten finished with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go along with four rebounds and an assist. Leonard tallied 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal while Hallice added 11 points, five boards, four steals and a block.
Mercer shot a season-high 55.6 percent from the floor in the win and held advantages in paint scoring (34-28), points off turnovers (19-15) and bench scoring (12-2). Freshman Jordan Strawberry led Mercer’s reserves with eight points, three assists, a rebound and a steal in 18 minutes.
Mercer is now set to open a four-game road trip at Colorado State on Sunday. After Sunday’s game, the Bears head to Anchorage, Alaska for three games in the Great Alaskan Shootout.
The Citadel 71, Toccoa Falls 58
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Ashton Moore scored a team-high 20 points and P.J. Horgan added 18 points and seven rebounds as The Citadel earned an 71-58 victory over Toccoa Falls in its home opener on Wednesday evening.
Entering the second half with a 38-23 advantage, The Citadel combined the inside play of Horgan and C.J. Bray with the 3-point shooting of Moore and Marshall Harris III to lead 50-35 just under eight minutes into the frame.
Toccoa Falls chipped away at the double-digit deficit with a 10-4 run, sparked by nine points from Josh Barrett, as the Eagles moved within nine at the 7:29 mark.
A jumper by Horgan, followed by a Moore 3-pointer, pushed The Citadel back in front by double figures. Those two scores marked the beginning of a 15-4 run that stretched 4:27 of the contest as the Bulldogs assumed a 69-49 advantage.
The Eagles again turned to the services of Josh Barrett, who scored seven of the team's final nine points of the contest to make for the 13-point difference.
Moore, who converted 7-of-21 from the floor, was successful on 6-of-15 from beyond the arc en route to the 14th 20-point game of his Bulldog career. The six treys were a single-game career-high for the Suffolk, Va., native who passed Jamie Jenkins (132) and Kevin Hammack (133) to move into ninth place among the school's all-time 3-point shooters.
Horgan was also an integral part of The Citadel (1-2) offense as he reached double figures for the second time this season after hitting 9-of-13 from the floor. He snagged seven boards, three on the offensive glass, to give the Dogs a 44-27 advantage in rebounds.
Sophomore Brian White came off the bench to close with 14 points and 12 rebounds, hitting 5-of-8 from the field in the process. White's 12 rebounds tie a career-high that he set last season against Army. It marks the fourth time in his career, and first since Dec. 18, 2013 against Brevard, that White has notched a double-double for the Cadets.
The Citadel closed out the victory by hitting 26-of-61 (42.6%) from the floor and 11-of-16 (68.8%) from the charity stripe. One of the major keys to the Dogs' success was their unselfish play as they finished with 17 assists, including a game-high seven from Marshall Harris III and three from fellow starter Warren Sledge.
Toccoa Falls (5-2) was led offensively by the duo of Josh Barrett (27 points) and Derek Westfall (10). Josh Barrett scored 20 of his game-high 27 points in the second half as he finished 8-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. He also managed to knock down 7-of-9 from the charity stripe and posed a threat defensively throughout the night for The Citadel with a game-best five steals.
The Eagles recovered from a difficult shooting opening half, where they hit only 8-of-26 (30.8%) from the field, to finish the game 20-of-49 (40.8%). That was due in large part to a 12-of-23 (52.2%) second half shooting display that included a trio of 3-pointers.
The Citadel established itself early in the game as it ran out to a 16-0 lead behind five points from Sledge and four from Horgan. Sledge, making the second start of his collegiate career in place of the injured Quinton Marshall, contributed immediately as he drove home a 3-pointer at the 18:11 mark.
The Dogs defensive effort held Toccoa Falls to single digits until the 7:41 mark, when a jumper by Zach Barrett made for a 25-10 contest.
The Eagles twice pulled within 12 points of The Citadel, including a 27-15 score, but the Bulldogs withstood the challenge with an 11-2 run that was highlighted by a pair of Moore treys. The 21-point lead was the largest of the night for the Bulldogs.
