SoCon Basketball for Saturday, December 31, 2022

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Saturday's schedule has a full slate of SoCon games, with all 10 teams on the court. This will be the second conference game for each school and should start the separation process of the top teams from the rest. The only game with two conference unbeaten teams is the Samford at the Citadel game, on "The Road to Asheville"

 

1:00 PM - Watch on ESPN+
Samford (7-7, 1-0 Southern) at The Citadel (6-7, 1-0 Southern) 

McAlister Field House - Charleston, SC

1:00 PM - Watch on ESPN+ 

ETSU (5-9, 1-0 Southern) at VMI (5-9, 0-1 Southern) 

Cameron Hall - Lexington, VA

2:00 PM - Watch on ESPN+ 

Chattanooga (8-6, 0-1 Southern) at Mercer (7-7, 0-1 Southern) 

Hawkins Arena - Macon, GA
2:
00 PM - Watch on ESPN+ 

UNCG (7-7, 1-0 Southern) at Wofford (8-6, 0-1 Southern) 

Richardson Indoor Stadium - Spartanburg, SC

4:00 PM - Watch on ESPN+ 

Furman (10-4, 1-0 Southern) at Western Carolina (7-7, 0-1 Southern) 

Ramsey Center - Cullowhee, NC

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Highlights from Thursday's games:

 
UNCG  72 -  Western Carolina 47

Western Carolina was completely dominated in the opening of Southern Conference play, the Cats have not beaten UNCG in Cullowhee since January of 2016, that's seven straight defeats in Cullowhee by the Spartans. In today's game, Western Carolina had two players finish in double figures but cold shooting in the second half ultimately proved to be the Catamounts' undoing in a 72-47 loss to UNCG in the Southern Conference opener for both squads. UNCG improves to 7-7 and 1-0 while WCU drops to 7-7 and 0-1. Tyzhaun Claude led WCU with 13 points and was joined in double figures by Vonterius Woolbright with 10 points. Claude snagged a team-best seven rebounds while Woolbright distributed four assists. The Spartans finished the game 26-for-53 (49.1 percent) from the field, 7-for-16 (43.8 percent) behind the 3-point line, and 13-for-20 (65 percent) at the free throw line. WCU shot a season-low 20 percent from the field, going 12-for-60. 

 

VMI 62 -  Furman  85

Marcus Foster tallied a career-high 23 points and added eight rebounds to lead Furman to an 85-62 victory over VMI in the Southern Conference men's basketball opener for both schools Thursday night at Timmons Arena. The redshirt-junior connected on 8-of-15 shots, including 7-of-12 behind the arc, and dished out two assists without committing a turnover as the Paladins improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the league with their third consecutive victory. VMI slipped to 5-9 overall and 0-1 in the SoCon.
 
ETSU  73 -  Wofford  71

A new season meant a new look for the Buccaneers. After dropping its last five games by a combined 14 points, the ETSU men’s basketball team flipped the script in Thursday’s Southern Conference opener. Behind a 20-point performance by Justice Smith and Jordan King scoring his 1,000th career point, the Buccaneers got a final stop by Josh Taylor in the final seconds, carrying ETSU to a 73-71 win at Wofford inside Richardson Indoor Stadium. The Bucs, led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but saw the Terriers charge back to tie things up at 65; however, King stepped up with back-to-back threes – the final resulting in the milestone bucket – and the Blue and Gold never relinquished the lead. After Wofford got the ball back following a traveling call on King with four seconds left, Jackson Sivills was fed the rock in the paint but Taylor defended the play to perfection as the Buccaneer forward never let him get a shot off as time expired sending the Buccaneer faithful into a frenzy.

Chattanooga  68 - The Citadel 76

The Citadel shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the second half to run past Chattanooga, 76-68, in the Southern Conference opener for both teams Thursday evening inside McAlister Field House. The Citadel went 15-of-24 from the field, including 7-of-9 from beyond the arc in the second half. On the flip side, the Bulldogs held the Mocs to just 13-of-33 in the game's final 20 minutes. The Bulldogs finished the game 19-of-22 from the free-throw line, including 13-of-14 in the second half.