Chattanooga 78, Coastal Carolina 67
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Ronrico White and Casey Jones led four double-digit scorers as the Chattanooga Mocs defeated Coastal Carolina 78-67 in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis mainland tourney. The duo combined for 41 points as the Mocs even their record at 3-3, while CCU falls to 4-2.
White had a game-high 21, while Jones tallied his second straight double-double with 20 points and 12 boards. Shivaughn Wiggins led the Chanticleers with 20 points.
“Ronrico was tremendous,” coach Will Wade. “He shot the ball well and was an offensive playmaker for us. He deserves everything he gets. He was a little down on his shot, so he and Wes (Long) practiced last night until 11:30 working on his shot. Those are the little things it takes to win.
“Rico does them and that’s what it takes to win it.”
Chattanooga came back from a five-point (40-35) halftime deficit. Trailing 46-43, Jones hit a jumper at 15:39 to close to within one. White drilled a three-pointer on the next possession to give the Mocs a two-point lead, 48-46. It was an advantage they would not let get away.
Eric Robertson's layup with 9:25 to play made it a seven-point game, 57-50. Coastal did not get closer than five the rest of the way.
It was a five-point game with a little more than three minutes to go when Jones hits another jumper at 3:08. Both teams played lockdown defense for nearly two minutes when Greg Pryor hit a contested jumper in the paint with 1:29 to play to make it a nine-point cushion, 67-68. Chattanooga hit 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch to stymie any CCU efforts at a comeback.
Pryor had 15 points and three steals. Justin Tuoyo added 11 points, five rebounds and a career-high six blocks. He’s had five multi-block games in six starts this season. Behind Jones (12) and Tuoyo, the Mocs won the battle on the glass 36-32.
Warren Gillis and Josh Cameron each scored 13 for the Chanticleers. Badou Diagne led in rebounding with nine. CCU was limited to 43.6 percent from the field, 30.8 percent (4-13) from 3pt range.
Mercer 77, Rice 71 (OT)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Mercer men’s basketball team built a 15-point second half lead over Rice in Thursday night’s Great Alaska Shootout quarterfinal, but were forced to survive a furious Owls rally before prevailing 77-71 in overtime at the Alaskan Airlines Center.
Mercer improved to 3-2 on the season and advanced to face the winner of tonight’s UC Santa Barbara-Washington State quarterfinal on Friday at midnight EST.
Juniors Ike Nwamu and Jibri Bryan combined for 41 points in the victory, 19 of which came at the free throw line. Nwamu’s game-high 21 points came in conjunction with six rebounds and two assists while Bryan’s 20-point output also featured three rebounds and an assist.
After taking a 33-28 lead into halftime, but Bears blitzed the Owls with an 11-1 run out of the break to go ahead by 15 with 14:28 to play. Mercer’s defense was paramount during the stretch, holding Rice without a field goal for over seven minutes of game time.
Rice hung around, scoring on seven-straight possessions midway through the half to cut the deficit to 53-48. Despite a momentary respite, Rice continued its charge and ultimately regained the lead at 57-55 with 3:51 to play.
The Owls still led by two when junior Darious Moten corralled an offensive rebound and scored a twisting put-back layup to knot matters at 61-61 with 28 seconds left. Rice’s bid at a game winner fell short when T.J. Hallice suffocated Rice’s Marcus Jackson on the final possession.
Hallice came up big just moments later, receiving a Phillip Leonard pass and scoring a layup to give Mercer the first bucket of overtime. Three free throws and a dunk by Moten helped stake Mercer to a 68-63 lead with 2:39 left in the extra period, and from there the Bears salted away the victory with solid free throw shooting.
Mercer hit 12-of-16 free throws in overtime and finished 31-of-44 at the stripe for the game. Hallice collected a career-high 12 points to go along with five rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal while Moten totaled eight points, five rebounds and two assists.
Leonard dished seven assists for the third time this year, scored six points and grabbed four rebounds. Freshman Niklas Ney led Mercer’s reserves with five points and three boards.