Western Carolina 78, UNCG 73
GREENSBORO, N.C. – For just the second time this season, the Western Carolina men’s basketball team picked up a road win in Southern Conference play. The Spartans of UNCG gave WCU a tough game but it was the Catamounts who held on for a 78-73 victory. Senior James Sinclair went over 20 points for the third-straight game and 13th time this season with a game-high 23. Junior Mike Brown dominated the glass grabbing a career-high 13 boards en route to his first career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Brown also led the team with three steals. Junior Torrion Brummitt added 14 points and six rebounds while junior Rhett Harrelson completed the quartet with 12 points and a pair of assists.
Freshman Tucker Thompson continued his strong post play of late with eight points, four rebounds and a pair of steals. Freshman Devin Peterson came off the bench to score six points and grab three steals.
The Catamounts are now 11-12 on the year and 6-5 in Southern Conference play. The Spartans fall to 6-17 overall and 2-8 in SoCon action. WCU will play five of its next six games at home as it makes a late run in the SoCon.
Following a game in which the Catamounts turned the ball over a season-high 22 times, WCU limited its mistakes to just seven turnovers.
WCU took the first lead of the game on a layup from Torrion Brummitt as both teams traded baskets over the first few possessions. With the score knotted at four, WCU began an 8-0 run that included an old-fashioned 3-point play and a regular 3-pointer from Sinclair. The Catamounts would lead for the next eight minutes until a UNCG 3-pointer gave the Spartans their first lead of the game at 20-18 with 8:28 left in the first. Sinclair immediately answered with a three of his own to give WCU back the advantage. WCU held a slight lead until the 2:30 mark when a jumper swung the advantage to UNCG. Once again the Catamounts had an answer as Brown and Peterson scored back-to-back baskets.
UNCG was able to come back and tie the game at 34 with 35 seconds left in the first. WCU set up a final play to finish the period and Sinclair buried a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to give the Catamounts a 37-34 lead at the break.
After a jumper by Brummitt opened the scoring in the second half, the Sparatans began an 8-0 run to take a 42-39 lead. The Catamounts would respond a few possessions later when a Harrelson 3-pointer sparked an 8-0 run for the Catamounts. Up seven, the Catamount would not trail again the rest of the game. UNCG was able to cut it to one on two separate occasions.
The Catamounts led by seven with 35 ticks left on the clock and the game looked to be in hand but a quick 4-0 run by UNCG made it a one possession game with just 25 seconds left. After Harrelson buried a pair of free throws, UNCG’s Nicholas Paulos nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to just two with 14 seconds remaining. When it looked like WCU would be unable to inbound the ball, Harrelson found Peterson who quickly turned and fired a pass to a wide-open Brown. Brown went on to dunk the ball and cement the Catamount victory. UNCG came up empty on the next possession and Kenneth Hall hit one of two free throws o give WCU its final margin of victory, 78-73.
UNCG was led by Tevon Saddler who scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. Paulos finished with 13 points and Kayel Locke added 12.
Chattanooga 78, The Citadel 73
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Chattanooga Mocs jumped out early and held on late in a 78-73 win over The Citadel in McKenzie Arena Saturday evening. Chattanooga is now 15-8, alone in second place at 8-2 in the Southern Conference, while the Bulldogs fall to 8-13, 3-7 in the league.
Casey Jones scored a game-high 23 points in the win. That’s one behind his career high of 24 tallied Thursday at Mercer. Ronrico White and Greg Pryor chipped in 14 apiece as White became just the sixth Moc of the DI era to make 300 career free throws.
Ashton Moore led a quintet of Bulldogs in double figures with 18. Brian White added 17, while Warren Sledge came off the bench for 12. P.J. Horgan and Quinton Marshall each had 10.
Jones scored the game’s first seven points as the Mocs got out the gate quickly. His 19 in the first 20 minutes staked the hosts to a 17-point halftime advantage, 47-30. Back-to-back three-pointers from White and Pryor opened the second half providing their largest advantage of 21 points, 53-32, with 18:24 to play.
