Charles scores career-high 28 in UTA's 105-89 win over BYU
PROVO, Utah -- Drew Charles made five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 28 points and UT Arlington beat BYU 105-89 on Wednesday night in a first-round NIT game.
The sixth-seeded Mavericks (26-8), regular-season champions of the Sun Belt Conference, will host seventh-seeded Akron on Monday in the second round. The Zips beat Houston 78-75 on Wednesday,
Kaelon Wilson and Kevin Hervey added 20 points each for UTA, which led 62-55 at halftime after shooting 63 percent and finished at 55 percent in reaching their second-highest point total this season.
BYU, which never led, shot 60 percent in the first half but couldn't keep pace in the final 20 minutes when it shot 27 percent. Eric Mika led the Cougars (22-12) with 29 points and Nick Emery, who made four 3-pointers, added 24.
UTA scored 32 points off 20 BYU turnovers and outscored the Cougars 50-26 in the paint.
Leading by nine, the Mavericks went on a 17-3 run to lead by 23 with 2:43 to go.
----------
CCU Pulls Away Late; Moves On in CBI
CONWAY, S.C. – Jaylen Shaw scored 22 points and Demario Beck added 21 as Coastal Carolina University pulled away late in the game for an 83-67 win over Hampton University in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational.
The game was much closer than the final score as CCU (17-17) hit 11 of its final 12 field goals over the last 6:17 to turn a 58-57 lead into the final 83-67 score, outscoring the visitors 25-10.
With the late game explosion, the Chanticleers ended the game shooting 57 percent from the field, including an incredible second half which saw CCU shoot 69 percent (22-32).
Colton Ray-St Cyr ended the game with 12 points while Artur Labinowicz, making a start in place of an injured Shivaughn Wiggins, and Elijah Wilson scored 11 each.
CCU also out rebounded Hampton 44-28. Beck led the way with nine rebounds, coming up one board short of his eighth double-double. Labinwicz added eight while Elijah Wilson and Ray-St Cyr had seven each.
The Chants struggled taking care of the basketball without its starting point guard, turning the ball over 16 times as Hampton finished the game with 10 steals and scored 15 points off those turnovers.
Coastal was able to get into the paint during the game scoring 50 points around the basket which led to the high shooting percentage.
Hampton (14-17) put up a strong fight for most of the game, even leading 38-31 with just under 18 minutes left in the game.
Jermaine Marrow came into the game as Hampton’s leading scorer and once again led the Pirates with 17 points. Akim Mitchell added 12 and AJ Astroth came off the bench to score 10.
The two teams went into the locker room at halftime even at 31. CCU outshot the visitors 42-37 percent, but CCU committed 10 turnovers the Pirates tuned into nine points to stay even. Without the team’s point guard Shivaughn Wiggins, CCU turned the ball over five times in the final two minutes.
Beck and Labinowicz led CCU with nine points each and Shaw added six. CCU out rebounded Hampton 25-17 with Beck’s seven leading the way.
Marrow had eight points and Mitchell added seven leading Hampton in scoring. The visitors only turned the ball over four times while gaining seven steals.
With the win the Chanticleers will move on to the quarterfinals against Loyola (Md.), who won their opening round game in upset fashion, over George Mason. Once again the Chants will have home court advantage hosting Loyola Monday, March 25 at 7 p.m. at the HTC Center.
----------
Georgia State Falls to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 80-64 in CIT
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas-Making its seventh postseason appearance in program history, Georgia State fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 80-64 in the opening game of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament at the Dugan Wellness Center on Wednesday.
Sun Belt Freshman of the Year D’Marcus Simonds led the Panthers with 17 points, including 15 in the second half, but a quick start by the Islanders was too much for the Panthers to overcome.
Georgia State finishes its season 20-13, tied for the fifth-most wins in program history. The Panthers fall to 3-7 all-time in postseason play and 1-2 in CIT competition.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (21-11) was led by Rashawn Thomas who scored 31 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists. Joseph Kilgore also just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.
“This is a disappointing end to what was a very good season and that is what we have to remind ourselves,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “We are a 20-win team that played in the postseason and that cannot be taken away from us. We thank our seniors for all that they have done for us and then start to build on what we did this year for next season.”
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi took an early 14-3 lead with 13:37 remaining in the first half as the Panthers turned the ball over six times in the first six minutes.
The Islanders took a 14-point lead, 24-10, with 8:51 to play before the Panthers were able to cut the deficit in half and trailed just 28-20 with 3:51 to play as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi did not make a field goal for more than five minutes.
Shooting 44.8 percent from the floor, the Islanders went into the locker room with a 36-22 lead, while holding the Panthers to just 32.1 percent shooting and 1-of-10 from 3-point range.
The Panthers tried to make a second half run, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi managed to push the lead to as many as 24 with 10:51 to play.
Sophomore Malik Benlevi knocked down four second-half 3-pointers and finished with 15 points, three rebounds and three steals in the loss. Senior Jeremy Hollowell finished the last game of his career with seven points and seven rebounds, while senior Willie Clayton pulled down eight rebounds.
Junior Jordan Session, who earned his 17th career start, finished with 13 points and five rebounds, going 5-of-7 from the floor.
Ehab Amin added 19 points and six assists for the Islanders who finished the game shooting 48.3 percent from the floor.
Georgia State’s season comes to an end in the postseason for the fourth time in the last six years.
----------
Utah Valley Cruises Past Men’s Basketball 74-49
STATESBORO, Ga. – Utah Valley put four scorers in double figures and held Georgia Southern to 29 percent shooting to race by the Eagles 74-49 in the first round of the CBI presented by FIVE FOUR Wednesday night in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Jordan Poydras tallied 12 points and six assists, and Brandon Randolph scored 12 points. Connor Toolson chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds, and Zach Nelson scored 12.
Mike Hughed finished the game with seven points and matched a season high with seven rebounds. The junior scored his 1,000th career point on a runner with 16 seconds left.
Montae Glenn led the Eagles with 13 points and eight rebounds, and Ike Smith tallied 10 points and five rebounds.
The Eagles see their season come to a close with an 18-15 overall record. Utah Valley improves to 16-16 and will advance to play the winner of Rice and San Francisco in the CBI presented by FIVE FOUR quarterfinals.
The story
Georgia Southern owned a two-point lead after a pair of free throws by Aubrey McRae midway through the first half, but Randolph scored the last four points in an 11-2 Wolverine run that made the score 26-19 in favor of Utah Valley.
Glenn trimmed the deficit to five points before Utah Valley outscored Georgia Southern 8-2 over the final 3:42 of the half. Randolph capped the period with consecutive triples, and the Wolverines led 36-25 at the break.
Utah Valley opened the second half with a 14-6 run to take control of the contest. The margin ballooned to 28 points on a conventional 3-point play by Toolson with 3:50 remaining.
Georgia Southern returns all 11 scholarship student-athletes to the 2017-18 roster.
Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
“I want to say thanks to all the fans who came out tonight. Sorry we didn't play well, but this shows why Georgia Southern is a special place. The fans came out today and came to see a postseason game, and I looked up in the stands, and I was really proud to work at Georgia Southern. So thank you to everybody who came out.”
“We were a step slow and maybe sometimes two steps slow, and they were crisp with the way they ran their offense. I feel like that one of the things with this team is that when we're not making shots on offense, our defense gets worse. I wish our defense would get better in those situations. We missed a lot of open shots early and missed some opportunities there and then our defense fell apart.”
On the season
“I think we hit the wall here towards the end of the season in the last week and a half. I don't know if the Georgia State game took a lot out of us or the road stretches at the end, but we hit the wall and didn't finish how we wanted to finish. Big picture-wise, we did a lot of good things and are taking steps in the right direction.”
On returning 11 lettermen
“We're excited about where things are going even as dejected as we feel right now. As bad as we feel about the last week and a half, I think it's going to be the fuel that lights our fire in the offseason and gets us going for next year.”