Lowgators Extend First Place Lead

The Lowgators improved to 16-8, 8-5 good for first place in the NBDL. Asheville dropped to 14-11.

Asheville had an early 20-15 lead at the end of the first quarter but North Charleston battled back, holding Asheville to 29.4 percent shooting from the field. B.J. McKie connected on a three-point basket to tie the game at 22-22 with 4:50 left in the second quarter. Nate Green scored on a layup with 3:17 left in that stanza to give North Charleston a lead that they wouldn't relinquish.

“What Nate Green has done, he’s come in and given us a point guard that can run the offense and settle us down and that was something that we were lacking,” said coach Alex English. “We kind of moved B.J. to the two-guard and he shoots more comfortable there.

“When you’ve got B.J. and Nate in at the same time, B.J. can play the point defensively and Nate plays the big guy, so it gives us a different look.”

Asheville made a 10-0 run near the end of the third quarter bringing the score within six points on a Chris Carrawell layup. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 53-47 with North Charleston shooting 53.3 percent from the free throw line and Asheville shooting 75 percent.

“We didn’t play very well at all today,” said Asheville coach Joey Meyer. “You’ve got to give them (Lowgators) credit. They’ve got a deep bench and I thought their bench just wore us out.”

The Lowgators had four guys score in double figures. McKie and Sedric Webber scored 10 points apiece. Makhtar Ndiaye had 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. North Charleston’s bench outscored Asheville’s bench 36 to 15.

“We came out with a lot of energy and hustle and we just wanted to come out and win the game,” said House.

Gabe Muoneke scored 22 points to lead Columbus, followed by Tremaine Fowlkes and Nate Johnson scoring 15 points apiece.

The Lowgators stay home to face the Fayetteville Patriots, Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Altitude are back home to face the Huntsville Flight, Saturday at 7 p.m.