Box Score Game Book (pdf)
SANTA CLARA, California – In the first round of the Cable Car Classic, the Wofford men’s basketball team was defeated 73-66 by Kent State at the Leavey Center on Tuesday night. The Terriers were down 16 in the second half, but pulled within one possession with under a minute to go.
Wofford is 7-7 overall, while Kent State is 8-4. The Terriers were led by Jamar Diggs with 18 points and he added nine rebounds. Noah Dahlman had 17 points and eleven rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season. The Golden Flashes were led by Justin Greene with 26 points and ten rebounds.
“They went at us in the second half,” said head coach Mike Young. “This is a great tournament for our team. That bunch is a good basketball team. We have a good basketball team If we played them ten times, it probably would be an even split. They are going to win a lot of games in their league, which is a pretty good one. They outplayed us. They went into the post with Greene and Singletary and those guys are good players. I don’t think there is anything they did or we did not do, they just played better than us and deserved to win the game.”
The Golden Flashes opened with two three pointers for a 6-0 lead, but Jamar Diggs answered with a three and a lay-up to make it a 6-5 game two minutes in. Wofford took an 8-7 lead after a bucket from Noah Dahlman. The Terriers extended the lead to 16-11 after a lay-up by Noah Dahlman at 11:08 in the first half.
Kent State regained the lead at 17-16 after a 6-0 run with 9:50 on the clock. Wofford answered and tied the game at 19 before going on an 11-3 run that was capped by a dunk by Tim Johnson for a 30-22 lead with 3:51 left in the half. However the Golden Flashes ended the half with an 11-1 run to take a 33-31 lead at the break.
Wofford tied the game on their first possession of the second half with a bucket by Noah Dahlman and the game was also tied at 35. Kent State then went on an 8-0 run for a 43-35 lead at 15:24. The Golden Flashes continued to extend the lead and were up 54-38 with 11:18 on the clock as the Terrier offense went cold.
Noah Dahlman scored for the Terriers to end a ten-minute span without a field goal as Kent State had a 54-40 lead. Wofford made a run with back-to-back threes from Jason Dawson and Junior Salters to cut the lead to 59-50 with 5:26 left in the game. Wofford pulled to within eight at 64-56 with 1:48 on the clock. Two free throws by Jamar Diggs with 1:40 left cut it to six points.
After trading pairs of free throws, Wofford cut the lead to 67-63 after a three by Jason Dawson with 47 seconds on the clock. After the Golden Flashes hit a pair of free throws for a 69-63 lead, Jason Dawson hit another three to cut it to 69-66 with 25 seconds remaining. Kent State hit two more free throws, but Wofford missed several shots and the Golden Flashes hit two more free throws to end the game with a 73-68 score.
Wofford shot 41.1% from the floor and 28.6% from behind the arc. From the free throw line, the Terriers were 77.8%. Kent State shot 45.1% overall and were 33.3% from three. They were 66.7% from the line. Wofford had a 37-33 lead on rebounds.
Noah Dahlman reached 1,000 career points on his second bucket of the second half at 18:50. He is the 41st player in Wofford history to reach the 1,000 point mark and the second this season as Junior Salters reached that mark earlier this season.
In the first game of the night, Northeastern defeated host Santa Clara 62-50. The Terriers will play Santa Clara to complete the 43rd Annual Cable Car Classic on Wednesday night at 6:00 pm Pacific Time.
