By MONTE DUTTON

Presbyterian and Citadel played in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center, which annually hosts the Southern Conference Tournament, on Sunday.

The Bulldogs exited in the first round of that Asheville, N.C., affair earlier this year, and little familiarity was apparent in the Blue Hose’ 69-41 victory.

Statistically, Presbyterian’s domination mirrored the final score. Led by Carl Parrish with 21 points, the Blue Hose outshot the Bulldogs by all three measures and outrebounded them, 36-24. PC forced 11 turnovers while committing nine and handed out 13 assists to Citadel’s seven.

Presbyterian (5-5) stunned Citadel (2-6) by scoring the game’s first 17 points. Defense played a role as the Bulldogs only put up seven shots, all errant, in the game’s first eight minutes.

The Blue Hose extended their lead to 20 points on Josh Pickett’s three-pointer with 11:48 remaining in the first half, hiking the lead to 23-3.

Three PC players scored in double figures: Parrish, Josh Pickett (15) and Jonah Pierce (13). Triston Wilson scored only three but dished out seven assists and grabbed eight rebounds.

PC tests the SoCon waters again on Wednesday at 7 p.m., visiting Wofford (5-3) at Spartanburg’s Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. The Blue Hose upset the Terriers, 71-68, on Nov. 13, 2024. Wofford went on to win the SoCon Tournament and fall to Tennessee, 77-62, in the NCAA first round.

Presbyterian led, 33-17, at halftime. The Blue Hose shot .520 (13/25) from the field and .455 in three-pointers. Citadel’s contrasting percentages were .304 (7/23) and .182 (2/11) from beyond the arc. The teams combined to hit just 3/12 free throws.

In an earlier game on the same floor, UNC Asheville (3-4), like PC a Big South member, shocked Appalachian State (4-5), 67-55.

Presbyterian’s lead swelled to 57-29 on Iverson King’s slam with 9:08 remaining in the game.

“We played a lot of games in the month of November, and I thought this was our best game of the year,” PC head coach Quinton Ferrell said. “We matched up well with [Citadel], and we saw a lot of things we’ve seen already.

“Defense is the identity of our program. It was good to see the guys buy in and execute. It should give us confidence going forward.”

Braxton Williams was the Bulldogs’ only double-digit scorer with 13 points.

PC outscored Citadel 32-12 in the paint and 18-1 off turnovers.

“The key for us was staying together,” Pickett said. “We’ve had our ups and downs. Through it all, we’ve been a great team and a great unit. If we can stick together and fire on all cylinders, we can really do something special. “

For the game, Presbyterian shot .540 (27/50) overall, .455 (10/22) from three and .556 (5/9) from the foul line. In marked contrast, Citadel’s numbers were .304 (14/46), .318 (7/22) and .462 (6/13).

Take a look at the stats here.

No. 16 seed Furman prevailed in penalty kicks, 5-4, to eliminate Hofstra and advance to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship Quarterfinals following a 3-3 draw versus the Pride Sunday afternoon at Stone Soccer Stadium.

Furman (15-1-5) advances to face No. 8 seed Portland in the Elite Eight on Friday. Kickoff is set for 10 p.m. EST at Merlo Field in Portland, Ore.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” said Paladin head coach Doug Allison. “They didn’t panic when we fell behind and they showed tremendous resilience today. All five guys stepped up and converted their penalties just like we had practiced. Also, how about these fans! Our students came back from Thanksgiving to support us en masse, and our fans and alumni were great.”

Following the 3-3 tie, the teams moved to the scoreboard end of Seagraves Field for the penalty shootout. Both teams converted in the first two rounds before Stefano Campisi missed high for the Pride. The Paladins and Pride traded goals in the fourth round and Laurie Goddard finished to open the fifth round to keep Hofstra alive. Furman senior Landon Hill stepped to the spot and drilled his attempt into the left-hand corner to trigger the victory celebration for the home side.

Furman will be making its second trip to the NCAA quarterfinals after falling at UConn in the round of eight in 1999. By advancing past Hofstra, the Paladins extended their NCAA-best unbeaten run to 13 matches.

Hofstra opened the scoring in 17^th minute when Daniel Burko redirected Thengill Orrason’s long cross into the right side of the net. The Paladins answered just 36 seconds before halftime. Diego Hernandez’s cross into the box was cleared out wide to Hill who served a cross into the middle of the box. Luke Hutzell got on the end of the cross to level the match at 1-1 on his fourth goal of the season.

Furman grabbed the lead in the 77^th minute. Caleb Johnson controlled the ball deep on the left side and sent a cross towards the top of the six-yard box. Hill deflected the ball into the path of Hutzell, who fired a shot through the middle of the box that was redirected past Hofstra goalkeeper Sean Bohan by Wilfer Bustamante at the 76:03 mark. Less than four minutes later, Bustamante hustled to chase down a loose ball on the left wing and picked out an unmarked Hernandez streaking into the right side of the box to double the Paladin advantage at 79:52.

Hofstra (14-5-1) refused to go quietly as the Pride answered on the first of two goals from Goddard at the 80:11 mark. At the 81:19 mark, Aleksei Armas picked out Goddard with a cross, and the senior forward tucked his shot into the left-hand corner to level the match at 3-3 and force overtime. Neither team registered a shot on goal in the two 10-minute overtime periods with Furman outshooting Hofstra 3-1 in both extra periods.

Furman managed a 27-12 advantage in total shots for the match and finished with a 9-3 edge in shots on target. Ivan Horvat earned the victory for the Paladins while Sean Bohan and Gino Cervoni each stopped three shots in the loss for Hofstra.

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