University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
4-1
Charleston Southern
4-3
Tennessee Downs Charleston Southern 63-49
December 17, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 17, 2002
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By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS
AP Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - C.J. Watson scored 16 points and Ron Slay grabbed 11 rebounds Tuesday night as Tennessee overcame a sluggish performance to beat Charleston Southern 63-49.
The Volunteers (4-1) were coming off a dramatic 70-69 win at Georgia Tech on Sunday but didn't appear to carry any momentum into Tuesday's game.
After the Buccaneers (4-3) went ahead by one point in the second half, Tennessee had a run to reclaim the lead and take control.
The Vols' win wasn't pretty. Tennessee had 19 turnovers and its leading scorers struggled.
Tennessee led 28-23 at halftime after the Buccaneers rallied from a nine-point deficit.
Charleston Southern continued a 10-0 run to start the second half and took a 29-28 lead on Kevin Warzynski's basket with 17:11 left. Slay's pair of free throws put the Vols back ahead.
Tennessee didn't score a field goal after halftime until Watson's basket with 15:20 to go, which started a 11-3 run. Brandon Crump capped it with a dunk with 11:34 remaining for a 45-34 lead.
Charleston Southern couldn't get any closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Jon Higgins, who hit the winning basket from half court Sunday, scored just one point. Slay came in averaging 25.5 points a game but finished with 10 points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field. He made all eight of his free-throw attempts.
Warzynski led Charleston Southern with 14 points while Trent Drafts had 12.
The Vols had a 12-0 run over 6:34 in the first half to take an early lead. Derek Stribling had a steal and a basket with 10:56 to go to make it 15-6.
Charleston Southern, which missed 14 of its first 17 shots, finally ended its scoring drought when Drafts hit a 3-pointer with 9:10 remaining before halftime. in the final seconds last season at Thompson-Boling.
