Wofford: 2024-25 Southern Men's Basketball Champions

 

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Jackson Sivills scored a career-high 20 points and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in a game-ending 15-2 run as Wofford rallied to beat Furman 92-85 in the Southern Conference tournament championship game Monday night.

Wofford trailed 83-79 with 2:34 remaining. Kyler Filewich then made a layup and Sivills drilled his 3-pointer to put the Terriers (19-15) on top for good.

Sivills, a fifth-year senior, made 6 of 9 shots with four 3-pointers for No. 6 seed Wofford, which earns an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament for the sixth time. The Terriers won four conference titles between 2009 and 2015 and last won it in the 2018-19 season.

Justin Bailey added 19 points and seven rebounds for Wofford. Dillon Bailey scored 15 and teamed up with Justin -- no relation -- to make 7 of 12 from beyond the arc. Filewich added 13 points and six boards. Corey Tripp had 11 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds.

PJay Smith Jr. led the Paladins (25-9) with 27 points. He made four 3-pointers and all 11 of his foul shots. Nick Anderson had 15 points, and Garrett Hien and Charles Johnston scored 13 and 12, respectively, before fouling out. Cooper Bowser scored 11.

Wofford scored the first eight points and maintained a lead until Johnston buried a 3-pointer with 63 seconds left in the first half to help Furman go up 37-35 at halftime. Smith had a four-point play and did not miss a shot, leading all scorers with 12. Sivills hit three 3-pointers and scored 11.

Furman was aiming for its eighth tournament title and first since 2022-23. The Paladins won six of them in the 1970s.

Wofford: 2018-19 Southern Men's Basketball Champions

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Nathan Hoover is the guy who never stops competing in Wofford practices regardless of the situation.

That feistiness carried over to the Southern Conference Tournament championship game on Monday night.

The junior guard scored all 20 of his points in the second half on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and went 8 of 8 from the foul line as No. 20 Wofford battled back to defeat UNC Greensboro 70-58 to win the tournament title and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"That's the way I grew up -- whatever you do, you do with all you got," Hoover said. "I'm a very emotional person, and I know when I get that way I can get the fans and my teammates fired up. And when I do I know we are very tough to beat."

Tournament MVP Fletcher Magee also scored 20 points and Cameron Jackson had 15 points and seven rebounds as Wofford (29-4) completed a perfect season against conference foes, going 18-0 in the regular season and winning three games in three days in the tournament.

It's the fifth time in 10 seasons that Wofford will play in the NCAA Tournament -- and coach Mike Young knows this is his most talented team.

"This is a really good basketball team," Young said. "Don't give me that mid-major stuff and all that garbage. This is what you see. This is a big, talented team that can score and I cannot wait to play again in that great, great tournament."

Francis Alonso scored 21 points and Isaiah Miller had 19 for UNC Greensboro.

UNC Greensboro (28-6), which lost to Wofford by 30 and 29 points in the regular season, led most of the game and was hoping to pull the upset and steal a tournament berth from a bubble team.

But the Spartans couldn't hold the lead.

UNC Greensboro led 55-50 with 5:41 left before the Terriers went on a 16-0 run, holding the Spartans without a basket for more than 4 1/2 minutes.

Hoover brought the Terriers back on two different occasions with individual 8-0 runs.

He scored eight straight points to give Wofford its first lead at 50-49 with 12:30 left in the game.

Then, with his team down five, Hoover made a floater, a 3-pointer and three foul shots to put Wofford up 58-55 with 3:23 remaining. A minute later he got a crucial steal in the frontcourt and converted two foul shots to put the Terriers up by seven.

"Some guys had brain farts in the second half and (Wofford) executed off of that," Miller said of the Spartans' late collapse.

Young said Hoover was his player of the game.

"He put us on his shoulders when you get right down to it," Young said.

Hoover said he took advantage of open looks created by the Spartans because they were paying so much attention to Magee and Jackson.

"I was able to get open shots and they went down," Hoover said. "It just boosted everything."

LONG DISTANCE STRUGGLES

The Spartans didn't help themselves by shooting 3 of 16 from 3-point range.

Wofford, conversely, was 7 of 23. But what hurt the Spartans just as much is they fouled the Terriers three separate times on 3-point attempts and Hoover and Magee made them pay by making all nine free throws.

"You're trying to contest because they shoot it so well," said Spartans coach Wes Miller.

MAGEE'S QUEST

Magee finished with four 3-pointers, leaving him with 502 for his career -- two behind the NCAA Division I all-time leader Travis Bader from Oakland. Magee will have a chance to break the record in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

YOUNG'S SUCCESS

Nobody will ever say that Young can't win the big one. The Wofford coach is now 5 for 5 in Southern Conference championship games with wins in 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2019.