The Bulldogs answered with seven unanswered points before Justin Tuoyo scored the next basket at 15:19 to get the lead back to 16, 55-39. The visitors kept the offensive pressure on, however. Marshall’s layup with 12:55 to go cut the margin to 10 capping a 13-2 spurt over a six-minute span.
A minute later, Sledge’s layup got it back to single digits, 57-49. White settled things down on the ensuing possession scoring a three-point play on a layup to make it 60-49. Lance Stokes’ jumper at 10:20 pushed it to a 15-point game, 64-49.
The Bulldogs chipped away, but the Mocs would not wilt. The five-point final margin came on a Sledge trey with a second to go to close out the 78-73 triumph.
Chattanooga shot 56.3 percent from the field, while The Citadel made 58.7 percent of its shots. The lack of misses led to just 22 rebounds for the Mocs, the fewest since grabbing 21 at Wisconsin. There were a mere 47 boards total in the contest.
White joins Stanford Strickland (401), Nicchaeus Doaks (367), Willie White (317), Brandon Born (312) and Keith Nelson (311) in the 300 free throw club. He made a season-high nine tonight and has 305 in his three-plus seasons.
Wofford 49, Mercer 46
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Justin Gordon’s first 3-point attempt of the season went in as the shot clock expired with 1:09 left, lifting the Wofford men’s basketball team to a crucial Southern Conference win over Mercer, 49-46, Saturday night at a packed Benjamin Johnson Arena.
After Mercer took a 46-42 lead with 6:49 to play, Wofford’s defense shut the Bears down the rest of the way. The Terriers scored the final seven points. Junior Spencer Collins scored the first four to tie the game, before Gordon’s triple brought a crowd of over 3,000 to its feet.
Mercer (12-11, 7-3 SoCon) had three shots to tie the game. A pair of 3-point attempts by Ike Nwamu and Jibri Bryan missed the mark, but the Bears grabbed the offensive rebound both times.
Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman called timeout with under 10 seconds left to set up the final play. Bryan got the ball on the left wing and took a last-second 3-point attempt, but it fell short and Wofford (18-5, 9-1 SoCon) remained alone in first in the Southern Conference.
The 3-pointer by Gordon was just the second make of his career. The other came his freshman season in the BenJo against College of Charleston.
Mercer’s Stephon Jelks capped an 8-0 run that put the Bears ahead 46-42 with 6:49 to play. Coach Young called time and the Terriers held Mercer to 0-for-8 from the floor the rest of the game, also forcing two turnovers.
Collins finished with a game-high 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Skinner added 10 and also grabbed six boards. Senior Karl Cochran had a rough shooting night, finishing 0-for-10 from three, but did a tremendous job everywhere else, going for six rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks. Junior C.J. Neumann tied a pair of Bears with a game-high eight rebounds.
Nwamu was the only Bear to finish in double figures with 10. Bryan and T.J. Hallice collected eight rebounds.
The team stats were as even as they could get. Both teams shot 36 percent from the field and both teams went for 36 rebounds. Wofford had just one more assist. The biggest difference, and perhaps the difference in the game, was turnovers, with the Terriers committing just four to Mercer’s nine.
Mercer held a six-point lead at the half after leading by as many as eight. The Terriers got some momentum going into the locker rooms when Cochran stole a cross-court pass and slammed home a breakaway dunk.
Wofford opened up the second half with the first eight points. A 3-pointer by sophomore Eric Garcia sandwiched between layups by Skinner and Gordon gave Wofford its first lead since the 10:11 mark of the first half.
The Terriers extended the lead to as many as six with a fast break conversion by Skinner. The advantage was four, 42-38, with 9:13 left, until Mercer scored eight straight to retake the lead.
Wofford’s defense was the difference down the stretch. Heading into the night, the Terriers had held their last four opponents to an average of 49.5 points and 33.3 percent shooting. They held Mercer below the 50-point mark and walked away with their fifth straight victory.
Samford 68, Furman 58
Birmingham, Ala. -- Samford rallied from an 18-point first half deficit to down the Furman Paladins, 68-58, in Southern Conference men’s basketball action on Saturday night at the Pete Hanna Center in Birmingham, Ala.
With its third straight win, Samford improved to 10-14 overall and 3-8 in league play. Furman dropped to 7-14 overall and 4-6 in the SoCon.
