CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Despite shooting just 35.4 percent from the field, the Elon Phoenix men's basketball squad erased an 11-point second half deficit, but fell just short of knocking off The Citadel Bulldogs in Southern Conference action on Thursday night, falling 60-58. Elon, which played its fourth straight game decided by four points or less, dropped to 5-13 overall and 2-8 in SoCon action. The Citadel upped its mark to 12-10, 7-4.
The Citadel scored the first six points of the game before a
Monty Sanders lay-up got Elon on the board 1:23 into the contest. The Bulldogs responded with back-to-back threes from Austin Dahn and Zach Urbanus to build a 12-2 edge just over three minutes into the game.
Elon tried to dig itself out of the hole throughout the rest of the period, closing to within five points multiple times before finding itself on the short side of a 32-26 halftime margin.
After
Adam Constantine nailed a jumper to start the final 20 minutes of play, the Bulldogs Demetrius Nelson converted an old-fashioned three-point play and then hit a jumper before Cameron Wells added another jumper to push The Citadel's lead to 11 points at 39-28.
Again Elon fought back, closing the gap to five points at 50-45 after two Constantine free throws with 8:49 to play. And once again, The Citadel pulled away as Cosmo Morabbi's three was followed by a John Brown lay-up which gave the Bulldogs a 55-45 lead with 7:27 left.
Chris Long's three with 6:21 showing on the clock kick-started an 11-0 Elon run which was capped by a
Devan Carter three that gave the Phoenix its only lead of the game at 57-56 with just 3:56 remaining.
After The Citadel called a 30 second timeout, Wells layed a ball in to put the Bulldogs up 57-56. The lead grew to 60-56 on a Dahn trey with 1:57 left.
Long was fouled driving to the hole and sank both from the charity stripe to close the gap to just two points at 60-58 with 1:36 still to play.
The teams traded missed three-pointers before The Citadel missed two attempts with less than 30 seconds to go. Constantine grabbed a rebound and Elon called a timeout with 17.4 seconds to play.
The Phoenix brought the ball down the floor and found Carter who drove just inside the three-point line and pulled up for a jumper from the top of the key. His attempt with three seconds left drew the back of the iron and Wells grabbed the carom to seal the game.
Brett James and
Ola Atoyebi each scored a team-best 15 points while Constantine finished the night with a game and season-high 11 rebounds. He also equalled a career-high with three blocked shots. James tied a career-best with seven free throws made, helping Elon equal its season-high with 21 free throws knocked down.
Nelson led all scorers with 17 points for The Citadel while Dahn ended the night with 11 points and Wells chipped in 10 markers. John Brown grabbed 10 rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Elon will remain in Charleston to take on College of Charleston at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
-- ELON --
