A’lahn Sumler couldn’t miss on Saturday afternoon, and Sumler led Charleston Southern past Longwood 83-77 with a career-best 34 points.
Sumler’s effort, plus 16 points apiece from Taje’ Kelly and Quentin Bolton, Jr., was enough for Charleston Southern (8-14, 4-5 Big South) to muscle past four Lancers (14-10, 2-7 Big South) who scored in double figures.
Elijah Tucker and Michael Christmas matched with 17 points apiece while Walyn Napper tallied a team-best 21. Emanuel Richards chipped in 11 points for his second game in double figures.
“Disappointing game on several levels,” said Longwood coach Griff Aldrich. “Credit Charleston Southern. Shorthanded, the fire that they played with to start the game, if they didn’t make shots, they got offensive rebounds. It felt like they were playing in fifth gear. We were playing in third gear. So I really give them credit for coming out, and they were the aggressor. That was a disappointment because that’s all we’ve been talking about the past two days. I was really hoping we could get a carryover from the second half of High Point, but we just didn’t have it today.”
Between Sumler and Bolton, the Bucs jumped out to an early 15-point lead, but the Lancers slowly whittled the lead down as defense turned to offense, and Napper drained a three at the halftime buzzer to cut the lead to 34-29 at the break.
Tucker got rolling early in the second half, and he helped Longwood close the gap to 36-33 early. Bolton drained a three, but Tucker answered with a layup. Sumler immediately connected on a triple, and CSU slowly pushed the lead back to double figures.
The Lancers crawled back within three, 73-70, after a Richards layup and Tucker foul shot, but Kelly, Sumler and Bolton kept CSU in front in the final 90 seconds.
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Chris Graham
