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Saturday's men's basketball roundup
Mercer, UNCG and Samford move to 2-0 in conference games
Chattanooga 81, The Citadel 68
UTC - The Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball team earned its first Southern Conference victory of the season after controlling The Citadel during an 81-68 victory inside McAlister Field House in Charleston, S.C., on Saturday afternoon.
Chattanooga (9-6, 1-1) put together a strong first half that saw a lead grow to as many as 15 (42-27, 0:53) before eventually claiming a 42-30 halftime edge over The Citadel (5-8, 0-2). A balanced attack saw 10 different players score in the half while the squad assisted 12 times on 18 field goals.
CIT - The Citadel basketball team cut the deficit to eight points midway through the second half, but the Chattanooga Mocs used a 7-0 stretch to pull away and earn an 81-68 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Brody Fox tied for the game-high with 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field. Sola Adebisi just missed a double-double with 12 and nine rebounds. John Adams and Cam Glover chipped in eight points apiece.
Samford 88, Western Carolina 69
SAM - The Samford men's basketball team hit the road for the first time in Southern Conference play today as they faced off with Western Carolina. The Bulldogs put together a near-complete 40-minute performance on their way to an 88-69 victory. The win moves Samford's record to 12-3 overall and 2-0 in SoCon play while Western Carolina falls to 4-9 and 0-2 in league play.
WCU - Senior Bernard Pelote tallied a team-best 22 points for his fourth-straight double-digit scoring effort, but Samford used a 17-to-4 run out of the halftime locker room to pull away and down Western Carolina 88-69 in Southern Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.
UNCG - The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's basketball team won its third-straight game behind an 84-67 victory over The Southern Conference (SoCon) foe Furman on Saturday afternoon at the First Horizon Coliseum.
With the feat, UNCG snapped Furman's six-game win streak and have now won five of the last six battles.
FUR - Junior Kenyon Giles matched a career-high with 25 points and UNC Greensboro shot 52.2% from three-point range to down Furman, 84-67, in Southern Conference men's basketball action Saturday afternoon at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.
The loss snapped Furman's six-game winning streak and dropped the Paladins to 13-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference. The Spartans, who claimed their third consecutive win over the Paladins, improved to 9-6 overall and 2-0 in league play.
WOF - The Wofford men's basketball team trailed at the break but roared back in the second half to earn a gritty 81-78 win over ETSU at Freedom Hall on Saturday afternoon. The Terriers hit their first nine shots of the second half to take a double-digit lead. Jackson Sivills totaled 13 second half points along with Dillon Bailey scoring 14 points in the second stanza to lead the comeback.
ETSU - Holding a five-point lead at the break, the ETSU men's basketball team saw Wofford open the second half on a 20-4 run, and despite a valiant effort, the Buccaneers couldn't get back over the hump as the Terriers held on for an 81-78 victory in front of 4,107 fans on Saturday night inside Freedom Hall.
MER - Jah Nze scored a career high 25 points to lead the Mercer Bears to a 70-67 win on the road over VMI Saturday evening from Cameron Hall in Lexington, Virginia.\
With the win, the Bears improve to 2-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2014-15 season. It was also the 200th career win for head coach Ryan Ridder.
VMI - VMI junior guard Rickey Bradley, Jr. logged a new career-high 30 points but VMI fell to Mercer in the closing minutes as the Bears escaped Cameron Hall with a 70-67 win over the Keydets Saturday evening in VMI's SoCon home opener in Lexington.