BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Andrew Ryan and Antwon Oliver scored 14 points each and Campbell held off St. Andrews 62-55 Wednesday afternoon at Gore Arena.
Ryan scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and Oliver tallied all of his in the first for Campbell (3-3), which led by as many as 12, but could not shake the NAIA member Knights.
D.J. Mason added 9 points, and Leek Leek 8, while Darius Leonard pulled down 9 rebounds for Campbell, which had 20 assists on 24 field goals while ending a 3-game losing streak.
Aaron Smith scored 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting for St. Andrews, which pulled within 54-53 with 4:11 to go, but made only one shot down the stretch as CU ended the game on an 8-2 run.
"You've got to respect every opponent, and I believe we did today, but for whatever reason we came out flat," said Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan. "We did some good things in stretches, we could have been a little crisper, but that comes with time and experience."
After missing his first six 3-point attempts, Ryan knocked down two during an 11-2 Camel burst that pushed the edge to 45-34 with 11:14 remaining. However, Jamal Watson and Smith knocked down back-to-back triples to trim the edge to five.
David Jones made two free throws to cap a 9-2 St. Andrews rally and bring the Knights within one, but Quinton Ray made a driving layup on the next possession for a 56-53 Camel edge.
After a St. Andrews miss and the final media timeout, Leek cut back door on and dunked home a high post feed from Leonard to push the gap to five (58-53) with 2:48 to go. Smith answered 18 seconds later with a jumper, but Ryan canned the third of his three second-half treys on the next trip and the Knights missed their final 3 shots.
Campbell made 46 percent (24-52) of its shots, 8-of-29 (.276) from 3-point distance and 6-of-9 from the stripe while finishing with a 31-25 edge on the glass. St. Andrews shot 60 percent (12-20) from the floor in the opening half, but made only 9-of-24 (.375) in the second to finish at 47.7 percent (21-44) for the Camels.
A 12-1 run capped by Oliver's dunk gave the Camels a 21-9 lead with 8:24 to go in the opening period. However, St. Andrews closed the half on a 13-6 run and trailed by just three (31-28) at the break.
Six of Campbell's 13 first-half field goals were dunks, including four by Oliver, who had 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting (2-of-3 threes) before intermission.
"I was disappointed with the way we ended the first half," said McGeehan. "In the second half, there were a couple of stretches where we looked like we were going to get over the hump, but we just couldn't defensively. Still, it's great to get a win even though there's a lot to improve on."
Ryan entered the game averaging 12.6 points and shooting 60 percent (12-20) from long range, but his first two threes rattled in-and-out and the red-shirt junior missed all 3 of his shots in the opening period. However, the 6-foot-5 guard canned 3 of his final 4 from distance to reach double figures for the fifth time in six games and added 3 assists and 3 steals on the game.
Oliver, who added his season high points total, also grabbed 5 rebounds, while dealing a pair of assists and making 3 steals without a turnover in 20 minutes off the bench. Leonard entered the contest as CU's leading scorer (15.4), but took only 4 shots (making 3) in 26 minutes while 3 assists. All nine of the Camels who saw action had at least one assist.
Campbell returns to action Saturday in a 7:00 p.m. start at Georgia Southern.
