Davidson 79, UNCG 46
DAVIDSON, N.C. – Davidson drilled 13 3-pointers, ran its winning streak to 11 straight and captured the 2014 Southern Conferenceregular season title with a 79-46 victory over UNCG on Senior Night Thursday inside John M. Belk Arena.
BrianSullivan paced three Wildcats in double figures with 19 points, including a5-of-8 effort from behind the arc. Playing in front of the home crowd for the final time, De’Mon Brooks just missed his 11th career double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds, while going 8-for-10 at the line.
Tyler Kalinoski, who entered with one of the top 3-point shooting percentages in the country, added to his clip going 4-of-7 en route to 14 points.
In addition to shooting 48.1 percent from long range, Davidson (18-11, 14-1 SoCon) held its opponent under 40 percent overall for the second straight contest as UNCG (13-17, 6-9 SoCon) finished at 33.3 percent, while only hitting 1-of-12 from beyond the arc.
RJ White was the lone Spartan in double figures with 16 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats found their rhythm late in the first 20 minutes as they closed on a 23-8 run highlighted by five of their nine first-half 3-pointers, to take a44-25 lead at the break. Kalinoski (3) and Sullivan (2), who hit the treys during Davidson’s game-changing spurt, combined to go 7-for-10 from downtown in the period.
Davidson carried the momentum into the second half, and finishing with its largest lead of 33 points.
The Wildcats held a 41-40 edge on the glass and finished with 17 assists on 26 field goals.
Wofford 63, Elon 59
ELON, N.C. – Down seven points with six minutes left, the Wofford men’s basketball team used five three pointers from Karl Cochran to take the lead and the 63-59 win over Elon on Thursday night at Alumni Gym.
Wofford is 17-11 on the season and 11-4 in the Southern Conference. Elon is 18-12 and 11-4 in league play. The Terriers were led by Karl Cochran with 20 points and Lee Skinner with 17 points, 13 of which came from the free throw line. Cochran and Skinner each had seven rebounds. The Phoenix was led by Lucas Troutman with 23 points and eight rebounds. Wofford ended Elon’s eight-game winning streak.
The Phoenix scored first and had a 7-2 lead after four minutes of play. Spencer Collins hit a jumper and Karl Cochran tied the game at seven with a three pointer at the 15:06 mark. Elon scored the next seven points for a 14-7 advantage before Lee Skinner hit a pair of free throws at the ten minute mark to make it a five-point game. Elon took an 18-12 lead with a pair from the line with 8:14 on the clock.
Down 19-12, the Terriers had buckets by C.J. Neumann and Karl Cochran to make it a 19-16 game. Another lay-up by C.J. Neumann cut the lead to 19-18 with 3:39 left in the first half. Elon scored the next four points before Lee Skinner made a pair of free throws for a 23-20 score with two minutes remaining. The Phoenix was up six when Lee Skinner made two from the line with 28 seconds on the clock for a 26-22 score. Elon had a last shot go wide of the basket for a four-point lead at the break.
Spencer Collins made two free throws to open the scoring in the second half and make it a 26-24 game. A lay-up by C.J. Neumann cut the lead to 29-26 and it was a 31-28 game after a fade-away jumper by Spencer Collins with 16:01 left in the second half. The Phoenix scored the next five points, including their first three pointer of the night, to take a 36-28 lead with 12:41 on the clock. John Swinton ended the run with a pair of free throws for a 36-30 score at the 11:52 mark.
Wofford cut the lead to 36-32 with a bucket by Lee Skinner, but Elon hit a three pointer to take a 39-32 advantage with 10:46 left in the second half. After the Phoenix took a 42-34 lead, Eric Garcia hit a jumper and Spencer Collins made a free throw for a 42-37 score at the 9:09 mark. A shot by Jaylen Allen made it a three point game, but the Phoenix answered with four straight points for a 46-39 lead with 6:13 remaining.
A three pointer by Karl Cochran at the 5:49 mark made it a 46-42 score. After a bucket by Elon, back-to-back three pointers by Karl Cochran tied the game at 48 with 4:18 left in the second half. Two more three pointers by Karl Cochran gave the Terriers a 54-52 lead with 2:52 on the clock. Elon tied it with two free throws, but Lee Skinner hit a jumper for a 56-54 advantage at the 2:03 mark.
Elon tied it again with a pair from the line, but Eric Garcia drained a three from the corner for a 59-56 lead with 39 seconds on the clock. A pair of free throws by Spencer Collins were answered by a three pointer by Jack Isenbarger for a 61-59 score with 14.4 remaining. Two more from the line by Lee Skinner pushed the lead to 63-59 and Elon failed to score on their final possession to end the game.
Wofford shot 37.8 percent from the floor and Elon was 37.5 percent overall. The Terriers were 7-of-19 from with three, while the Phoenix was 3-of-10 from behind the arc. Elon was 20-of-23 from the line while Wofford was 22-of-27 on free throws. Rebounds were tied at 32, while Elon had one more turnover than the Terriers.
Georgia Southern 82, Furman 73
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Georgia Southern Men’s Basketball took its first win over Furman at Timmons Arena since the 2007-08 season with an 82-73 win to complete the series sweep over the Paladins. Jelani Hewitt made three first-half three pointers en route to 22 points in the penultimate SoCon regular season game.
The Eagles (13-17, 6-9 SoCon) led by 13 points at the intermission, but had a rough spell to start the second half as the Paladins (9-20, 3-13 SoCon) scored 11-straight points to open the stanza and cut the GS lead to just two. The Eagles, however, righted the ship and built the lead back to eight points with just under 12 minutes left in the game.
Hewitt led the Eagles in scoring with 22 points. In total, four Eagles scored in double figures with Tre Bussey adding 17 points. Brian Holmes had 14 points while Curtis Diamond posted 11.
