Western Carolina 70, The Citadel 52
CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina cruised to its 10th Southern Conference victory with a 70-52 win over The Citadel Saturday afternoon in the Ramsey Center behind a stout defense that swatted away nine blocks as the Catamounts broke the school single-season blocks record.
WCU picked up four blocks from Kenneth Hall, who entered play Saturday third in the SoCon and leads the team in blocked shots. Hall has knocked away 54 blocks this season. As team the Catamounts have blocked 142 shots snapping the previous record of 137 blocks by the 2000-01 and 2004-05 squads.
The Catamounts opened up an early 12-point lead, 15-3, five and a half minutes into play highlighted by seven points by Trey Sumler and four points from Brandon Boggs including a high-flying transition dunk. The Bulldogs answered with a 9-3 run cutting the Catamount lead down to six points, 18-12, with 9:37 remaining before the half following a Matt Van Scyoc triple and free throw by Warren Sledge.
WCU answered with the next four points on a Bogg jumper and a Sumler basket to regain the double-digit lead, 22-12, two and a half minutes later. The Citadel trimmed the lead down to six points, 27-21, but Tom Tankelewicz answered with a 3-pointer for WCU keeping the Bulldogs at a comfortable distance. The Catamounts held the double figure lead, 35-25, at the break.
WCU's starting backcourt carried the load in the first half scoring 26 of the Catamounts' 35 points. Boggs accounted for 10 points, while Sumler and James Sinclair scored nine points and seven points respectively.
The Catamounts came out of the break and pushed their lead out to 14 points, 43-29, on a Tawaski King jumper three minutes into the action. WCU's post men scored six of the team's early eight points in the half as Hall added a pair of free throws and dunk. The Catamounts held the comfortable lead and pushed the margin out to 24 points, 64-40, following a pair of free throws from Sumler and Sinclair with 4:07 showing on the clock.
The Purple & Gold held its margin over the final four minutes en route to the 70-52 win.
WCU made 24 of its 54 shots from the floor for 44 percent compared to The Citadel's 32 percent on 17-of-54 shooting. The Catamounts converted 17 of their 23 free throw attempts for 74 percent, while the Bulldogs made 13 of their 20 attempts from the charity stripe for 65 percent.
The Catamount defense forced 14 Bulldog turnovers resulting in 15 points. WCU, the league’s leader in the steals, had seven take-a-ways led by four from Boggs.
The Catamount backcourt finished with 43 of the team’s 70 points led by 18 points from Sumler. Sinclair finished with 13 points, and Boggs added 12 points. Sumler also collected six rebounds and handed out three assists, while Sinclair grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Ashton Moore led The Citadel offense with 16 points on a 6-of-14 shooting performance. Matt Van Scyoc was the only other Bulldog in double figures as he notched 10 points.
With the win, WCU picks up its sixth season with 10 or more SoCon wins as the Catamounts improve to 17-12 overall and 10-4 in league play. The Citadel fell to 4-25 overall and 0-14 in SoCon games.
Furman 68, Appalachian State 53
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Furman scored on its opening possession and never trailed as Appalachian State University men’s basketball suffered its third-straight loss by a 68-53 final in Southern Conference action on Saturday at Timmons Arena.
The Mountaineers (8-19, 4-10) shot just 25.0 percent (8-of-32) in the first half as the Paladins (9-18, 3-11) snapped a four-game losing streak to Appalachian.
Furman jumped out to an early 4-0 lead as it held the Mountaineers scoreless until the 16:45 mark of the first half and led by as many as seven points (12-5) in the first 10 minutes of play. Appalachian was able to reel off a 9-2 run to tie the score at 14-14 with 8:27 - the run began with a Chris Burgess three pointer at the 11:57 mark and ended on Tommy Spagnolo's layup three and a half minutes later.
The Paladins responded with seven-straight points to jump back in front 21-14 with just under five minutes to play and headed into the locker room with a 25-21 lead as it outscored Appalachian 11-7 over the final eight minutes of the opening half.
The momentum would carry over into the opening part of the second half for Furman, which scored the first four points of the half to take a 29-21 lead and force an Appalachian timeout.
