DURHAM, N.C. – Gardner-Webb stormed back from seven points down with 38 seconds remaining, and had a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but North Carolina Central clung on for a dramatic one-point victory inside McDougald-McLendon Arena on Wednesday night, 72-71.
D'Maurian Williams rebounded a missed free throw with five seconds remaining and pushed it ahead to
Jordan Sears, but NCCU poked the basketball away as Sears attempted to slice through a host of Eagles in the paint, allowing time to expire before the Runnin' Bulldogs had an opportunity to hoist a final shot to win the game.
Trailing for almost the full second half after taking a two-point lead into halftime, Gardner-Webb (4-7) charged back from as many as 10 points behind with 5:24 remaining to come within one in the final seconds.
Down by seven with under a minute to go, Sears and
Zion Williams scored on consecutive buckets in a span of just 11 seconds before the
D'Maurian Williams triple trimmed the North Carolina Central (5-7) advantage to one with seven seconds to play. NCCU then missed on both free throws on the opposite end, allowing the 'Dogs one final chance to run the distance of the floor, but mustered one last defensive stop to escape with the victory.
Led by 15 points from Sears and 14 from
D'Maurian Williams, five different GWU players rounded out the night in double figures for a Runnin' Bulldogs team that shot 51.0% from the floor (26-of-51) and 37.0% (10-of-27) from the beyond the arc.
Lance Terry posted 13 points,
Zion Williams added 10 and
Kareem Reid finished with 10 points of his own to go with a team-high seven rebounds.
As for NCCU, 10 players found the scoring column for the Eagles, who finished the night shooting 47.9% (23-of-48) overall and 44.4% (4-of-9) from 3-point range on their home court.
The Runnin' Bulldogs have now dropped their last four games in a row and fall to 0-6 on the road this season.
Gardner-Webb will look to get back on track this Friday when it returns to Boiling Springs for a matchup against Converse University on December 17. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. inside Paul Porter Arena.
