The Charleston Southern Buccaneers defeated the Presbyterian College men's basketball team 73-65 to take the Big South Conference victory Saturday night at the Templeton Center in Clinton, S.C.
The Blue Hose fall to 6-13 overall and 2-4 in Big South Conference play. The Buccaneers improve to 10-7 on the year and 4-2 in the conference. PC is next in action Thursday, Jan. 22, as it hosts Campbell in a 7 p.m., contest at the Templeton Center.
Jordan Downing (Huntersville, N.C.) scored a season-high 29 points to lead the Blue Hose, while DeSean Murray (Stanley, N.C.) also added 18 points for the hosts. William Truss (Vestavia Hills, Ala.) pulled down a team-high nine rebounds, while Davon Bell (Charlotte, N.C.) and Austin Anderson (Piedmont, S.C.) handed out four assists each for the Blue Hose.
Saah Nimley scored a team-high 30 points for the visiting Buccaneers. Will Saunders scored 15 points and Arion Harper added 14 points for Charleston Southern. Cedrick Bowen had a team-high eight boards for the Bucs, while Nimley dished out four assists.
The Blue Hose were 48% (24-50) from the field and 69% (9-13) from the foul line. The visiting Bucs shot 30% (20-65) from the floor and sank 23-of-30 of their free throws. The teams evenly rebounded, pulling down 38 caroms apiece, but PC was on the high side of turnovers, 16-3.
In a back-and-forth first half that saw three ties and seven lead changes in the opening 13 minutes, Charleston Southern hit back-to-back-to back triples to take an eight-point lead with just under six minutes to play in the half. PC outscored the Bucs 7-2 in the final five and a half minutes, though, to cut the deficit to just three-points (32-29) at halftime.
Murray led the Blue Hose in the first half with 13 points, including a perfect 5-for-5 performance from the foul line. Nimley drained three treys en route to 11 first-half points to lead the Buccaneers. The visitors held a slight rebounding advantage over the Blue Hose in the opening half, 32-29. The Bucs only had one turnover in the half, while PC had eight miscues.
The Buccaneers led for the entire second half, extending their lead to as much as 12 points on two occasions. The Blue Hose outscored the Bucs 9-2 just after the midway point in the second half to cut the deficit to five-points, 53-48, with 7:01 to play. Downing scored five straight points for the Blue Hose to cut it to four points, 58-54, with a little over three minutes to play, but that would be the closest the hosts would get, as the Bucs went 6-for-8 from the foul line in the final minute to seal the win.
