Wofford 82, Ohio Valley 54
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford men’s basketball team delivered 84-year-old Korean War veteran Jack Morris a victory in his coaching debut, defeating Ohio Valley, 82-54, Tuesday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
Morris served as Wofford’s honorary coach. He accepted the offer from head coach Mike Young, who surprised him with the opportunity at his home of Eden Terrace two weeks ago on Veterans Day. Wofford and Eden Terrance partnered with the foundation Second Wind Dreams to help make Morris’ wish a reality.
Senior Karl Cochran took some of the pressure off. After being named Southern Conference Player of the Week earlier in the day, Cochran began his campaign for another, notching his second double-double of the season with 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. He shot 6-of-13 from the floor and was 5-of-8 from three – all of his triples came in the first half.
Juniors Spencer Collins, Justin Gordon and sophomore Jaylen Allen joined Cochran in double-figure scoring. Collins shot 6-of-9 for 18 points, while Gordon was a perfect 5-of-5 for 13 and Allen drained a pair of triples to score 10.
The win makes five in a row for Wofford (5-1).
Ohio Valley (0-2) didn’t make it easy. Playing in just their second game of the year, the NCAA Div. II Fighting Scots led by as many as nine in the first half. A layup by Robert Smelser put them up 15-6 at the 13:57 mark.
The Terriers stormed back with an 8-0 run that spanned a tick less than three minutes. Gordon scored half of it, hitting two free throws and a jumper to cut the margin to one.
Gordon was not finished. With the Terriers still running, he caught a long lob from Eric Garcia for an alley-oop that put Wofford up seven and energized the arena. Cochran followed with a trey and two minutes later the Terriers led by 14, 41-27, with 2:16 to play before the break.
Cochran paced all scorers with 17 points at the half on 5-of-7 from deep. The Terriers led 43-32, shooting 50 percent from the floor to Ohio Valley’s game 42 percent.
Wofford continued to fight off a feisty Fighting Scot bunch. Smelser was good from two more at the 12:33 mark to get the visitor’s back within single-digts, 57-48.
A big Terrier run ensued that put the game away. A layup by senior Lee Skinner started a 13-2 spurt that saw Wofford lead 70-50 with 6:09 to play.
Ohio Valley only ever got within 17 after that before a 12-2 run finished it off through the final 4:59. In all, the two runs combined to help Wofford outscore Ohio Valley 25-6 over the final 11:56. Junior Zach Korkowski gave Wofford its biggest lead of the night with 10 seconds to play, scoring his first two points of the season and the final two of the game from the foul line.
Georgia State 85, Western Carolina 70
ROCHESTER, Mich. - With six minutes to play, the Western Carolina men's basketball team found itself tied with Georgia State at the CBE Hall of Fame Classic Regional Round in Rochester, Mich., but an 18-2 run by the Panthers gave GSU an insurmountable lead as the Catamounts fell 85-70.
Western Carolina moves to 2-3 on the year while Georgia State improves to 3-2. WCU will take on Chicago State tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. in its final game of the CBE Classic while the Panthers will face host Oakland at 7 p.m.
The Catamounts were led by junior Rhett Harrelson who eclipsed his career-high in points for the third time this season as he poured in 21 tallies while going a perfect 8-of-8 at the free throw line. He also had three assists and a steal in the game. Junior Torrion Brummitt continued his strong play at the classic with 15 points and eight rebounds while going 6-of-8 from the field.
Senior James Sinclair saw his 20-plus point streak end as he scored 14 points in the loss while dishing out three assists, grabbing four boards and picking up a steal. Junior Mike Brown was WCU's final double-digit scorer as he chipped in 11 points, four assists, four rebounds and a steal.
The Catamounts were 11-of-25 from the field in both halves to finish with a .440 shooting percentage. After going 10-of-10 at the charity stripe in the first half the Catamounts connected on just 8-of-15 in the second half to finish at 72.0 percent in the game.
The Panthers controlled the boards (36-27) and won the turnover battle (13-6) in route to the victory. They shot 49.2 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from the charity stripe. Their biggest advantages came in the paint (42-20), off turnovers (22-7) and on second chance baskets (22-7).
R.J. Hunter led Georgia State with 27 points while Ryan Harrow chipped in 21.
