KENNESAW, Ga. – Nathan Hoover's 21 points in the second half propelled the Wofford men's basketball team to an 83-70 victory over Kennesaw State on Sunday.

"You never see us waiver on the bench," Wofford head coach Jay McAuley said of Hoover. "Our coaching staff, players, we think every one of his shots is going in."

Despite making just two 3-pointers in the first half, the Terriers shot 38.5 percent from downtown, hitting eight in the second while going 45.3 percent from the floor. Wofford grabbed a season-high 40 rebounds and dished out 14 assists, knocking down 15-of-19 free-throw attempts.

"I thought they did a great job," McAuley said of the Terriers. "We knew coming in that rebounding and preventing fouls were going to be key, and we did one out of the two. I was really proud of our second half, we made enough plays to win and our seniors really stepped up."

Hoover totaled 23 points, going 5-for-11 from 3-point range with a career-high nine rebounds, while Storm Murphy scored a game-high 24 and Chevez Goodwin recorded his third-career double-double, scoring 11 points and hauling in 13 rebounds. The 13 rebounds for Goodwin tied his career-high in that category, grabbing seven on the offensive end to go along with two assists, a block and a steal.

After three games on the road and one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the NCAA, Wofford heads into a nine-day break sitting at 8-5 overall, opening up SoCon play on January first with a matchup at ETSU.

"It feels great, being able to go home on a win," said Hoover. "It's going to be great to see family, but we know when get back, we got a battle with ETSU and UNCG and the rest of the SoCon teams.

Goodwin got things going early, scoring the first points of the game and slamming home a feed from Tray Hollowell that forced a Kennesaw State timeout. The Owls cut the deficit to two, but a putback from Trevor Stumpe and three from Donovan Theme-Love made the score 17-10 in favor of the Terriers.

Kennesaw State hung around, pulling ahead 35-34 with 1:25 left to play in the first half. Despite Murphy's 10 points, the Owls would take a 37-34 advantage into the break.  

Hoover and Stumpe knocked down 3-pointers to open up the second, with Hoover hitting two free throws to put Wofford ahead 45-43. With the score knotted at 45-45, Goodwin jump-started the Wofford offense, scoring inside, grabbing a rebound and slamming home a transition dunk as the Terriers pulled ahead 51-45.

"My teammates did a great job of coming up to me at the half and just saying relax and just keep shooting the ball," Hoover said. "Coach (Will) Murphy kind of got my motor running a little bit, and to be able to see that first three go in, I settled down so it felt great."

Hoover began to get keyed in, hitting two more 3-pointers as Wofford took an eight-point lead with 13:14 to play in the second (57-49). Murphy got to the tin for a pair of layups and knocked down two free throws before another trey from Hoover pushed the lead to nine with 6:26 to play. After the Terriers went ahead by 14, Kennesaw State made one last charge, scoring six unanswered before Hollowell put the finishing touches on the game, knocking down a three as the shot clock expired.

"We made some slight adjustments at half," McAuley said. "But it's just about us being ourselves and playing and moving the ball and rebounding at a high level and I think we closed this chapter of a very tough non-conference the right way and we can build on it. Our guys need to go home and re-charge, so that we are ready for a very challenging SoCon schedule that we are looking forward to."