SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Despite a late surge by the Crimson, the Wofford men's basketball team held on for a 63-62 victory over Harvard on Wednesday night in Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. With the win, Wofford improves to 11-5 on the season and has won eight of the last nine contests. The Terriers are also 8-1 at home, with the lone loss coming two months ago in the opener against South Carolina. Harvard falls to 6-10 on the season with the loss.
 
"Woah, man," said head coach Mike Young. "They aren't all going to be shootouts – there are going to be some grinders and some nights when you don't do a couple of things particularly well, but the effort, energy and attention to detail have to be a constant and I thought tonight ours was. It wasn't our best night offensively, but Harvard had a lot to with that. They guard the fire out of you and have big, strong athletes who made some things hard for us."
 
Wofford's 9-4 non-conference record is the best since the 2014-15 team finished with the same. The Terriers' 63 points was the fewest since the 63-60 win over Georgia Tech on December 6, but Wofford allowed 60 points or less for the second time in the last three games.
 
Fletcher Magee led Wofford in scoring with 19 points and moved into 16^th place in program history for career points (1424). Magee shot just 27% from the field and 23.1% from beyond the arc, but contributed in other ways, going 6-7 from the free throw line and adding four assists and seven rebounds. Magee has led Wofford in scoring in 13 of 16 games this season.
 
After scoring a career high 17 in the last contest, a win over The Citadel, freshman Storm Murphy again finished in double-digits. Murphy scored 12 points on 4-7 shooting and 3-5 from beyond the arc. Trevor Stumpe joined Magee in double-digits with 11 points. The sophomore shot 66.7% (4-6) from the field and a perfect 3-3 from deep.
 
The game started off with the teams swapping baskets. Tied 7-7, Wofford got back-to-back three's from Stumpe and Murphy to stretch the lead to 13-7. A dunk by Chris Lewis pulled the Crimson within two, 16-14, but three pointers by Tray Hollowell and Murphy ran the lead back to six, 22-16. The Terriers made six of seven threes to open the game.
 
Seth Towns stole the ball and dunked on a fast break with 9:30 to go to, again, make it a one point game, but a 7-0 run in response kept the Terriers out in front. Both teams struggled to score in the last few minutes of the half, as the last basket came with 3:18 to go on another dunk by Towns. Towns sank two free throws with 2:21 to go to tie the game at 28 and the tie held until the half.
 
Wofford never trailed in the second half. In fact, the Terriers went on a 6-0 run to start the half and the Crimson called a 30 second timeout to slow the momentum. Justin Bassey sank a three pointer with 1:33 to go to cut Wofford's lead, as large as nine in the second half, to two (62-60). Wofford took a timeout to regroup, but Towns made a layup out of the break and tied the game at 62.
 
With 36 seconds to go, Magee missed a three but Cameron Jackson came up with a huge offensive rebound to keep the ball with the Terriers. Magee attempted another three with 11 seconds to go, and Derrick Brooks jumped up to grab his lone offensive rebound of the contest and was fouled. Brooks missed the first but drilled the second and a missed layup by Towns with one second left allowed the Terriers to hold on for the win.
 
"We knew he (Towns) was going to get the ball, and we knew it would be a team effort to make a defensive stand," said Brooks, the senior guard. "We knew they would have to make a play and we ended up making the stop. They're a great team and it just gives us more confidence to know we can play with teams like this and battle in true dogfights to the end."
 
A big difference came from beyond the arc as Wofford shot 42.3% (11-26) and held the Crimson to 19.2% (5-26). The Terriers entered the contest third in the country in team three point field goal percentage, and the three point success showed tonight. Harvard won the battle in the paint (30 points to 10), second chance points (12-1) and points off turnovers (11-3).
 
Wofford gets back to the conference slate. Next up, Wofford hosts Furman for the team's final game of the four game home stand. The game will be the first WHITE OUT in Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. The Terriers hit the road for a Jan. 18 contest at Samford and then return to Spartanburg for a showdown with Chattanooga on Jan. 20.