App State would pull within four points (29-25) after Spagnolo hit a free throw and Tab Hamilton drilled a three with 16:45 to go - but the Paladins responded with a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to push the lead to 11 points (36-25) with 15:10 to play.
After seeing the deficit balloon to 13 points (41-28), the Mountaineers would score nine of the next 11 points to cut Furman’s lead to 43-37, but Keith Belfield answered from long range and connected on a pair of free throws to put the Paladins up by nine points (48-39) with 9:33 to play.
Appalachian would never really challenge from there as Furman never led by less than seven points the rest of the way and pushed the lead to as many as 18 points in the final minute to pick up just its third win in its last 14 games.
Spagnolo led all scorers with 16 points and tied Michael Obacha with a game-high 11 rebounds while Hamilton added 12 points and Jay Canty poured in 10 and grabbed six rebounds.
Belfield and Stephen Croone paced Furman with 15 points each while William Gates scored 13 and Charlie Reddick ripped down 11 rebounds. In addition to his 15 points, Croone also dished out six assists and tallied three steals.
As a team, Appalachian shot just 31.1 percent (19-of-61) while the Paladins connected at a clip of 50.0 percent (25-of-50). The Mountaineers pulled down 45 rebounds while limiting Furman to 31, but scored just 12 second-chance points on 21 offensive rebounds.
Elon 66, Georgia Southern 61
STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball fell 66-61 to Elon Saturday afternoon. Four Eagles finished in double figures while Elon drained 10 buckets from beyond the arc.
With the loss, Georgia Southern falls to 12-17 on the season and 5-9 in league play. Elon improves to 17-11 and 10-3 in the SoCon.
Georgia Southern had four players scoring in double figures, led by 16 from Bussey in his final game at Hanner Fieldhouse. Jelani Hewitt added 13 points while Brian Holmes made a pair of three-pointers to finish the afternoon with 11 points. Angel Matias rounded out the double-digit Eagles with 10 points.
Baynham, who joined the 500 rebound club earlier this week against Chattanooga, grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds. It was the first time in his career that he recorded double-digit rebounds in back-to-back games.
Lucas Troutman scored 20 points for Elon to lead all scorers. Jack Isenbarger posted 14 while Tanner Samson added 12 points. Overall, Elon went 10-for-28 from beyond the arc.
Elon led most of the day, but the Eagles were able to hold the Phoenix at arm’s length, keeping the lead under 10 points throughout the second half. With just under five minutes left, Holmes drained a clutch three-pointer to cut the lead to one. That, however, would be the Eagles’ final field goal until Hewitt made a lay-in with five seconds left in the game.
Davidson 59, Wofford 49
DAVIDSON, N.C. – Davidson converted 52.4 percent of its field-goal attempts while holding Wofford to just 34 percent, as the Wildcats clinched at least a share of the regular season title with a 59-49 win over Wofford in Southern Conference men’s basketball action Saturday night in Belk Arena.
Davidson (17-11, 13-1 SoCon) won its 10th straight game and ended the Terriers’ nine-game winning streak.
De’Mon Brooks paced the Wildcats with a game-high 18 points, connecting on all six of his attempts from the field, while grabbing eight rebounds. Tyler Kalinoski added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting, including two of Davidson’s six buckets from behind the arc.
After the Terriers took a 32-30 lead early in the second half, the Wildcats went on an 18-6 spurt and pushed the margin back to double digits, 48-38, on a Brian Sullivan jumper with 7:40 to play. Wofford (16-11, 10-4 SoCon) cut the deficit to 48-45 with five straight, but Davidson put the game away with an11-1 run sparked by seven consecutive from Brooks.
The backcourt of Spencer Collins and Karl Cochran were the lone Terriers in double figures with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Davidson, which held the Terriers without a field goal until the 11:32 mark of the opening half, raced out to a 15-3 advantage. Wofford responded with a 23-6 spurt, capped off by 18 unanswered, to grab its first lead of the contest, 26-21. Despite experiencing a lengthy scoring drought (6:01) of their own, the Wildcats scored the last five points of the half, including a Kalinoski triple at the buzzer to tie the score, 26-26 at the break.
In addition to 32 points in the paint, Davidson finished with a 33-24 margin on the glass, while finishing with 16 assists on 22 field goals.