The Catamounts found themselves in foul trouble throughout the game and ended up losing both Mike Brown and Justin Browning to five fouls late in the game. Kenneth Hall also finished with four fouls while Sinclair and Brummitt ended the game with three.
WCU trailed by as many as seven points in the opening half and led by as many as two points as both teams went back-and-forth. With 3:59 left in the first and the Catamounts trailing by just one, the Panthers began a 7-2 run to open up a six point lead. Four free throws down the stretch cut that lead to just two with 21 seconds left but a jumper by Hunter with three ticks left gave GSU a 39-35 halftime advantage.
A three by Sinclair followed by a layup from Brummitt opened up the second half for the Catamounts as they claimed an early 40-39 lead. After a layup and free throw by the Panthers, Harrelson hit a triple to give WCU back the lead with 17:28 left on the clock. After some back-and-forth possessions the Panthers began to slightly pull away and eventually led by six points with just under 10 minutes left on the clock. Three minutes later back-to-back 3-pointers by Harrelson tied the game at 64 but that is when the Panthers went into overdrive as they began a four minute 18-2 run to take a 16 point lead with just under two minutes to play. The Catamounts were unable to erase the large deficit and ended the game down, 85-70.
Flordia State 66, The Citadel 55
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Citadel battled Florida State until the closing stages before six points by Xavier Rathan-Mayes in the final three minutes sealed a 66-55 victory for the Seminoles on Tuesday evening at the Tucker Center. Rathan-Mayes posted a game-high 26 points and teammate Montay Brandon added 19 as the Florida State earned its second win on the season.
A series of 3-pointers by Jake Wright cut the Bulldogs deficit to 56-51 with 2:37 remaining, before Phil Cofer came through with a timely jumper to spark a 10-4 run the rest of the way.
Rathan-Mayes, who finished 8-of-9 from the field and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the 3-point line, has now topped the 20-point mark in back-to-back games for the Seminoles. Brandon came through with his fourth double-digit outing the season by knocking down 6-of-8 from the floor and 7-of-10 at the free throw line.
Florida State capped off the game by hitting 23-of-38 from the floor and 6-of-14 from beyond the arc. Despite their size advantage in the paint, the Seminoles only finished with one more rebound (23) than the visiting Citadel.
The Bulldogs were led offensively by the trio of Ashton Moore (17 points), P.J. Horgan (12) and Wright (12). Moore extended his double-digit scoring streak to 12 games by hitting 8-of-19 from the floor.
Wright, who notched the first points of his collegiate career, was 4-of-5 from the field, all coming from long distance. Meanwhile, Horgan was the dominate post presence for the Cadets with 12 points and six rebounds (two offensive).
Behind a game-high six assists from Marshall Harris III the Bulldogs finished 22-of-47 from the floor. That marks the second-best field goal percentage against any ACC opponent in the five years under head coach Chuck Driesell.
Carrying over the momentum generated just before halftime, The Citadel used a pair of 3-pointers by Harris and Warren Sledge to trim the Florida State deficit to 29-28 just over four minutes into the second half.
The Seminoles responded to the challenge with a 14-5 run, highlighted by a pair of 3-pointers from Rathan-Mayes, pushing the advantage to 43-33 with 11:02 remaining.
Moore answered with a jumper and sliced past the Florida State defense to pull the Dogs back within single digits, 44-37.
Rathan-Mayes countered with a trey and following dunks by Brandon and Michael Ojo, the Seminoles had a 14-point advantage, their largest of the game.
Florida State has now won its last five games in the all-time series dating back Dec. 19, 1966.
The Citadel used a flurry of points by Horgan, Marshall and Moore to take a 6-5 lead by the first media timeout. However, nine missed field goal attempts by The Citadel allowed for a 12-0 run by the Seminoles who charged out in front 17-6 at the 7:09 mark.
A Horgan layup got the Dogs back in rhythm as they scored six unanswered points to move within five points with just over five minutes left in the half.
A 3-pointer by Xavier Rathan-Mayes gave Florida State an eight-point lead but that quickly evaporated as The Citadel put together a 7-2 run to close out the half. In the final 4:03 of the frame the Bulldogs used points in the paint by Koopman and Horgan, along with Jake Wright's first collegiate 3-pointer, to pull within three points at the intermission.