CONWAY, S.C. – Thanks to a career high scoring performance from Eric Garcia and a season high night from Fletcher Magee, the Wofford men's basketball team picked up its first road win of the season, defeating Coastal Carolina 75-74 on Monday evening in the HTC Center. With the win, Wofford improves to 5-7 while Coastal Carolina falls to 5-8 with the loss.
 
"Offensively, we continued to share the ball and we are getting quality contributions from many guys," said head coach Mike Young. "This was a big win and we continue to move in the right direction." With the win, Young passes former Wofford head coach and current Athletic Director Richard Johnson for second most wins in program history with 237.
 
Magee scored a season high 27 points to lead the Terriers offensively. Eric Garcia scored a career high 23 points with 16 coming in the second half, often at crucial times. He made a career high nine shots and went 9-12 from the field to shoot 75%. Five other Terriers scored, though no one else had more than six points. Cameron Jackson pulled down a team high eight rebounds.
 
"Tonight was a big win for the team," said Garcia, the senior point guard. "It was nice to pick up a win on the road against a very good team. I'm really proud of everyone that stepped on the court tonight and we look to carry this momentum into our game Thursday against Georgia Tech."
 
The Chanticleers jumped out to a 4-0 lead but after two threes by Magee and a jumper by Jaylen Allen, Wofford took an 8-7 lead. Coastal Carolina led by as many as 7, up 21-14 at one point. Trailing 23-17, Wofford went on a 15-2 run to take a 32-25 lead and force Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis to call a timeout. Twelve of the 15 points in the scoring run came off of three pointers as Allen, Nathan Hoover (2) and Magee all contributed from beyond the arc.
 
Out of the timeout, the Chanticleers went on a 6-0 run of their own to cut the lead to 32-31 and force a Wofford timeout. Coastal retained momentum out of the timeout and finished the half on a 5-2 run to take a 36-34 lead into the locker room.
 
Wofford went on an 8-0 run to start the second half, holding the Chanticleers scoreless until almost three minutes in when Artur Labinowicz went to the free throw line and sunk one to end the drought. The Chants remained feisty and teams swapped baskets until the final minute. The Terriers led 62-61 at the last media timeout. Wofford stretched the lead to 68-63 as Fletcher Magee made a pair of threes out of the break to force a Coastal timeout. Coastal would hang around and with Wofford up 70-67, Fletcher Magee made a big time three with 1:32 left in the game. With the Terriers up 73-68, Coastal's Jaylen Shaw made a layup to cut the lead to three with 43 seconds remaining. Ryan Sawvell made a layup on a beautiful pass from Cameron Jackson with 15 seconds to go to stretch the lead back to five. Labinowicz made a free throw with six seconds remaining and then sunk a deep three with one second on the clock to cut the lead to one but the Terriers hung on for the win.
 
The Terriers held Coastal's leading scorer, Elijah Wilson, to just eight points though he entered the contest averaging 16.3.  Shaw finished with 19 and Joseph Williams-Powell scored 15 points off the bench to lead Coastal.
 
"I thought our team defense was as good as it's been all season," said head coach Mike Young. Wilson averages 16 but has the ability to score 30 and beat you. I thought we fought and came away with a couple of 'winning plays'. Some small things we did tonight went a long way with helping us pick up this win."
 
Wofford concludes non-conference play Thursday, Dec. 22 at Georgia Tech. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. from McCamish Pavilion. The Terriers begin conference play Dec. 31 at home against Mercer.