Western Carolina Holds Off ETSU, 67-61, in Overtime
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Western Carolina survived a second-half comeback from ETSU that forced overtime to clinch the 67-61 victory to advance to the semifinals of the SoCon Men’s Basketball Championship in Asheville, N.C. The Catamounts will take on top-seeded Wofford on Sunday night at 6 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Center.
James Sinclair led the Catamounts with a game-high 30 points to go with 14 rebounds and six steals. It was his third double-double of the season and his sixth game of at least 30 points this season. Teammate Mike Brown recorded his third double-double of the season as well, scoring 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Lester Wilson led the way for ETSU with 17 points while Rashawn Rembert contributed 14 points for the Bucs. A.J. Merriweather recorded 11 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year. Devin Harris grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for ETSU in the loss.
Western Carolina led by as many as 11 points in the first half but ETSU was able to even the score at 56 with just 38 seconds remaining in regulation. The Catamount closed out the game in overtime, going 3-of-5 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line while ETSU converted just one field goal on 11 tries in the extra period.
The first half saw both teams take extended runs in a back-and-forth affair. ETSU scored the first four points to open the game before Western Carolina busted the game wide open. The Catamounts went on a 16-1 run, which included 11 points from Sinclair, lasting almost five minutes to give them a 16-5 lead.
The Bucs responded with an 11-4 run over the 3:39 to cut the Western Carolina lead to just four points at 20-16. Sinclair would then go on an 8-2 run himself and push the Catamount lead back to double digits at 28-18. The two traded baskets for the remainder of the half as Western Carolina finished the frame with a 35-27 lead.
Sinclair finished the first period with 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting and a 7-for-7 effort from the free throw line. He added six rebounds and five steals in the opening frame.
In the second half, ETSU got two early scores to cut the lead to one possession at 35-32. Western Carolina would take an 11-4 run, with Brown scoring eight points, to start to pull away, taking a 10-point advantage at 46-36 with 12:43 remaining.
ETSU slowly started to chip away at the lead with a 13-4 run of their own. Rambert hit a three-pointer at the 12:23 mark to get things going and Banks hit a jumper on the next possession. Merriweather later had a tip-in that cut the lead to just one point at 50-49.
On the next possession, Brown hit a jumper to up the Western Carolina advantage back to three but Merriweather matched it on the other end to cut back to one. Brown then countered with a jumper and the ensuing ETSU possession, Justin Browning made the steal and dished the ball to Sinclair, who made it a two-possession game with the uncontested, fast-break dunk.
ETSU made a charge as Jalen Riley drilled a three-pointer with 46 seconds to go to cut the lead to two. After a foul and missed Western Carolina free throw, ETSU grabbed the rebound and Wilson would tie the game on a jumper with 38 seconds remaining to tie the game at 56 apiece. Sinclair would get one final shot in regulation, following a Western Carolina timeout, but the shot was no good and the clock expired to force overtime.
In overtime, Western Carolina pulled out to a four-point lead on layups by Sinclair and Browning on back-to-back possessions. ETSU cut the lead in half with a pair of free throws by Harris a minute later. Two possessions later Harris was at the line again but made just one of two this time to made it a one-point game.
From there, Western Carolina would go to the line on its next two possessions and make all four free throws, extending the lead to 64-59. ETSU got a quick score from Riley but the Catamounts followed with a score from Browning to extend the lead back to five. ETSU was unable to score on their final possession of the game.
Wofford Closes Out UNCG Late to Advance to Semifinals
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Leading by seven points with 7:58 remaining, No. 1 seed Wofford closed out the game on an 18-7 run to top No. 8 seed UNCG, 70-52, in Saturday’s first quarterfinal matchup in the SoCon Men’s Basketball Championship at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, N.C. The Terriers advance to the semifinals on Sunday at 6 p.m. and will face the winner of the ETSU/Western Carolina game.
Wofford was led by Spencer Collins with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Karl Cochran added 12 points, including 10 points in the second half, as did Lee Skinner with both players going 4-of-8 from the field. Cochran added nine rebounds in the contest to finish just shy of a double-double while Justin Gordon was the remaining Terrier to record double-figure points with 10.
Kayel Locke led UNCG with 17 points and 10 rebounds, his first double-double of the season. Diante Baldwin contributed 13 points as the two players combined to go 13-of-26 (50.0 percent) from the floor in the game.
As a team, Wofford shot 50.0 percent for the game, including a 58.3 shooting percentage for the second half. The Terriers hit six three-pointers while holding UNCG to just a 2-for-15 mark (13.3 percent) from beyond the arc.
The teams traded baskets early until back-to-back scores from Lee Skinner and Spencer Collins pushed the Wofford lead to 8-4 and forced an early UNCG timeout at 15:32. Coming out of the timeout, UNCG’s RJ White drained a jumper to cut the score to 8-6. The two traded scores again to make the score 10-8 before Wofford would begin to take hold of the game.
The Terriers went on a 10-0 run over the next 6:20 of the game, the final five points coming from Jaylen Allen, to increase the margin to 20-8 with 7:04 remaining in the first half. The Spartans went 0-for-6 from the field during the run before Nicholas Paulos finally drained a three-pointer at the 6:32 mark.
UNCG would counter with a 9-4 run late in the opening half to cut the margin to six points with 2:02 remaining. The Spartans held Wofford to just a pair of field goals by Collins over a three-minute stretch while making two field goals and hitting 5-of-6 from the line themselves. Wofford concluded the half by making the final two field goals to claim the 30-20 halftime lead.
Collins led all scorers in the first half with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Wofford shot 41.7 percent over the first 20 minutes while UNCG shot just 30.6 percent.
Wofford started fast to open the second half, extending its lead to 15 points at 43-28 to force a UNCG timeout at the 16:11 mark. The Terriers scored on four straight possessions as part of a 7-0 run.
Diante Baldwin would score the next seven points in the game to help UNCG cut the lead to 10 points. White then made a free throw to reduce the margin to single digits at the 13:05 mark in the second half. Wofford would score on the next two possessions, though, to extend the lead back to 14 points.
From there, UNCG used a 14-7 advantage over the next six minutes to cut the lead to just seven points with 7:29 remaining in the game. Locke scored the final six points of the stretch for the Spartans, which made the score 52-45 at the time.
The Spartans would never get closer than seven as Wofford ended the game on an 18-6 run to set the final margin at 18 points. Cochran and Collins each had 10 second-half points for Wofford while UNCG’s Locke had nine the later frame on 5-of-10 shooting.