CHARLESTON, SC UNC Greensboro's Ben Stywall had a career-high 26 points, but an incredibly hot start by College of Charleston was too much to overcome as UNCG fell 89-73 to the host Cougars at Carolina First Arena on Thursday night.
The Cougars (16-4, 8-2 SoCon) came out white hot, knocking down five three-pointers in the first four minutes of the game to leap out to a 19-6 lead.
College of Charleston hit their first seven shots of the game to set the tempo early.
The hot shooting was reminiscent of what UNCG had done to the Cougars in their old home Kress Arena last year when they shot 67 percent from the field to hand the Cougars their worst home loss in over 20 years.
College of Charleston finished Thursday night shooting 55.6 percent from the floor. The Cougars cooled a little after a first half display of 67.7 percent.
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Ben Stywall had a career-high 26 points, nine rebounds and career-high five steals in Thursday night's game against College of Charleston.
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Tony White, Jr. had a near-perfect night to lead the Cougars. He had 17 points and three assists, going 5-for-5 from three-point range and 2-for-2 at the charity stripe. Jermaine Johnson added 16 points, while Donavan Monroe chipped in 15 points and six assists off the bench.
Stywall, a junior from Charlotte, NC, finished with 26 points of 10-of-18 shooting from the floor to go along with nine rebounds and a career-high five steals. Freshman Damian Eargle added 22 points for UNCG (3-16, 2-8 SoCon). The Harding, OH native also had a season-high five blocks.
The Cougars hit 8-of-9 from behind the arc before the midway point of the half to hold a 31-14 advantage. The Spartans gained their feet from there for a while. Stywall's put back with three minutes to go made it 47-33.
UNCG continued to hang around into the early part of the second half. A quick 8-2 burst to open the second half got UNCG to within 12 as Eargle scored the first two buckets in the run. College of Charleston stretched the lead back to 18, but Pete Brown's putback with 11:11 to play got UNCG closer than it had been just about all night at 72-61.
But the Cougars ran off nine straight points, capped off by White, Jr.'s fifth trey of the night, to take the margin back to 20 with seven minutes to play.
UNCG concludes its weekend road swing with a Saturday night game at The Citadel. Game time is set for 7 pm.
AGATE
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 89, UNCG 73
UNCG (3-16, 2-8 SoCon)
Ben Stywall 10-18 6-9 26; Damian Eargle 10-21 2-2 22; Kendall Toney 2-4 0-0 6; Pete Brown 2-6 1-2 5; Deangelo Jackson 1-3 2-2 4; Montel Smith 2-3 0-0 4; Sean Spooner 1-3 2-2 4; Daniel Oliver 0-1 2-2 2; Mike Hardiman 0-0 0-0 0;
Mikko Koivisto 0-8 0-1 0; Landon Clement 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-67 15-20 73.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (16-4, 8-2 SoCon)
Tony White Jr 5-5 2-2 17; Jermaine Johnson 7-11 2-4 16; Donavan Monroe 6-9 -2 15; Andrew Goudelock 5-9 0-0 13; Jeremy Simmons 4-7 0-0 8; Marcus Hammond 3-9 0-0 8; Dustin Scott 4-12 0-1 8; Antwaine Wiggins 1-1 0-0 3;
Quasim Pugh 0-0 1-2 1; Jordan Turok 0-0 0-0 0; Garrett Campbell 0-0 0-0 0; Matt Sundberg 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 35-63 6-11 89.
Halftime: College of Charleston 55-37. 3-point goals--UNCG 2-10 (Kendall Toney 2-4; Mikko Koivisto 0-6), College of
Charleston 13-22 (Tony White Jr 5-5; Andrew Goudelock 3-4; Donavan Monroe 2-4; Marcus Hammond 2-5; Antwaine Wiggins 1-1; Dustin Scott 0-3). Fouled out--UNCG-None, College of Charleston-None. Rebounds--UNCG 36 (Ben Stywall
9), College of Charleston 36 (Dustin Scott 9). Assists--UNCG 11 (Kendall Toney 4), College of Charleston 22 (Donavan Monroe 6; Marcus Hammond 6). Total fouls--UNCG 12, College of Charleston 15. Technical fouls--UNCG-None, College of Charleston-None. A-3227
FREE THROWS: UNCG used its 12th different starting line-up on the season on Thursday night, going with a new twist. Walk-on Sean Spooner's hustle in the second half of Monday's loss at Furman earned himself the nod for Thursday night's game. It was the first time a walk-on had started (not including a senior night) since 2005-06 when Donald Moore started consecutive games against Western Carolina and Appalachian State in his junior season. Spooner played 14 minutes... the 12 three-pointers in the first half were the most UNCG has allowed in a half in its Division I era. The 55 first-half points were the most since November 2005 (59 at Duke)... Mikko Koivisto was shutout in the scoring column for the first time in 78 career games.
- UNCG -
