Saturday's SoCon MBB wrap-up

A recap of Saturday's games:

It was an interesting Saturday in Southern Conference games, with surprises at almost every corner. The Mercer Bears overpowered the Bulldogs in Charleston, and the Terriers accomplished a similar feat on their home court, giving the Samford Bulldogs, back-to-back losses (not a good day to be a Bulldog). The Catamounts pulled a surprise out of their hat, picking up a road win over the VMI Keydets in the always difficult place to play and win, Cameron Hall in Lexington, VA. while a Jake Stephens less Moc team learned how to win without him... on the "Road to Asheville"


Western Carolina 71 - VMI 65
Vonterius Woolbright led four Western Carolina players in double figures with 19 points as the Catamounts earned a hard-fought 71-65 Southern Conference road victory over VMI inside Cameron Hall on Saturday afternoon. The Catamounts improve to 12-11 overall and 5-5 in Southern Conference action. VMI drops to 5-18 and 0-10. In addition to scoring 19 points, Woolbright also distributed a career-best 11 assists and snagged seven rebounds, just missing the triple-double in the winning effort. Tyzhaun Claude recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman DJ Campbell tallied 14 points followed by Tre Jackson with 10. Tyler Houser led VMI with a game-high 23 points. Tony Felder also finished in double figures with 11 points. Rickey Bradley pulled down a team-best eight rebounds.


Mercer 74 - The Citadel 65
For the second game in a row, Jalyn McCreary posted a career-high 26 points to lift the Mercer men's basketball program to victory. The Bears defeated The Citadel, 74-65, on Saturday afternoon at McAlister Field House. Mercer improves to 11-12 overall and 4-6 in the conference while The Citadel falls to 9-13 overall and 4-6 in the SoCon. The Bears have now won four of the last five games, including three on the road. McCreary added 12 rebounds to record his second double-double of the season. Luis Hurtado Jr. earned his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The second half started much like the first with seven unanswered points for Mercer. The Citadel was scoreless for the first 5:24 of the second half before logging a 6-0 run. Although the Bulldogs brought the difference to one, The Citadel did not lead in the second half. Mercer erupted on a 13-2 run to put the game out of reach for The Citadel. The Bears led by as many as 13 points in the second half en route to a 74-65 victory.

Samford 77 - Wofford 85
The Wofford men's basketball team shot 62% in the first half to amass a 16-point halftime lead over Samford. The Terriers would not relinquish the lead in the second half and would hold on for an 85-77 win on Saturday afternoon at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. This win for Wofford (13-10, 5-5 SoCon) came just 17 days after a 25-point road loss to the Bulldogs (14-9, 8-2 SoCon), who were at the time without their starting guard Ques Glover. Glover led the team in scoring with 20 points on Saturday, but it wasn't enough for Samford. Jackson Paveletzke led Wofford in scoring with 21 points in the game, B.J Mack added 20 points while going 9-of-10 from the free-throw line and 3-of-5 from deep and leading the Terriers with six rebounds. The Terriers attempted 34 free throws on the night, which tied a season-high and made 27 of those, which is a new season high. Rebounding in the game was tied at 29 each, but Samford had 11 offensive rebounds. For the game Wofford shot 10-of-21 from three, compared to 7-of-34 for the Bulldogs. The 24 fouls drawn were the second most Wofford has drawn in a game this season.

Chattanooga 85 - ETSU 80
Chattanooga snapped a four-game skid with a 73-64 win over rival ETSU inside Freedom Hall. UTC improves to 12-11 overall and 4-6 in the SoCon, as ETSU falls to 8-15 and 4-6. The Bucs have now lost a school record eight-straight home games. The Mocs led the contest for 30:57, while ETSU had the lead for just 5:21. The Mocs accumulated 28 points off the bench, the most against a DI opponent this season, totaling 54 bench points the last two games. ETSU provided just nine points from their non-starters. UTC shot a blistering 52.2% (13-of-23) from deep and 41.8% (23-of-55) from the floor in total,  the 52.2% (13-of-23) mark from deep is the second-most efficient this season (53.8, 14-of-26 at Tennessee Tech). Chattanooga capitalized at the free-throw line and knocked down 15-of-18 (83.3%) attempts, the second-best mark against a SoCon opponent this season (88.9%, 24-of-27 against WCU).