Men’s Basketball Notes, February 21, 2011
Men's basketball notes and game recaps for week ending February 20, 2011:
ANDERSON - Anderson snapped a three-game skid by winning its final two home contests of the season … The Trojans got past Tusculum, 80-60, by posting their hottest shooting night of the season, torching the nets at a 64.4 percent clip, including 45 percent from beyond the arc … AU followed up with a 90-79 upset past fifth-ranked Lincoln Memorial Saturday afternoon at the Abney Athletic Center … Freshman Denzail Jones led all scorers with 22 points off the bench versus the Railsplitters, while senior guard Brandon Young added 17 points and a game-high seven assists … Jones connected on 13-of-21 (61.9 percent) from the field over the two-game span, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc and 8-of-9 from the line as AU held onto the third spot in league standings … Young averaged 17 points and four assists on the week. The Trojans close out the regular-season schedule with a two-game road swing, beginning at Wingate on Wednesday.
BREVARD - The Tornados went 3-0 this past week to improve to 12-11 on the season and 8-8 in conference play with one week to go before the 2011 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament ... Gaither Hendrix went in for the layup with 35 seconds left to give the Tornados the lead and Josh Roper iced the game from the free throw line as Brevard escaped the YHC Basketball Arena on Monday night with the hard-fought 72-69 victory over host Young Harris … Darius Moose led four Brevard players in double figures with 15 points, going seven of eight from the floor to lead the Tornados on a 43.5 percent (27-62) shooting night ... Josh Jordan added 14 points, narrowly missing his fifth double-double of the season with nine rebounds ... Roper added 12 points and five assists, while Hendrix added 10 points, hitting two three-pointers … On Wednesday, the Tornados found the perfect way to celebrate Brevard Men's Basketball Coach Michael Jones' birthday; defeating the NABC No. 5-ranked Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters, 82-77 ... Vincent Dombrowski attempted a go-ahead three-pointer with 1:55 left in the second half and was fouled, but both teams watched the ball bounce off the rim several times before settling into the net to give the Tornados the late 79-77 lead. Dombrowski canned the free throw, giving Brevard a lead they would not relinquish as the Tornados overcame Roper missing the final 3:03 of the game after coming down hard on the floor in giving the visiting Railsplitters their first loss of the 2010-2011 season ... On Saturday, the Tornados outscored the Bears 32-18 in the second half and Dombrowski again hit a key three-pointer in the game's waning seconds as Brevard completed the season sweep over Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday afternoon in Shuford Memorial Gymnasium, 65-56 ... Hendrix led four Brevard (12-11, 8-8 SAC) player in double figures in the game with 20 points, hitting four treys, and Jordan had his fifth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Tornados made it a clean sweep, winning all three contests this past week ... Drew Schauss added 11 points and Dombrowski finished with 10 as the Tornados shot 40.4 percent (21-52) from the floor and 47.4 percent (9-19) from behind the arc in recording the victory ... The Tornados finish the 2010-2011 regular season this week at home on Monday against Young Harris, before heading to Newberry on Wednesday and finish out the schedule at home on Saturday against Wingate.