Samford 68, Austin Peay 67
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Trailing by a point with mere seconds remaining in regulation Wednesday, Samford’s Evan Taylor gathered a pass from Christen Cunningham, took three quick dribbles to his right and pulled up for a 15-foot jumper. Taylor fired off the shot with two seconds left and drained the game-winning basket with exactly :0.9 remaining on the clock as the Bulldogs registered a thrilling 68-67 victory over the Austin Peay Governors in their home opener held at the Pete Hanna Center.
The win proved to be the first of The Padgett Era after Samford (1-2) opened its 2014-15 campaign with road losses at Purdue and Pittsburgh last week.
“It’s always good to get a win,” said Samford head coach Scott Padgett. “I thought we came out with a lot of energy and played really well in the first half, but then it seemed as if we were a little tight there in the second half. On that last play, we always tell our guys to be ready, because you never know when your chance will come and Evan was definitely ready tonight.”
Taylor, the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-4 true freshman guard from Cincinnati, Ohio, finished Wednesday’s contest with five points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field, but knocked down the biggest shot of the evening when it counted.
Coming off the bench against Austin Peay (1-2), Taylor led all reserves with 26 minutes of playing time and added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.
As a team, Samford shot 45.5 percent from the floor and drained seven 3-point baskets, but the key numbers proved to be in the intangibles. The Bulldogs registered a 32-3 disparity in bench points and added a 27-16 advantage in fast-break points. Additionally, Samford forced the Governors into 14 turnovers, which led to 21 points.
“Our bench was extremely good for us today and led to a lot of good things,” Padgett said. “We were in a position to really put the game away, but Austin Peay kept battling and was able to find a way back into contention. I tell you what, if we win every game this season exactly like we did tonight, then I’d be totally fine with it, because a win is a win.”
Samford used a 17-0 run midway through the first half to expand its lead from 17-16 to 34-16 in just a matter of minutes.
During the Bulldogs’ key stretch, Samford applied its full-court defensive pressure and came up with a number of steals and easy fast-break layups. Sophomore guard Brandon Roberts provided a crucial spark off the bench and scored nine quick points to ignite the Bulldogs’ first-half rally.
Roberts, Samford’s nimble 6-foot-1 sophomore from Decatur, finished Wednesday’s matchup with 11 points, two assists and a pair of steals. He went 4-of-7 from the field and knocked down a pair of key 3-point baskets.
Despite falling behind by 17 points in the first half, Austin Peay never showed any quit against their former Ohio Valley Conference rivals and trimmed the Bulldogs’ lead to 41-30 at the intermission.
“I couldn’t have been happier with how active we were defensively in the first half,” said Padgett. “We forced them into quite a few turnovers in the first half and we weren’t letting them get many easy looks. Then, in the second half, we seemed to get a little sluggish, so I went back to the bench and our reserves were able to hold strong and we were able to get the win.”
Austin Peay opened the second half with a quick 13-6 run and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 47-43 at the 14:50 mark in the final period.
The Governors’ Chris Freeman scored six points during the stretch and finished Wednesday’s game with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Austin Peay’s Chris Horton led all scorers with 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the floor and also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
At 13:02 to play in the second half, Samford extended its lead back to 55-45 with a deep 3-point basket from Nnamdi Enechionyia, but then the Govs rallied to take their first advantage of the second half with 2:01 remaining, 65-63.
The lead changed three times in the final 56 seconds of the game as Samford’s Taylor culminated the Bulldogs’ last-second victory with his final buzzer-beater.
Cunningham led Samford in scoring with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor Wednesday, while also handing out a team-high five assists. Cunningham, the reigning Southern Conference Freshman of the Week, logged 27 minutes of playing time and tallied two rebounds and a pair of steals.
The Bulldogs’ Darius Jones-Gibson recorded 10 points and seven rebounds, while Michael Bradley added eight points, Jamal Shabazz scored seven and Marcus Johnson added six on two critical 3-point baskets.