Friday, February 19, 2010
Magic Number is 1
Appalachian State is now as close as it can get to the No. 1 seed in the Southern Conference’s North Division without actually having it wrapped up.
Western Carolina’s 73-56 loss to The Citadel last night dropped it to 1½ games behind the Mountaineers in the North.
Because ASU owns the tiebreaker as result of its two regular-season wins over Western, the only way for ASU to lose the top seed would be to lose its three remaining league games and for Western to win the two it has left.
The Mountaineers need only one win – they play at Elon (7-19) on Monday, and close the regular season at home against Chattanooga (13-14) and Samford (10-16) – or one loss by Western. The Catamounts have home games against Samford and Chattanooga remaining.
So, barring a bizarre turn of events, the Mountaineers seem set for the No. 1 seed, which means a 2 p.m. game against the winner of No. 4 South vs. No. 5 North in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Conference Tournament on March 6 at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte.
SoCon South
It’s also a two-team race for the No. 1 seed in the South Division.
College of Charleston has a half-game lead over Wofford. Those two teams play on Thursday in Spartanburg, S.C.
Charleston won the first meeting 70-68.
Charleston has one other game remaining, at Furman (12-14). Wofford has a game at Georgia Southern (7-20) and a home game against The Citadel (15-12) left.
Momentum
Wofford, which has never won a SoCon championship in men’s basketball, solidified its status as a prime contender early this season with impressive non-conference wins over Georgia and South Carolina. The Terriers also gave Pitt a run, and played relatively well against Michigan State and Illinois.
Wofford’s loss at College of Charleston is their only one since Dec. 29. The Terriers have won seven straight games, and 13 of their last 14.
Other teams that are playing well nearing tournament time are The Citadel (five straight wins), Charleston (winners of five of its last six) and ASU (which had a four-game winning streak snapped in a one-point loss at Charleston on Wednesday).
Western Carolina is struggling, having lost four of its last five games.
Another hot streak
Donald Sims, ASU’s junior guard, continues to have amazing success at the free-throw line.
Sims, who leads the nation in free-throw percentage, has made 130 of 136 free throws (95.6 percent). He is well on pace to set a school record (88.4 percent by Ronnie Christian in 1988-89) and Southern Conference record (94.4 by Bunny Gibson of Marshall in 1977-78).
The Division I record for a season is 97.5 percent, held by Blake Ahearn of Missouri State, who made 117 of 120 attempts in 2003-04.
Sims has made his last 32 attempts, his longest streak of the season.