Wofford rolls into title game

The Wofford Terriers continue to gain victories and the confidence that comes along with them.

Wofford rolled to a second consecutive Southern Conference basketball tournament title-game appearance with an 86-72 pasting of Western Carolina in Sunday night's opening semifinal at McKenzie Arena. The Terriers won last year's championship and have plenty of momentum this time around with seven consecutive wins, including the last four by double digits.

"We struggled a little bit early in our year," Wofford senior guard Cameron Rundles said, "but we were walking down to this press conference saying, 'It's tough to beat us in March.' We're the defending Southern Conference champions, and until somebody beats us, we will remain that."

Noah Dahlman led the Terriers (20-12) with 18 points, while Rundles and Jamar Diggs each added 17. Wofford shot 54 percent (27-of-50) from the floor, 50 percent from 3-point range (4-of-8) and 80 percent from the free-throw line (28-of-35).

"We're playing great basketball, and we have for two or three weeks now," Wofford coach Mike Young said. "I think this came down to a bunch of guys that have been through a lot of games such as that."

Western Carolina (18-15) scored the first four points of the second half to pull within 45-40, but the Terriers answered with a 7-0 run that culminated with a Rundles 3-pointer at the 15:35 mark. The Terriers took their largest lead at 74-57 on a Nathan Parker tip in with 4:33 left.

Mike Williams led the Catamounts with 25 points and had seven early as WCU took a 9-5 lead, but Wofford had a 15-3 run later in the half to go up 28-17.

"They haven't shown a lot of depth, but their bench outscored us 26-7," Catamounts coach Larry Hunter said. "That's something we've been doing pretty consistently to other people. I looked at the stat sheet at halftime, and they had played nine people, and all nine had scored."

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