CARSON-NEWMAN - The Carson-Newman Eagles went 1-1 on the week as they claimed a win over Mars Hill at home on Wednesday before falling in a two overtime thriller at Newberry on Saturday ... The Eagles are now 11-13 on the season and 8-8 in the South Atlantic Conference ... Freshman guard Ishmael Sanders set a SAC record with 51 points and a school record with 11 3-pointers to lead the Eagles to a 106-86 victory over Mars Hill on Wednesday at Holt Fieldhouse ... Sanders was 17-of-29 from the floor, including 11-of-23 from behind the arc, on his record setting night ... The 23 3-point attempts were also a SAC record ... The 51 points broke the previous C-N record of 44 points held by Chris Jones and Mike Ogan ... Jones, who had 44 points in 1961, was a two-time All-American ... Ogan was a dominant post and All-American in 1974 ... Sanders also becomes the first-ever player in SAC history to score 50 or more points ... The previous conference record was 49 points held by Ali Travis of Catawba ... As a team, C-N shot 52.8 percent (38-of-72) from the floor, including 18-of-40 from behind the arc ... The Lions scored at a 45.3 percent clip (29-of-64) and were 7-of-17 from 3-point range ... Mars Hill held a 39-35 advantage in rebounds ... Kevin Leatherwood pitched in 11 points for the Eagles, while Kevin Hare added 10 points ... Junior guard Bradley Tumer added nine points and dished out a school record 14 assists, falling one shy of tying the SAC record ... The teams played to a 9-9 tie early on, but Sanders' first 3-pointer of the night at the 15:03 mark gave C-N the lead for good at 12-9 ... Sanders went on to score 22 points in the first half, as the Eagles took a 55-40 lead into the locker room ... The Eagles took control of the game in the second half and pushed their lead to as many as 21 points ... Sanders sank a free throw with 1:42 remaining to break C-N's scoring record ... He then drained two 3-pointers down the stretch to set the SAC scoring record ... The Eagles closed out the week dropping a 106-105 decision at Newberry in two overtimes .... Newberry's Tony Davis scored a career-high 38 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Wolves ... C-N had no shortage of impressive performances as well, as Tumer set a South Atlantic Conference record with 19 assists, breaking the previous record of 15 which was shared by three players ... Sanders led six Eagles in double digits with 22 points ... Antonio Sullivan scored 18, John Holleman had 17, Erwin Staten netted 11 and Brandon Evans and Hare had 10 apiece ... The contest was tightly played from start to finish, as neither team ever held a double-digit lead at any point ... There were 21 lead changes and 11 ties in the game ... The Eagles led by five points in the second overtime before a 3-pointer by Chris Reynolds and a 3-point play by Davis gave the Wolves the lead for good ... The Eagles return to the hardwood on Wednesday at No. 5 Lincoln Memorial ... Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
CATAWBA - Catawba split a pair of league games last week and moved into a tie with Mars Hill for the final spot in the conference tournament ... The Indians will face Mars Hill on the road Wednesday and hosts Newberry, who sits right above them in the standings, on Saturday ... Catawba opened the week with a 65-59 loss to Lenoir-Rhyne ... Freshman Keon Moore kept the Indians close with a game-high 21 points ... Catawba went down by 15 five minutes into the second half and closed to within a bucket with five minutes to go, but could not pull even ... Catawba rebounded to knock off Tusculum on Saturday 68-57 ... Lee Martin came off the bench to score 19 points and the Indians went 11-of-12 at the line in the final two minutes to secure the win ... Moore added 17 points for the Indians, who hit on 47 percent from the field and committed just eight turnovers ... Moore leads Catawba in scoring (16.7) and rebounding (5.2) and has upped that to 18.3 points and 5.9 rebounds in league action ... Dominick Reid is adding 16.1 points a game and has just 49 turnovers with 80 assists in 22 games.
LENOIR-RHYNE - The Lenoir-Rhyne University men's basketball team (3-21, 2-14) split its South Atlantic Conference games last week, defeating Catawba (65-59) on the road Wednesday before falling to Brevard (65-56) at home Saturday … Freshman forward Allan Jones (Clemmons, N.C.) led the Bears with 19 points while junior forward Jeff Thomas (Chapel Hill, N.C.) added 14 points as four players scored in double figures for Lenoir-Rhyne, who snapped a school-record 14-game losing streak … Keon Moore finished with a game-high 21 points for Catawba, who cut a 15-point deficit (50-35) late in the contest to two points but the Bears were able to hold on for the win … The Tornados, led by Gaither Hendrix's game-high 20 points, scored the last 11 points of the game to sweep the season series from the Bears for the second straight year … Thomas led the Bears with 14 points but L-R was outscored by an 11-0 margin in the final 2:50 in the setback … Lenoir-Rhyne hosts Tusculum on Wednesday at 8 p.m., in its home finale for the 2010-11 season … Senior Nathaniel Shaw (Fayetteville, N.C.) will be honored prior to the contest … L-R wraps up the regular season Saturday in Harrogate, Tenn., when it plays Lincoln Memorial beginning at 8 p.m. … Tusculum (53-44) and Lincoln Memorial (55-34) defeated Lenoir-Rhyne in their earlier meetings this season.