Contact: Stan Cole

Campbell Rebounds for 91-77 Atlantic Sun Win Over Jacksonville

BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Maurice Latham scored 26 points and Eric Smith added 23 as Campbell rallied to hand Jacksonville its 17th-straight loss 91-77 Monday night at Carter Gym.

The Fighting Camels (8-12, 7-6 Atlantic Sun) trailed by nine at the break before exploding for 53 second-half points against the Dolphins (1-19, 1-12). The Camels swept the season series for the first time since the Dolphins joined the A-Sun in 1998-99 and won their second-straight outing.

Ledell Eackles added 15 points, eight assists and four steals, while Ruell Pringle had 10. Eackles (13), Pringle (10) and Diego Aguiar (8) combined for 31 second-half points. Latham, who posted his fourth-consecutive 20-plus point outing, grabbed a career-high 14 boards to lead all rebounders.

Smith, who entered the game ranked 12th nationally in threes made per game (3.47), knocked down a season-high 7 triples in 11 attempts. He has made 13-of-22 (.591) beyond the arc over the last two contests.

Antonio Cool led Jacksonville with 19 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Evan Jefferson had 13, 10 in the first half, while David Fine added 12 and Aubrey Conerly 11. JU has not won since an 88-71 decision over North Florida on Dec. 2.

JU led 54-46 on Marcus Allen's bucket with 16:56 to play, but Campbell went on a 10-3 run to cut the gap to one (57-56) with 11:02 on Pringle's shot in the paint. The Camels took the lead for good with 6:07 to go when Smith's three from the right corner broke a 66-all tie.

After Cool's dunk trimmed the margin to 75-73 with 3:14 to go, Campbell outscored JU 16-4 down the stretch as the Dolphins missed 7 of their last 8 shots and had two of their 21 turnovers during the span.

Campbell converted 13 JU second-half turnovers into 17 points, while pulling down 12 of its 21 offensive rebounds in the second period. The Camels finished with a 44-32 edge overall, on the boards as Latham collected nine of his game-high 14 on the offensive end.

CU shot 48.6 percent (34-70) on the night and canned 11-of-28 threes (.393). Campbell made more foul shots (12-19) than JU attempted (7-10). Jacksonville finished the evening shooting 48.5 percent (32-66) from the field, while hitting 6-of-19 (.316) treys.

Nine days after leading wire-to-wire in an 87-75 victory at Jacksonville, Campbell jumped to an 18-11 advantage after Reggie Bishop's jumper with 11:30 left capped a 12-3 run. But the Dolphins cut the gap to 23-11 on Cool's three with 8:40 left.

JU later went on a 16-4 burst, capped by Evan Jefferson's 4-point play and led 37-27 with 3:50 to go. Ljubisa Vrcelj's tip-in at the buzzer put the Dolphins in front (47-38) at half-time, only the fourth time this season JU held the advantage at the break. Latham (16) and Smith (11) combined for 27 of Campbell's first-half points.

Over the last four games, Latham is averaging 25.3 points and shooting 58 percent from the floor (40-69). The senior from Norfolk, Va., already has 81 offensive boards through 20 games, second-most in school single-season history.

With a 7-6 record in Atlantic Sun play, Campbell is over the .500 mark in the league at its latest point in the season since the 2000 club was 7-6 after 13 A-Sun games and finished 10-8.

The Fighting Camels won both regular-season games against an A-Sun foe for the first time since the 2001 club defeated Florida Atlantic twice. Campbell travels to Florida Atlantic Thursday for a 7:00 p.m. start. [ Box Score ]