GWU Men Return Home To Host Charleston Southern Saturday
December 28, 2007 | Men's Basketball
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Gardner-Webb will host Charleston
Southern Saturday night at 7 pm ET in a men's basketball tilt at
Paul Porter Arena.
The game is a rematch of Charleston Southern's 80-69 win over GWU
back on December 15 in the Palmetto State.
Gardner-Webb (5-8) will be attempting to snap a season-worst,
four-game losing streak – which started with a double-overtime
loss in its last home game, December 3 vs. Radford. Since starting
the season 3-0, GWU has dropped eight of its last 10 games,
although five of those eight losses have come to teams from
high-major conferences.
Charleston Southern (5-6) is coming off a 25-point loss at
defending national champion Florida, but the Bucs' quickness poses
potential problems for Gardner-Webb.
Leading scorer Chris Moore (Morganton, N.C. / Freedom HS) is
averaging 15.4 ppg and has knocked in 34 of the Bucs' 103
three-point baskets so far this season. He had 16 of his team-high
22 points in the second half of the Dec. 15 win over Gardner-Webb,
leading his team back from a second-half deficit.
Freshmen Omar Carter (14.6 ppg) and Jemarco Warren (13.8 ppg) and
rangy sophomore forward Shelton Carter (11.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg) help
provide plenty of scoring punch for the Bucs, who are averaging
76.0 ppg as a team so far in 2007-2008. Omar Carter had 19 in the
win over Gardner-Webb earlier this month, and Shelton Carter came
off the bench to post 16 points and 13 boards in that game.
Gardner-Webb, which is led in three categories by forward Thomas
Sanders (16.1 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 3.3 apg), must hang on to the
basketball after coughing up 19 turnovers in each of its last two
games – at Charleston Southern (Dec. 15) and at Charlotte
(Dec. 22).
GWU must also limit the opponents' chances on the offensive glass,
as both Charleston Southern and Charlotte dominated second-chance
scoring with double-digit offensive rebounds.
Guard Aaron Linn led GWU with 22 points in the first meeting
against Charleston Southern, hitting his first eight shots –
but was hampered by foul trouble and did not score last week at
Charlotte. GWU's top scoring guard, Grayson Flittner, had just two
points vs. Charlotte, and was held to nine markers against the
Buccaneers on December 15.
Sanders, Flittner (15.1 ppg) and Linn (12.3 ppg) each average in
double digits for the ‘Dogs, with forward Nate Blank (9.8 ppg)
also near that mark.
Saturday's game marks the first of a three-game homestand for
Gardner-Webb. The ‘Dogs will also host Belmont (Jan. 3) and
Lipscomb (Jan. 5) to start Atlantic Sun Conference play.
Fans should be excited to catch the Bulldogs at home. Gardner-Webb
is 2-1 at home this season, and is averaging an impressive 94.0
points per game in Paul Porter Arena.
