Big South Tournament First Round Recap: Campbell and Charleston Southern advance

The Big South Tournament kicked off with first-round action at campus sites, as 7 seed Campbell hosted 10 seed Presbyterian and 8 seed Charleston Southern hosted 9 seed Longwood. The games went as expected, with the Lancers providing a little drama late at the Buc Dome.

Campbell 81, Presbyterian 62

The 19-point margin of victory by the Camels isn’t really indicative of how dominant Kevin McGeehan’s squad was. Campbell raced out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and never looked back, with the lead ballooning to 32 in the second half before McGeehan mercifully took his foot off the gas. Electric scorer Chris Clemons led the way for the Camels, scoring 27 points on 10-14 shooting from the field. Campbell moves on to Rock Hill where it’ll face 2 seed UNC Asheville, a team it lost to twice in the regular season. Clemons did, however, sit out in the second meeting in Buies Creek, as did Kyre’ Hamer.

Charleston Southern 79, Longwood 74

The other first round game in Charleston at least provided some intrigue late, as Longwood rallied from a 16-point deficit with eight minutes to play, cutting the CSU lead to one point with two minutes remaining. Despite not tallying a field goal in the final 5:06 of the game, the Bucs held on at home thanks to 29 points and 10 rebounds from frosh Christian Keeling. Cortez Mitchell chipped in 14 points including a 46-foot bomb to end the first half. Longwood’s rally was spurred by Isaiah Walton off the dribble and Khris Lane at the rim. Both Lancers finished with 24 points. CSU moves on to face top-seeded Winthrop on the Eagles’ home floor on Thursday. Winthrop won both meetings with ease, despite CSU racing out to a 21-11 lead in Charleston in their first meeting in December.