Clemons has 51, Campbell shocks Asheville 81-79 in Big South (Mar 02, 2017)
ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) Chris Clemons scored a school and conference record 51 points to lead seventh-seeded Campbell to an 81-79 upset over co-champion UNC Asheville in the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament on Thursday.
Clemons was 18 of 32 from the floor, including 8 of 14 from 3-point range, and made 7 of 8 free throws to match the NCAA Division I season best. Mike Daum of South Dakota State had 51 on Feb. 18 and there have been two 50-point games.
''My teammates did a good job of finding me in open areas,'' Clemons, whose previous high was 37, said. ''I created a little for myself, but my teammates were very unselfish today getting me the ball and putting me in great positions to score.''
It was his missed free throw, with 14.3 seconds left, that left the door open for the second-seeded Bulldogs. But MaCio Teague's 3-pointer was way off the mark and Marcus Burk made two free throws with 4.9 left to make it 81-76.
Raekwon Miller it a 3-pointer with 1.5 left and Shane Whitfield was fouled with less than a second remaining. Whitefield missed his free throw but a full-court heave was never close.
Before Andrew Eudy had a critical putback to make it 79-74 with 21.7 seconds remaining, Clemons had scored 18 straight Campbell points. He had 25 points in the first half when the Camels took a 36-35 lead.
There were 11 ties and 11 lead changes. Ashville was up 67-61 when Clemons hit a 3-pointer, converted a 3-point play and hit another 3 in a span of two minutes to put Campbell up for good 70-67 with 3:14 left.
Campbell (16-16) faces sixth-seeded Radford, which upset No. 3 Liberty, in the semifinals on Friday.
UNC Asheville (23-9), which had won 10 of 11 and beat the Camels by seven and 13, got 22 points from Teague.
''I thought our guys played really, really hard and were poised beyond belief,'' Campbell coach Kevin McGeehan said. ''Chris obviously played lights out, an unbelievable game. He's all-world in my book. I'm proud of my team.''