Stephen Croone scored Furman’s first 13 points as the Paladins raced out to a 22-4 lead in the game’s opening 7:30. The Paladins made nine consecutive field goal attempts after missing their first two shots of the game and maintained a 24-6 advantage following Devin Sibley’s free throws with 11:51 to play in the first half.
Samford, however, held the Paladins to only one made field goal over the final 12:30 of the half and used a 23-5 run to knot the game at 29-29 at the break. Furman scored the first basket of the second half on a driving layup by Croone, but the Paladins were held without a field goal for over 5:30 as Samford used a 12-1 run to take a 41-32 lead on Darius Jones-Gibson’s bucket with 13:35 remaining. The score capped a 35-8 spurt for the Bulldogs over a span of 18:16.
The Bulldogs forced Furman into 17 turnovers that led to 25 points and held the Paladins to just 1-for-14 shooting behind the arc in the second half. Jones-Gibson scored 19 points to pace four Bulldogs in double figures as Samford completed the comeback despite shooting just 39.3% from the field and hitting only 4-of-17 three-point attempts. Senior Tyler Hood tallied 17 points while freshmen Christen Cunningham and Evan Taylor scored 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Croone finished with a game-high 28 points and eight rebounds. He connected on 10-of-16 shots and converted on 4-of-6 trips to the foul line. Freshman Daniel Fowler added 11 points, five boards and two assists as Furman shot 40.9% and managed a 34-33 eadge on the glass.
ETSU 61, N.C. Central 59
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Senior guard Jalen Riley scored the final 12 points and finished with a game-high 24, as the ETSU men’s basketball team closed on a 15-1 offensive run to cap a dramatic 61-59 comeback win over North Carolina Central Saturday evening inside Freedom Hall.
Riley hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 13 seconds left in regulation, and the Bucs defense then held the Eagles on their final offensive possession of the game. With the win, ETSU improved to 13-8 on the season while also snapping the Eagles 10-game winning streak. With the loss, North Carolina Central dropped to 16-6 on the year.
The Bucs trailed by double digits throughout most of the second half and were facing a 12-point deficit at 58-46 with 5:44 left in regulation. At that point, sophomore guard Devin Harris made three of four free throws on back-to-back possessions, and Riley hit a 3-pointer to make it 58-52.
N.C. Central’s Anthony McDonald then made one of two at the foul line before Riley closed the game with nine straight points, including the game-winning 3-pointer. The Eagles had one last opportunity to tie or win, but the Bucs forced N.C. Central’s Karamo Jawara to force up a desperation 3-pointer that missed the mark at the buzzer.
For the game, Riley was joined in double figures by junior forward Lester Wilson, who finished with 10. The Eagles got a team-high 22 from McDonald, while Jordan Parks and Jawara netted 14 and 10 points, respectively.
The Bucs opened the first half with a pair of 3-pointers from Wilson and A.J. Merriweather to take an early 6-0 lead. ETSU’s advantage then grew to seven at 10-3, but at that point N.C. Central went on a 10-0 run of its own to grab a 13-10 edge. The Eagles went on to ultimately build a 10-point lead at 30-20 with five minutes left in the half.
ETSU used a 6-0 run to get to within four at 32-28, but a 3-pointer by Karamo Jawara at the first half buzzer made it 35-28 at the break. In the first half, N.C. Central shot 54 percent from the field and held an 18-14 advantage on the glass.
In the second half, the Eagles opened with a 7-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at 42-28. ETSU responded with its own 7-0 spurt to get back to within seven, but later on N.C. Central still led by 10 at 56-46 with 7:42 left in regulation.
The Eagles’ advantage then grew to 58-46 before the Bucs started their comeback.
ETSU finished the game with a season-low four turnovers, shooting 36 percent from the floor and holding its own on the glass, as the Eagles held a 34-33 edge in the paint.
N.C. Central finished the game shooting 46 percent from the floor and 44 percent from the 3-point line. The Eagles’ 50 percent effort (6-of-12) at the foul line was critical to the outcome, especially late in the contest when the Eagles went 1-of-4 at the charity stripe over the last two minutes of the game.