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL - Fifth-ranked LMU suffered its first loss of the season Wednesday, 82-77, at Brevard … The loss snaps LMU's 22 game win streak … LMU shot out to an early 6-0 lead in the first minute and a half , but Brevard then went on a 7-0 run to take the 7-6 lead … The teams traded the lead until late in the half when LMU pulled ahead and took a 41-39 lead into the locker room … Brevard came out in the second half and outscored LMU 9-2 to take a 48-43 lead with 15:31 remaining … LMU battled back to take a 64-57 lead with 7:47 left … Back-to-back three pointers by Brevard cut the lead to one with 6:41 to go … For the next four and a half minutes LMU bent but didn't break as Brevard cut the lead to one on four occasions and tied the game three other times … BC led 82-77 with 26 seconds left and two three-point attempts by LMU went awry and Brevard held on for the upset … LMU was led by Desmond Johnson's 25 points and 15 rebounds. Carden added in 19 points, including five three-pointers. Brandon Armstrong chipped in 14 points. The Railsplitters outshot Brevard 55.6 percent to 43.7 percent from the field, 35 percent to 25.7 percent from three-point range, and 83.3 percent to 64.7 percent from the charity stripe. LMU also won the rebounding battle 38-32 … The homestanding Trojans of Anderson University used a late first-half surge to take the lead and hold off several Railsplitter runs as they defeated LMU 90-79 Saturday afternoon … With the loss, LMU drops to 22-2, 14-2 in the SAC. Anderson improves to 16-10 and 10-6 … The Railsplitters were hot early as they rolled out to the early 18-11 … Anderson chipped away at the lead, eventually tying the score at 24-24 with 8:28 left in the half … The Trojans grabbed their first lead at the 4:10 mark and outscored LMU 10-6 down the stretch to lead 38-32 at the half … The second half saw Anderson extend the lead to as much as 14 points on several occasions as they held off the Railsplitters to pick up the 90-79 victory … LMU was led by D'Mario Curry's 21 points and nine rebounds. Johnson and Brandon Armstrong each scored 17 points and Cam Carden added in 14 points … LMU dominated the glass, outrebounding Anderson 41-27 … The Railsplitters will return home to close out the regular season with SAC games vs. Carson-Newman next Wednesday and Lenoir-Rhyne next Saturday.
MARS HILL - Mars Hill went 0-2 last week to take their season record to 9-15 on the season and 6-10 in the SAC … Dion Malachi leads the SAC in blocks. He is fourth in the league in field goal percentage and sixth in rebounding. Dion ranks eighth in the SAC in scoring … Sammy Emile is third in the conference in scoring. Last week Emile averaged 19.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game … Tarron Stewart and Malachi averaged 15 and 11.5 points per game, respectively. Both players hit 50 percent of their shots from the floor … MHC will host Caatawba on Wednesday night. The Lions will provide a live video and audio webcast of the game. The Coca-Cola Tip-Off Show will begin at 5:30 p.m. prior to the start of the women's game. MHC will then host SAC foe Tusculum College on Saturday at 4 p.m. The radio webcast will begin at 1:30 p.m. prior to the start of the women's contest.
NEWBERRY - The Newberry Wolves split last week's games, but kept the pace with their closest competition in the conference last week … The Wolves are now 12-12 overall and 7-9 SAC play … On Wednesday, Newberry dropped an 83-78 decision at Wingate … It was Newberry's second loss to the Bulldogs this season - the Wolves trailed by a single possession under a minute to play in both losses … Tony Davis' 13 points led the Newberry effort while Chris Reynolds, Brandon Riley and Ray Robinson each scored 12 … The Wolves rebounded on Saturday with a crucial 106-105 double overtime victory over Carson-Newman … Davis scored 38 points in the win, marking the most points scored by a Newberry player since Mark Duren netted 41 points against Wofford in 1983 … He completed the double-double with 13 points and also had three blocks and three steals … Matt Dixon added a career-high 22 points, while Riley scored 15 and Reynolds scored 11 … Jawuan Lockhart dished out a career-high 11 assists … The overtime win was most impressive in that Carson-Newman made 10 consecutive baskets in the extra frames and Newberry still pulled out the win … The Wolves finish up regular season play with a pair of massive games, hosting Brevard Wednesday and visiting Catawba Saturday.
