Clemons has 51, Campbell shocks Asheville 81-79 in Big South

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.

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 the Radford-Liberty winner 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.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Clemons has 51, Campbell shocks Asheville 81-79 in Big South."