1/29/2014 12:00:00 AM

Balanced Camels defeat Charleston Southern 65-57

BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Reco McCarter scored 14 points and dealt a career-high 8 assists to lead a balanced attack as Campbell defeated Charleston Southern 65-57 Wednesday night at Gore Arena.

Darius Leonard (14), Luke Moyer (13) and Leek Leek (11) also hit double figures for the Camels (11-11, 5-2), who stand 4-0 at home in league games and sit atop the Big South Conference North Division standings.

McCarter made 5-of-9 from the floor and added 2 steals. Leonard canned 3-of-5 triples and Moyer came off the bench to hit a career scoring hit while drilling 4-of-5 from downtown. Leek knocked down 3-of-4 from long range for Campbell, which made 11-of-24 threes (.458) and shot 47 percent overall.

Matt Kennedy was the lone player in double figures for Charleston Southern (9-11, 3-4), which lost its second-straight and for the third time in the last four outings. Mitchell Deter came off the bench to add 9 points for the Buccaneers, who played without injured guard Arlon Harper (11.6 ppg).

Fellow pre-season all-league guard Saah Nimley (14.4) was limited to 7 minutes off the bench for the Bucs, who made just 6-of-29 from 3-point range after entering the game second in the country with 11.1 threes made per outing. Paul Gombwer added 7 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds for the Bucs.

Charleston Southern finished with a 40-36 edge on the boards and an 18-5 advantage in second-chance points, but shot just 32.8 percent (21-64) from the field.

"I thought our defense was much better tonight," said Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan. "Obviously, Charleston Southern not having Harper and Nimley was a huge factor, but we've been missing guys all year too and that's just part of college basketball.

Campbell finished with 10 blocked shots, one shy of the Gore Arena record, as McCarter and Leek had 3 rejections apiece against a CSU team that entered the game ranked fifth nationally in scoring offense (85.7).

"We have some good athletes and long, athletic guys and we're getting better at seeing things. We're embracing a team concept of protecting guys defensively and coming over to get weak side blocks," said McGeehan.

After a slow start for the field, the Camels went on an 18-4 run, including a pair of threes from Moyer and Leek. McCarter's drive put CU in front 24-15 and Campbell extended the gap to 10 (34-24) on Antwon Oliver's triple from the left corner with 2:40 to go.

The Camels led 38-29 at the break after connecting on 8-of-14 threes (.542) and shooting 13-of-24 (.542) from the field.

Campbell extended the gap to as many as 13 on McCarter's free throws with 17:41 to play. Charleston Southern cut the margin to 46-40 on Deter's transition three with 13:09 remaining, but Moyer answered on the other end with a corner trey and CSU never got closer than 7 the rest of the way.

CAMEL TRACKS:

Campbell will host a nationally-televised game for the first time on Saturday when ESPNU will air the Coastal Carolina at Campbell men's basketball contest at 11:00 a.m. as its Big South Wildcard Selection broadcast. The start time for Saturday's Liberty at Campbell women's game has been changed to 2:00 p.m.
Since CU re-joined the Big South in 2011-12, neither Charleston Southern nor Campbell has won on the other's home floor.
Charleston Southern junior Will Saunders entered the game on top of the Big South and 25th in the nation in 3-point FG% (.438) and 3rd in the league in 3s made per game (2.79). However, the transfer made just 1-of-4 Wednesday night.
Charleston Southern dropped to 2-10 this year when scoring less than 90 points.
Campbell entered Wednesday's game ranked 5th in the country in total 3-point attempts (520), 12th in triples made (175) and 24th in 3s made per game (8.3).

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