TUSCULUM - The Tusculum Pioneers (11-15, 8-8 SAC) dropped a pair of South Atlantic Conference games last week at Anderson (80-60) and to Catawba (68-57) in TC's final regular-season home finale … The Pioneers are now in a three-way tie for fourth place in the league standings with road games at Lenoir-Rhyne (Wed.) and Mars Hill (Sat.) to close out the 2010-2011 SAC schedule … In TC's road loss at Anderson, senior Rob Troutman and junior Justin Steigerwald accounted for 16 points each, while Tommy Klempin finished with 12 markers, going 3-for-3 from the floor and 6-of-6 at the free throw line … Anderson shot 64.4 percent from the field, including 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) in the first half … In the Catawba game, sophomore Brett Williams tallied 18 points, while Klempin added 16 markers, including a perfect 7-of-7 day from the floor … Troutman recorded 11 points on his Senior Day and needs 41 more to become the 22nd player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career … Tusculum hasn't shot below 73 percent at the free throw line in 10 consecutive games (81.4 percent during that 10-game span) … Tusculum has made a three-point field goal in 665 consecutive games … Troutman has made a 3-pointer in his last 13 straight games and 32 of his last 34 … Steigerwald has recorded an assist in his last 43 starts ... Tusculum's .781 free throw percentage is on pace to be a new school record and is the second highest in SAC history (.782, Lenoir-Rhyne, 1990-91) … Klempin enters this week's action having made his last 10 field goal attempts … Tusculum has won its last four meetings with Lenoir-Rhyne, including consecutive wins at L-R's Shuford Memorial Gymnasium … Against Mars Hill, Tusculum has won four of the last six meetings with the Lions, including two of the last three at MHC's Stanford Arena.
WINGATE - The Wingate University men's basketball team has won six straight contests entering Presidents' Day week. During this six-game stretch, the Bulldogs are outscoring their opponents by 12 points per game and outrebounding their foes by four rebounds per game. In its next encounter, Wingate entertains Anderson (S.C.) University Wednesday at 8 p.m. … On Saturday, junior guard Jaime Vaughn scored 22 points, sophomore point guard Ethan Kincaid posted a career-high 19 and sophomore center Odell Turner scored 14 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as the Bulldogs used a big rebounding edge to defeat the Mars Hill College Lions 85-78 in South Atlantic Conference action in Cuddy Arena … Sophomore forward Quan Alexander added 10 points and 12 boards for Wingate (16-8 overall, 11-5 SAC). The host Bulldogs outrebounded Mars Hill 46-31. The Lions hit 12 three-pointers in a January victory over the Bulldogs. Mars Hill managed only two long-range baskets Saturday. In addition, the Lions allowed the Bulldogs 17 offensive rebounds en route to 17 second-chance points. The 17 markers played a huge difference, as Wingate outscored Mars Hill 17-8 in this category … Turner had six offensive rebounds, while Alexander and freshman forward Jeffrey Parker had three each. The trio had more offensive rebounds (12) than the entire MHC roster (eight). Parker had three blocked shots, while Turner rejected two. Turner's statistics sheet also included a team-high four steals … On Wednesday, Vaughn and Turner combined for 48 points to lead the Bulldogs to an 83-78 SAC men's basketball victory over Newberry College Wednesday night in Cuddy Arena. Vaughn had 28 points, five assists and three steals for the hosts. The All-SAC standout hit 12-of-13 free throws Wednesday. Turner filled out his statistics ledger with 20 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots. The 2010 SAC Freshman of the Year helped Wingate outscore Newberry 30-22 in the paint … During second-place Wingate's current six-game winning streak, Turner is averaging 20 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game. He is shooting 62.7 percent from the floor during the same time frame. On the season, Turner is averaging Wingate team-high totals of 14.8 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. He tops the Wingate charts in field goal percentage (50.8), steals (33) and blocked shots (40, shared with Parker).