Box Score Box Score (pdf)
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Wofford College men’s basketball team was down by 19, but fought back and were defeated 86-84 by College of Charleston on Thursday night at Carolina First Arena. The Terriers had four players in double figures, including Noah Dahlman who scored a career-high 36 points with ten rebounds to lead all scorers.
Wofford is 14-13 overall and 10-8 in the conference, while the College of Charleston is 22-7 overall and 14-5 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Noah Dahlman with 36 points and ten rebounds, while Junior Salters added 16 points, Corey Godzinski 13 points and Terry Martin with ten points. The Cougars were led by Andrew Goudelock with 20 points, while Jeremy Simmons had 16 points and nine rebounds.
“The fifty-percent shooting by then with ten threes along with 19 assists shows they did not feel our defense or pressure on the ball,” said head coach Mike Young. “We did not hedge very well and Goudelock got some shots that he does not miss. Defensively it was not good enough. I am proud of them coming back, but that is for average teams and this is not an average team. We are going to have to do better than that this Saturday against The Citadel. Noah Dahlman just does what he does and he does it every night, regardless of the opponent or situation. He does it every night and that was a pretty good front line that he went for 36 and 10 against.”
The Terriers were down 11-8 at the first media timeout with 15:33 on the clock as Noah Dahlman and Brad Loesing each had four points. Wofford pulled within one point twice, but a dunk by Jeremy Simmons gave the Cougars a 16-12 lead at 11:26 in the first. The College of Charleston continued on an 8-0 run to take a 22-12 lead at 9:33. Noah Dahlman ended the run with a lay-up at 8:44.
College of Charleston scored the next five points to take a 27-14 lead at the 5:41 mark after a three from Andrew Goudelock. Noah Dahlman continued to score at will in the paint, adding the next six Terrier points to make it a 20-29 game just ninety seconds later. Junior Salters ended Dahlman’s personal 16 point run at the 3:50 mark with a three to make it a 33-23 score. The Cougars used two threes to go on an 8-0 run over the final three minutes for a 41-26 lead at the half.
Wofford opened the second half with six straight points to cut the lead to 41-32, but the Cougars answered with back-to-back threes to keep the lead at 15 at the 16:12 mark. The Terriers added baskets from Salters and Dahlman to cut it back to 47-36 with 15:38 left in the second half.
The Terriers pulled to within eight points at 50-42 after a bucket from Terry Martin at the 12:58 mark. College of Charleston responded with a 16-5 run over the next four minutes to take a 66-47 lead. Wofford was able to respond and at the 3:44 mark had cut the lead to 70-63.
After a three from Junior Salters at 2:15, the lead was down to five points at 73-68. The Cougars were able to go back up by seven, but the Terriers kept fighting and a three by Corey Godzinski with 19 seconds left made it an 82-79 game. Tony White, Jr. made two free throws with 15 seconds left, which was matched by Noah Dahlman with five seconds left. Andrew Goudelock hit two more free throws, but Junior Salters hit a three as time expired to make it an 86-84 final score.
Wofford shot 43.8% from the floor and 28.6% from three. The Terriers were 82.4% from the line. The Cougars shot 50.8% from the floor and 43.5% from behind the arc. College of Charleston was 69.6% from the free throw line. The Terriers had a 43-33 advantage on the boards, but the Cougars had five blocked shots.
In the first half, Noah Dahlman scored 16 of Wofford’s 26 points. The Terriers were only 1-of-11 from three in the opening half and shot only 31.4% overall in the first. Noah Dahlman has led the team in scoring each of the last seven games. Wofford has secured the fourth seed in the Southern Conference Tournament next week.
The final stretch of five games in ten days to complete the regular season continues Saturday in Charleston at The Citadel at 7:00 pm and wraps up on Monday, March 2 against Furman at Benjamin Johnson Arena.
