Hot-Shooting Western Carolina Bests Men’s Basketball
2/10/2013 3:04:40 AM | Men's Basketball
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STATESBORO, GA. – Brandon Boggs scored 18 points, and Western Carolina shot 53 percent from the field to earn a 71-62 Southern Conference men’s basketball victory over Western Carolina Saturday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
C.J. Reed led Georgia Southern (10-15, 4-8 SoCon) with 20 points to go along with five rebounds and three steals, and Brian Holmes scored 13 points off the bench.
Trey Sumler posted 17 points and five rebounds for Western Carolina (9-16, 6-6 SoCon), and Tawaski King collected 14 points and five boards.
The Catamounts went 29-for-55 from the floor while holding the Eagles to 36 percent shooting for the game. Western Carolina also outscored GSU 36-22 in the paint.
“Quite frankly the effort was unacceptable,” said Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young. “We’ve got to find a way to come out and play with heart and passion in the final six games of the regular season. We are going to go in and practice and practice and practice until we can figure out what we want to be doing down the stretch.”
After the score was tied 34-34 at halftime, Western Carolina opened a five-point lead early in the second half and extended that margin to 15 points with just under nine minutes remaining. The Catamount lead came as GSU went 1-for-10 to open the second half from the field and did not score a bucket from for nearly eight minutes.
“Western Carolina played the way they wanted to play tonight,” said Young. “They wanted to get out and run and it forced us to counter with a small lineup in order to defend them and we didn’t do a good job of that.”
The Eagles ramped up the defensive pressure and used a 7-0 run to trim the margin to eight points with 7:05 remaining in the game. Georgia Southern cut the margin to 63-58 on two Marvin Baynham free throws with 3:09 to go, but James Sinclair answered with a jumper and after a defensive stop, Boggs got to the rim for a layup.
Eric Ferguson missed a jumper for GSU, but the Eagles forced a WCU turnover. Reed was fouled and made two from the line to cut the margin to seven with 45 seconds left. The Eagles were forced to foul, and the Catamounts went 4-for-4 from the line to seal the victory.
Reed paced the Eagles with 14 points in the first half as Georgia Southern matched the Catamounts in the first half 34-34. Sumler scored nine in the opening half, surpassing his total from the meeting two weeks ago by one.
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