Furman responded again and eventually tied the game with 7:55 left in the game. The Paladins, however, never took the lead as Georgia Southern ballooned the lead back to seven points entering the final minute.
Over that final minute, Georgia Southern made 9-of-10 at the free throw line to take the nine-point victory.
Stephen Croome scored 26 points to pace the Paladins with a 13-of-15 showing at the free throw stripe.
Georgia Southern out-rebounded the Paladins 31-23 behind nine boards from senior Marvin Baynham who is playing his best basketball down the stretch. GSU shot 52.9 percent from the field.
Chattanooga 83, Western Carolina 81 (OT)
CULLOWHEE, N.C.---The Chattanooga Mocs grabbed a Southern Conference road win topping Western Carolina in 83-81 overtime thriller. Yes, this one was so hotly-contested it took an extra five minutes to decide.
Martynas Bareika was the hero in regulation. He came off a screen and took a feed from Ronrico White draining a game-tying three-pointer with eight seconds left.
Casey Jones matched him on the defensive end. Trey Sumler drove into the lane but his final shot was blocked by Jones to treat the Catamount fans to free basketball.
After both teams traded scored early, Brandon Boggs made it a four-point game with a three-pointer from the left wing to give Western the 78-74 advantage with 1:51 to play. It was still four points when White pulled the trigger from 23 feet to cut the lead to one, 81-80, with 23.1 ticks to go.
Lance Stokes and Gee McGhee stepped up on the Catamounts in-bounds play. The duo tied up Tom Tanklewicz for the jump ball with the possession arrow pointing the Mocs way. Jones took the ball at the top of the key and drove hard to the basket. He put his squad up for good 82-80 with 13 seconds remaining.
Western pushed the ball down the floor quickly, but James Sinclair’s shot was off. White grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 4.2 left. He made one of two for the 83-81 lead. Tanklewicz’s contested three missed the mark securing the Chattanooga win.
Jones had 19 points, seven rebounds and three blocks for the Mocs. Z. Mason added 16 points and seven rebounds, while McGhee tallied 15 points and six boards. White came off the bench to chip
Boggs led all scorers with 22 points including four-for-six from 3pt range. Sinclair added 19 points and nine boards, Sumler posted 15 points with seven assists.
Both teams led by as many as nine points tonight; the Mocs in the first half, the Catamounts in the second. Boggs’ trey at 14:21 gave Western a 54-45 advantage. Chattanooga chipped away at the lead.
White nailed a triple at 11:23 to slice the lead to two, 57-55. Mason knotted the score at 60-all four minutes later. White hit three free throws after McGhee’s steal for the 63-60 lead at 5:38. That completed an 11-3 run for the Mocs.
The home team fought back. Kenneth Hall’s dunk with 54 seconds to go gave Western a 68-67 advantage. Two Boggs free throw with 21 seconds remaining set up Bareika’s huge shot.
The Mocs are now 17-13, 11-4 in the SoCon, while WCU falls to 16-14, 10-5 in league play.
Appalachian State 63, Samford 57
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A swarming defense and clutch free-throw shooting helped Appalachian State University men’s basketball to a 63-57 road win over Samford in Southern Conference action on Thursday at the Pete Hanna Center.
The Mountaineers (9-19, 5-10 SoCon) forced 25 turnovers and converted their final six shots from the charity stripe to finish off the season sweep of the Bulldogs (11-19, 5-10) in the penultimate game of the regular season.
Appalachian, which trailed by eight points (54-46) with just over seven minutes to go, held Samford scoreless for nearly the remainder of the game as it earned snapped a three-game overall and road losing streaks to take both regular-season meetings against the Bulldogs for the first time since the 2010-11 campaign.
Trailing by its largest deficit of the game, App State ripped off a 15-0 run to seal the victory. After Samford took a 54-46 lead on Raijon Kelly’s three pointer with 7:19 to play, Michael Obacha got the run started with a free-throw and Aaron Scott erased the deficit for good with a three-point play to tie the game at 54-54 with 1:54 left to play.
A tip-in by Tevin Baskin one minute later would give the Mountaineers a 56-54 lead and, in the final 28 seconds, Tommy Spagnolo and Frank Eaves would go a combined 6-of-6 from the free-throw line to seal the victory.
In a game in which Samford seemed completely unable to hold onto the ball, Appalachian jumped out to a two-point lead (6-4) with 16:52 to go in the first half and forced 18 Bulldog turnovers in the opening period to help stake itself to a 33-30 halftime lead.
Samford rallied in the second half as it held the Mountaineers without a bucket for the opening four-and-a-half minutes of the half and was able to build a sizeable lead over the first 10 minutes as Appalachian missed its first five field-goal attempts and two free throws in the opening moments of the half before Spagnolo connected on a layup to cut the deficit to one point (36-35) with 15:39 to play.
Although the Bulldogs held an eight-point lead with less than eight minutes to play, Samford was unable to overcome its sloppy play as it turned the ball over six times in the final 6:20 and Appalachian took advantage to pick up the win.
Spagnolo paced the Mountaineers with 21 points and 10 rebounds - his eighth double-double in the last 11 games - while Scott finished with 11 off the bench. Obacha finished with nine rebounds, falling just shy of his 12th double-digit rebound effort of the season.
Tim Williams scored a team-high 20 for the Bulldogs while Michael Bradley led all players with 11 rebounds. Isaiah Williams, who entered the game averaging 12.8 points per game, managed to score just five and turned the ball over a whopping six times.
On the night, Appalachian shot 38.2 percent (21-of-55) from the floor while Samford connected at a clip of 43.4 percent (23-of-53), but the Mountaineers outscored the Bulldogs 19-6 at the free-throw line as Samford was whistled for 25 fouls.