Monday, January 07, 2002

Charleston, S.C. -- Jeff Bolton scored 16 points and Troy Wheless added 13 points leading the College of Charleston to a 71-64 victory over East Tennessee State in Southern Conference college basketball action before 3,462 at John Kresse Arena Monday night. With the win, the Cougars improved to 11-3 overall and 1-2 in league play while handing Head Coach John Kresse his 550th career coaching victory (550-137 in his 23rd season). The Bucs fell to 8-6 and 1-2. After Charleston jumped out to a 17-10 lead with 10:22 left in the first half, the Bucs answered with a 24-16 and got a 3-pointer from Zakee Wadood (Lonoke, Ark.) with one second left in the half to take a 34-33 lead at intermission. Charleston scored the first 11 points of the second half to take a 44-34 lead with 14:15 remaining and never trailed again despite ETSU cutting the margin to three points on two occassions. Tony Mitchell and Rudy Rothseiden came off the bench to score 10 points each for Charleston. Rothseiden added seven rebounds, including six off the offensive glass. Jerald Fields (Gainesville, Fla.) led ETSU with a game-high 18 points. Wadood scored 17 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds. ETSU's Dimeco Childress (Columbia, Tenn.) and Tiras Wade (Tampa, Fla.) added 15 and 10 points each, respectively. Childress' last field goal of the game, a three-pointer, gave the senior 1,002 points for his career. He is the 21st player in ETSU history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark. Fields' 18 points matched his previous career-high. Both teams play conference games on Saturday. Charleston is at Wofford for a 7:00 start, while the Bucs host VMI at 4:00 p.m.