Spartans stymie Bulldogs

The second-half spark that carried The Citadel's basketball team to five straight wins never quite ignited Saturday against UNC Greensboro.

A touch of fatigue and illness, some cagey 1-3-1 zone defense from the Spartans and a whole lot of Ben Stywall spoiled the Bulldogs' home finale.

Stywall scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and UNC Greensboro pulled away for a 59-53 victory in front of 3,024 fans at McAlister Field House.

The loss snapped The Citadel's five-game winning streak and ended the Bulldogs' longshot hopes for a first-round bye in the Southern Conference Tournament.

But coach Ed Conroy did not seem overly concerned after his team dropped to 15-13 overall and 9-7 in the SoCon with games at Furman and Wofford left to play.

"I thought we did some really good things," said Conroy. "We shared the ball well, only had six turnovers, shot the ball well from 3-point range. We just didn't convert a lot of shots on the interior. We got some good looks there, but they didn't go. And then Ben Stywall took over in the second half."

Stywall, a 6-5, 220-pound senior, is the only player in the SoCon averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. He was 8 of 10 from the field and grabbed six of his 14 rebounds off the offensive glass, helping the Spartans to a 41-24 edge on the boards and a 14-6 margin in second-chance points with his league-best 13th double-double.

Two Stywall putbacks and 3-pointers from Mikko Koivisto (18 points), Kyle Randall and Kendall Toney keyed a 20-6 run that took UNCG (6-21, 5-11) from six points down to a 55-47 lead.

The Spartans' mix of 1-3-1 and man defenses stalled the Bulldogs in the first half, forcing some end-of-the-shot-clock prayers that resulted in the Citadal shooting just 36 percent.

"That's a little dangerous to try against a team that shoots it so well," said UNCG Mike Dement, whose club's 21 losses includes six against ACC foes. "But we matched up with them pretty well and defended, and when they missed a couple of shots, that helped us gain confidence in playing that defense."

The Citadel shot 38.5 percent and hit 8 of 22 from 3-point range, but only Austin Dahn (17 points) was effective from long distance, hitting 5 of 9. Cameron Wells needed 19 shots to hit six and score 14 points, with eight assists and six rebounds, but Zach Urbanus missed 7 of 8 shots.

"We missed a lot of easy shots today," Wells said. "Some layups inside, shots we normally make. Greensboro just played better."

The Bulldogs heated up in the second half, but never quite caught fire as they did during their winning streak. In the second half of those five games, The Citadel outscored foes by 43 points and shot 51 percent from the field and 55 percent from 3-point range.

Against UNCG, the Bulldogs threatened to ignite when Harrison DuPont and Dahn hit triples during a 10-1 run good for a 41-35 lead with 12:08 to play. But after a Dement timeout, the Bulldogs scored only four points over the next 8 1/2 minutes, missing 7 of 8 shots during one stretch, four by Wells and two by Urbanus.

Down by 55-47 with 58 seconds left, the Bulldogs got to within 57-53 on a Bryan Streeter 3-point play and Dahn's trey at 38-seconds. UNCG's Pete Brown, a 6-6 senior shooting 60.5 percent from the foul line, made two clutch free throws to seal it.