A.J. Harris’ only basket — a tiebreaking shot with 11 seconds remaining — gave the College of Charleston the Great Alaska Shootout title with a 71-69 victory over Villanova on Saturday.
Harris’ dramatics came after Villanova’s Derrick Snowden hit a 3-pointer that tied it with 42 seconds left.
Harris took the inbound pass, allowed the shot clock to wind down, drove the lane and scooped in the winning shot.
“You’ve got young men who just played relentlessly in three games and found ways to win,” said coach Tom Herrion, in his first year with Charleston. “Look at some of these numbers. I don’t think many people felt we would have won the game. We don’t measure our kids by statistics, we measure them by heart.”
After Harris’ shot, Villanova took a time out. The plan was to to get the ball to Ricky Wright.
“I was supposed to run isolation for Rick, but I didn’t see an opportunity to get it to him,” Snowden said. “I settled for a three and it didn’t go down for me.”
Gary Buchanan got the rebound and launched a three to try to win the game. It also was short and the clock ran out.
Villanova coach Jay Wright took the blame for the final play not working. He said he didn’t prepare his players well enough for the closing seconds.
“You never want to settle for a jump shot to end the game like that,” he said.
Troy Wheless, the tournament’s outstanding player, led the Cougars (5-0) with 22 points. Thomas Mobley scored 17.
Buchanan scored 12 points for Villanova (3-2) and Randy Foye and Jason Fraser added 10 each.
The Cougars came in forcing opponents into an average of 22.5 turnovers with a stifling full-court press, and the pattern continued against the Wildcats.
Villanova scored just one field goal, a 3-pointer by Buchanan, in the first 10:44 of the game and recorded 12 turnovers in the half. The Wildcats shot 33 percent but stayed in the game when Charleston shot just 29 percent.
Wright said it wasn’t the full-court pressure that caused Villanova problems but the physical defense against the offense.
“It took us out of our aggressiveness offensively. We couldn’t get the ball inside, and settled for jump shots,” Wright said.
Joe Weurding’s baseline jumper with 7:20 remaining gave Charleston its biggest first-half lead, 22-7. But Villanova went on an 11-3 run to cut it to 25-19 and trailed 29-22 after one period.
A 15-6 run to open the second half gave Villanova its only lead of the game, 37-35.
Georgia Southern 74
Savannah State 62
Julius Jenkins’ 17 second-half points sparked Georgia Southern (4-1) to a 74-62 victory over Savannah State Tuesday evening at Tiger Arena.
The Tigers were led by Carlos Smalls with 13 while Donald Carson and John Lundy poured in 11 each. Brian Fisher pulled down 11 boards for SSU.
Alabama 89
UNC Greensboro 61
The No. 3 ranked University of Alabama (5-0) blew open a tight game with a 25-4 run over the last 7:22 of the first half to take a 20 point halftime lead and didn’t look back as the Crimson Tide rolled to an 89-61 win over UNC-Greensboro (3-2). Alab- ama has won 22 straight home games, tying the school record.
The Spartans were paced by James Maye’s 13 points in 31 minutes of action.
Davidson 114
Washington College 51
Freshman Matt McKillop scored 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead Davidson to its second straight blowout victory, defeating the Shoremen of Washington College, 114-51.
It was the second straight day the Wildcats (3-1) scored 100 points, trouncing Washington & Lee on Saturday, 105-48. The last time Davidson reached the century mark in consecutive games was in December of 1973 to start the season. Washington College fell to 1-3 on the season.
VMI 76
St. Francis 59
Junior guard Ben Rand scored 19 points, including 17 in the second half, to help rally VMI to a 76-59 win over St. Francis Sunday in Loretto, Pa.
Jason Conley led all scorers 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting, while Rand finished six-of-eight from the floor including three-of-four beyond the arc.
Wofford 79
Virginia Tech 77
Lee Nixon scored 27 points to give Wofford its first-ever victory over a Big East opponent as Wofford defeated Virginia Tech 79-77.
The Hokies (3-2) rebounded from a 17-point deficit at halftime to trail by just four with less than a minute remaining. A pair of Mike Lenzly free throws put Wofford (2-2) ahead 77-71 with 47 seconds remaining.
Chattanooga 75
Illinois State 68
Jason Rogan, who scored a team-high 22 points Monday, made four free throws in the final 18 seconds to secure Chattanooga’s 75-68 non-conference victory over Illinois State.
The Mocs (4-1) won their second straight road game after defeating Bradley Saturday.
Rogan, who also led the Mocs with eight rebounds, made both free throw attempts with 18 seconds to play to give UTC a 71-65 cushion.
UNC Asheville 77
Western Carolina 72
Western Carolina sophomore Kevin Martin scored 39 points and led a furious second-half rally Monday night. However, UNC Asheville guard Andre Smith drained five free throws inside the final minute to preserve a 77-72 Bulldog victory at the Asheville Civic Center.
The Catamounts fall to 2-2 for the season, while UNC Asheville improves to 2-2.
Charleston Southern 68
The Citadel 56
Sophomore forward Kevin Warzynski posted 19 points and collected 15 rebounds en route to a double-double to help Charleston Southern battle past The Citadel, 68-56, in collegiate basketball action Monday night in McAlister Field House.

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