Sunday, January 15, 2023

Saturday's SoCon MBB



A recap of Saturday's games:

Mercer picked up their first conference win,  Furman loses at home, proving they are not the team in the SoCon, the Samford Bulldogs pull out a one-point win over Chattanooga to hold on to the conference lead, and the Catamounts disappoint their fans, once again...

Western Carolina 61 - The Citadel 65
For the second-straight game, Stephen Clark established a new career-high as he poured in 28 points to lead The Citadel to a 65-61 victory over Western Carolina Saturday afternoon inside McAlister Field House. After a back-and-forth first half that saw neither team able to open larger than a six-point advantage, the Bulldogs went into the locker room with a 26-25 advantage after a Jackson Price three-pointer with less than half a minute to go. WCU scored the first five points of the second half to take a four-point advantage, but the Bulldogs quickly responded with a jumper from Tony Carpio and a pair of three-pointers from Austin Ash to take a two-point lead. The Citadel was able to push its advantage to seven points on a pair of free throws from Carpio with just under seven minutes to play.

Mercer 68 - ETSU 55
With an energetic team performance, the Mercer men's basketball program earned its first conference win of the season on the road at ETSU, 68-55, on Saturday afternoon. Mercer improves to 8-11, 1-5 while ETSU drops to 7-12, 3-3. This is the third time in four years under head coach Greg Gary that the Bears have won in Johnson City. Both teams started slowly on offense, and neither side took a commanding lead. Midway through the first half, ETSU drained three three-pointers in a Mercer finished 44% (26-of-59) from the field and 47% (9-of-19) from distance and held ETSU to 39% (19-of-49) field goal shooting and 27% (4-of-15) from beyond the arc. The teams shot comparably from the charity stripe, but the Buccaneers reached the line more often than the Bears, finishing 13-of-15 (87%) compared to Mercer's 7-of-8 (88%). row to maintain control of the scoreline. The tide turned on a 10-0 run for the Bears led by Kamar Robertson with eight points during this stretch.


UNCG 88 - Furman 80
In a battle of the two second-place teams, the UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's basketball team ended up on top with an 88-80 overtime victory against Furman at Timmons Arena on Saturday. The Spartans remain undefeated on the road in Southern Conference (SoCon) play with a 4-0 record. The 5-1 record in SoCon play matches the start from the 2018-19 season. Furman held the advantage in most of the second half, as UNCG held the lead for one possession at 18:53, 42-40. There were four tied scores in the frame, including the end of regulation with both teams totaling 77. After Keyshaun hit back-to-back free throws to tie the game with 13 seconds left, Furman took the ball down the court and Kennedy was there to deny Mike Bothwell's jumper right at the low block to force overtime.

Chattanooga 74 - Samford 75
Senior guard Bubba Parham knocked down a pair of free throws with four seconds left to help guide the Samford Men's Basketball Team to a 75-74 come-from-behind victory over Chattanooga on Saturday, after trailing by as many as 19 points in the contest. With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 12-7 overall and 6-0 in conference play, marking their best start to SoCon action since joining the league in 2008. Chattanooga drops to 11-8 overall and 3-3 in SoCon play. Logan Dye led the Bulldogs with a game-high 23 points, to go along with six rebounds and a game-high five assists. Jermaine Marshall finished just one rebound shy of a double-double with a 15-point, nine-rebound effort.

VMI 67 - Wofford 86
The Wofford Terriers men's basketball team defeated the Virginia Military Institute 86-67 at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on Saturday night. Behind a 50-point second half, the Terriers ran away from the Keydets to get the winning margin up to 19 points. Carson McCorkle led Wofford in scoring with career-high 22 points. He did that on 7-of-9 shooting including 6-of-7 from three. B.J. Mack and Messiah Jones both scored double-digits with 19 and 15, respectively. Kyler Filewich scored 10 points and led the Terriers in rebounds with eight, along with a career-high three blocks. Adam Silas added seven assists as well.

Current Standings:

SchoolConferenceOverall
Samford6-012-7
UNCG 5-111-8
Furman4-213-6
Chattanooga3-311-8
Wofford3-311-8
Western3-310-9
ETSU3-37-12
The Citadel2-47-11
Mercer1-58-11
VMI0-65-14



No comments: