Noah Dahlman scored 20 points, while Tim Johnson added 15 rebounds, to lead the Wofford Terriers to the 74-68 win over the College of Charleston men's basketball team in front of a sell-out crowd of 3,500 at the Benjamin Johnson Arena in Spartanburg, S.C.
The win gives Wofford sole possession of first in the Southern Conference South Division as both the Cougars and the Terriers round out the regular season Saturday, Feb. 27. Charleston, now 19-10 overall and 13-4 in the league, travels to Furman for a 4 p.m. game, while Wofford, which improved to 22-8 and 14-3, hosts The Citadel at 7 p.m.
Charleston took its first lead of the game, 8-7, off a three-pointer by Andrew Goudelock (Lilburn, Ga.) with 16:48 remaining in the half, and continued with a 9-4 run that saw the Cougars build a 17-11 lead before Jamar Diggs' three-pointer at 10:40 cut the margin to three.
Willis Hall (Charlotte, N.C.) scored two of his eight points on the night with a lay-up at 5:17 to give the Cougars a four-point, 26-22 lead. That would be the last basket for the Cougars until Hall scored again as time expired as the Terriers used a 14-2 run to build an eight-point, 36-28 lead heading into the locker room.
After the Cougars opened the second half with five unanswered points to cut the Wofford lead to just 36-33 with 18:45 to go, the Terriers outscored CofC 17-4 the next nine minutes and built their largest lead of the game at 16, 53-37, with 9:01 on the clock.
Charleston cut the margin to single digits as Donavan Monroe (Waxhaw, N.C.) scored four of his nine points during a 9-2 run to only trail the Terriers 55-46 with 6:27 remaining. A Cameron Rundles lay-up at 5:21 took the Wofford lead back up to double-digits at 11.
Despite cutting into the Wofford lead on several occasions after that, the Cougars weren't able to convert key shots and trailed by 11 with 35 seconds to go. Charleston trimmed the margin to seven with 20 seconds on the clock off a lay-up by Hall but two free throws by Rundles, who scored 15 on the night, sealed the win. Tony White, Jr., nailed a three-pointer, one of his three total, as time expired to make the score the final 74-68.
Goudelock went five-for-10 from beyond the three-point arc to lead the team with 24 points. White, Jr., followed with 16. Jeremy Simmons (Lithonia, Ga.) paced the team in rebounds with 10.
Diggs followed Dahlman in scoring for the Terriers with 19.
Charleston shot 39.8 percent from the field, while Wofford was 44.4 percent. Both the Cougars and Terriers connected on eight three-pointers, with Charleston at 20.8 percent and Wofford 42.1.
Wofford out-rebounded Charleston 44-35 and had one more turnover, 8-7. The Terriers went to the free throw line 31 times, making 18 of them. Charleston was eight-for-13.