BIG PICTURE

UNC Greensboro: The Spartans played a near-perfect game for 35 minutes but went cold down the stretch, perhaps the result of having a short bench. Alonso and Miller attacked the basket well, taking advantage of their playmaking ability. The Spartans have a terrific recruiting class coming in next season.

Wofford: The Terriers have won 20 straight games heading into the NCAA Tournament and on Monday claimed their highest AP Poll ranking in school history at No. 20. With a tough inside-out game and strong backcourt play, the Terriers will be a popular pick to advance in the NCAA Tournament.

UP NEXT

UNC Greensboro: Will likely have to await a call from the NIT.

Wofford: Will play in the NCAA Tournament.

Wofford: 2014-15 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Champions

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Lee Skinner scored 17 points, Eric Garcia added 15, and top-seeded Wofford held off 10th-seeded Furman 67-64 to capture the Southern Conference championship on Monday night and earn its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament in six seasons.

The Terriers (28-6) ended the Paladins' unlikely run to the championship and won despite Furman shooting 52 percent from the field.

Karl Cochran added 11 points, and Spencer Collins had 10 for the Terriers.

Furman (11-22), the tournament's lowest seed, but pulled off three straight upsets over The Citadel, Chattanooga and Mercer to reach the title game. However, the Paladins didn't quite have enough to complete what would have been a remarkable run to the NCAA Tournament.

Geoff Beane had 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Stephen Croone had 14 to lead the Paladins, who don't have a senior in their rotation.

Wofford: 2013-14 Southern Men's Basketball Champions

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Wofford guard Karl Cochran remembers waking up at 6 a.m. for preseason conditioning workouts, leaping over chairs and diving for loose balls and wondering how it was going to help him.

Now he knows.

Cochran scored 23 points, and the Terriers beat Western Carolina 56-53 on Monday night to capture the Southern Conference championship and a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Cochran, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, was 8 of 16 from the field and had five 3-pointers. He made two big free throws with 5.3 seconds left to give Wofford a three-point lead. The Catamounts had a chance to send the game to overtime but Trey Sumler's 3-pointer rimmed out as time expired.

"In the preseason you're like when I am going to do this in a game?" Cochran said. "But you get here and you're like, it pays off. It certainly pays off. It's a long journey. You fight and struggle, but it pays off."

Lee Skinner had 11 points for the third-seeded Terriers (20-12), who will be making their third trip to the NCAA tournament in the last five years, but first since 2011.

Fifth-seeded Western Carolina (19-15) had another impressive comeback, but was unable to get the win this time. Brandon Boggs had 17 points, and Tawaski King added 10 points and nine rebounds.

The Catamounts made just 5 of 23 shots in the first half and trailed 27-20 at the break.James Sinclair then had a pair of jump shots in a 7-0 run to begin the second half.

It looked as if Western Carolina had the momentum at that point, but it couldn't grab the lead.

Instead, Wofford put together a 17-6 run to make it 44-33 with 8:33 left. Cochran, a junior guard, had eight points during that key stretch.

Western Carolina rallied from nine points down to beat fourth-seeded Elon and overcame a 15-point deficit in the semifinals against top-seeded Davidson. Boggs tried to lead the Catamounts on one last comeback.

He scored on three straight possessions and King had a dunk to help trim Wofford's lead to 46-43 with 4:04 left.

"We've shown a million times that we don't give up," Boggs said.

Cochran and Sumler exchanged 3-pointers, and Skinner and King each scored to leave Wofford in front 53-50 with 35 seconds remaining.

Western Carolina quickly fouled four times to put the Terriers into the bonus.

The strategy seemed to work when Spencer Collins missed the front end of a 1-and-1. But Skinner grabbed the rebound off the miss and was fouled. He made one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game with 28 seconds left.

The Catamounts failed to convert on their next possession and sent Skinner to the line again. This time he missed the front end and Boggs drilled a 3 from the left wing to make it 54-53 with 6.3 seconds left.

The Catamounts fouled Cochran on the ensuing inbounds pass and he calmly knocked down both free throws. Sumler was shadowed well on the final shot, but worked his way free to get an open look and his 20-footer hit the rim and bounced away.

Wofford coach Mike Young said he briefly contemplated having his team foul Sumler to avoid a potential tying 3, but decided against it.

"We contested well and it worked out well in the end for us," Young said. "Thank goodness."

Skinner called the idea of heading to the NCAA tournament the best feeling in the world.

"It's the ultimate," Skinner said. "Having that brotherhood around you and then with the fans and the school behind us it's incredible."

It's the second time Western Carolina has reached the Southern Conference tournament final in the past three years, only to leave heartbroken. It lost to Davidson in 2012 in double overtime.

"We came up a little short on the scoreboard again, but you just keep grinding and we'll eventually get over that hump," Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter said. "I'm very disappointed and our players are very disappointed. We had focused on this all year long and put ourselves in great position. I'm disappointed for our university. We had a chance to do something really special for a lot of people and we didn't get it done."