Box Score
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Charleston Southern's Saah Nimley entered Saturday's game on a run of three straight 30-point games. The run continued. Nimley tallied a career-high 37 points and became the only player in the country this season to put together four consecutive 30-point efforts. Arlon Harper added 20 points and scored nine straight down the stretch as the Bucs defeated Gardner-Webb, 93-80, in front of a raucous Buc Dome crowd on Saturday night.
Nimley had 22 points by the 8:18 mark of the first half, starting 6-of-8 from the field and a perfect 4-of-4 from three-point range. He pumped in 26 points by halftime as CSU (12-7, 6-2 Big South) opened up a lead as large as 22 and took a 58-44 lead into intermission.
Gardner-Webb (13-8, 5-3 Big South) rallied to within seven points with 5:04 left, but Harper went for nine straight CSU points – including a long three that bounced around the rim and in with the shot clock dwindling – to lift the Bucs to their fifth straight win. Will Saunders posted 17 points and knocked down 5-of-6 tries from three as CSU connected on 15-of-28 from beyond the arc. Tyrell Nelson and Adonis Burbage paced the Runnin' Bulldogs with 19 points apiece.
CSU out-rebounded Gardner-Webb, 36-27, and held Jerome Hill – the Big South's leading scorer and rebounder – to 5 points and six rebounds on 1-of-7 shooting.
Nimley, though, was the story once again. The Bucs' sparkplug point guard finished as runner-up for Big South Player of the Year in 2012-13, and has put himself front and center in that conversation this year. CSU remains tied for first place in the league, along with Coastal Carolina and High Point.
"Saah is one of the best point guards in the country, and at the very least is the hottest right now," CSU head coach Barclay Radebaugh said after Nimley moved into fourth place on the Bucs' career scoring list. "Seriously, someone tell me who is playing better than him right now. It's time that the national media takes notice. We have the best back court in mid-major basketball Arlon does a lot that goes unnoticed and came up big in the clutch tonight. He gets Saah a lot of shots. They're a special tandem and continue to show it night in and night out."
Nimley and Saunders came into play as the 8th and 22nd leading three-point shooters in the country, and were in an outright zone in the game's opening 12 minutes. Both opened 4-for-4 from deep, with Saunders burying three in a 2:01 span to stake CSU to a 14-12 lead. There were four ties and seven lead changes early, before Nimley took over to blow it open for the Bucs.
Nimley came free off screens throughout the opening stanza, and drained three of his triples from right in front of the Gardner-Webb bench. He swished home two straight to push CSU's advantage to 35-23 with 9:05 remaining in the period. Nimley also utilized his pump fake to draw fouls on a pair of three-point attempts, converting all six of the ensuing free throws.
Nimley is the first Big South player since VMI's Reggie Williams in 2007-08 to post four 30-point showings in a row. He is averaging a league-best 26.5 points per game in eight conference games.
"My teammates are setting great screens and finding me," Nimley said. "The first half I was feeling it and it was a lot of fun. The atmosphere was great. It was really loud and I couldn't even hear myself think at times. It's a lot of fun when our students pack the Buc Dome and it gets that loud."
In addition to shutting down Hill, the Bucs also quieted Gardner-Webb point guard Tyler Strange. Strange entered the contest leading the country in assists, but recorded just five points and three helpers in 23 minutes of action. He played only eight minutes in the first half, picking up four fouls, including a technical, before halftime. There were three total technical fouls assessed throughout the night, as CSU and Gardner-Webb continued one of the Big South's best rivalries.
Gardner-Webb stayed in striking distance throughout the second half, but CSU kept responding with answers. Saunders provided one of those, sailing home a three from the left wing to give the Bucs a 68-57 lead with 12:21 left.
The Runnin' Bulldogs had a five-point possession to make the score 80-73 on a Nelson layup at the 5:04 mark, only to see Harper reel off nine straight points to register his second straight 20-point game. Harper dropped in a pull-up jumper on the baseline, drilled two free throws and put in a 25-foot three, aided by some exaggerated body english, to increase CSU's cushion to 87-75 with 2:46 remaining. He banked in a baseline runner to cap off his personal spurt.
"We made some plays down the stretch," Radebaugh said. "I thought Arlon's big three that put us back up by 12 was a big shot and a great play by Saah. The Buc Dome is hard to beat when it is full and the students rock like that. When we've got them standing 10, 12 deep in the corners, we don't lose. That was a lot of fun."
CSU wraps up a three-game homestand on Wednesday against Radford. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
