Both No. 9 The Citadel and No. 7 UNC Greensboro moved into Friday’s quarterfinal action with a pair of victories to open the 2026 Southern Conference Tournament at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville.
In the first matchup, there were 21 lead changes before No. 9 The Citadel advanced to the second day of the tournament for the first time since 2022 with an 88-85 win over No. 8 seed Chattanooga.
The Citadel was led by Sola Adebisi and Kenyan Davis, who posted 26 and 20 points, respectively. Ed Conroy garnered his first SoCon Tournament win since his first stint as the Bulldogs’ head coach back in 2010, as the Bulldogs downed the reigning NIT Champion.
The win sees The Citadel improve to 11-21 overall, and they will move into Saturday’s first quarterfinal matchup against No. 1 overall seed and SoCon Regular Season Champion East Tennessee State (21-10) at noon on Saturday. The No. 8 seed UTC concluded its 2025-26 campaign with a disappointing 13-19 overall record.
In the second matchup, UNCG fourth-year head coach Mike Jones got his first win in the Harrah’s Cherokee Center as the head coach of the Spartans, as UNCG posted an 84-70 win over No. 10 seed VMI, thanks to 29 points from freshman guard KJ Younger and a 19th double-double of the season from Justin Neely, who added 14 points and 10 rebounds, as the Spartans advanced in the Southern Conference Tournament with a win for the first time since cutting down the nets in 2021.
With the win, UNCG improves to 14-18 overall and will face off against No. 2 seed Wofford (19-12) in Saturday’s second quarterfinal clash slated for 2:30 p.m. EST at Harrah’s Cherokee Center. VMI sees a difficult season come to an end with a 17th-straight loss, as the Keydets conclude the 2025-26 season with a 6-26 overall record.
How The Citadel and UNCG Prevailed in the SoCon Openers
Chattanooga and The Citadel both came out and found the 3s to be falling early. Sola Adebisi had a big first half for the Bulldogs, continuing where he left off in the regular-season finale, as he connected on back-to-back threes to give the Bulldogs a 22-21 lead. A steal and a dunk moments later put him in double figures, scoring 11 of the first 26 points for the Bulldogs.
A 13-6 run by Chattanooga, highlighted by threes from Tate Darner and Jordan Frison, put Chattanooga up 35-27 with 5:27 remaining in the opening half, prompting an Ed Conroy timeout. Eight-straight points from Christian Moore and Kenyan Davis tied the game, 35-35, with 3:57 left in the half.
The two teams combined for 17 treys in the first half, with both teams combining to go 17-of-32 from three-point range in the opening half, with the Bulldogs hitting 10 triples. The Citadel’s average number of made threes per game coming into the contest was only nine. The two teams went to the half tied, 49-49.
After the lead changed hands 12 times in the first half, before going to the half tied, 49-49. The second half would see the lead change nine more times before a winner would be decided. Sola Adebisi and Kenyan Davis, who had accounted for 32 of the Bulldogs’ 49 first-half points, didn’t have quite the same impact in the second, however, both hit clutch shots down the stretch, which helped the Bulldogs capture their first win in the SoCon Tournament since 2022, when the Bulldogs beat the other team from the Volunteer State, 84-76, in overtime.
Adebisi would end up scoring on two of the most important possessions of the game. With the Mocs leading 78-75 following a Teddy Washington Jr. layup in the paint, the final media timeout followed a foul drawn by Braxton Williams. In the timeout, The Citadel’s Conroy devised a beautifully designed play on a baseline out-of-bounds play, drawing the Mocs defense all past the free throw line on the pass inbounds to Kenyan Davis, and his quick diagonal snap pass from about 15-feet out found a cutting Adebisi for a wide-open, two-handed power dunk, getting the Bulldogs to within one, at 78-77 with 3:55 remaining. It was the prettiest of the 18 assists the Bulldogs had in the contest.
Chattanooga’s Billie Smith answered with a three on the other end, giving the Mocs a four-point, 81-77, lead before Braxton Williams splashed home a triple from the top of the key to get the Bulldogs back to within a point, at 81-80, with 3:16 remaining. After the Bulldogs got a stop on the defensive end on a night when defensive stops were at a premium, the Bulldogs seized the opportunity by taking an 82-81 lead when Carter Kingsbury drove down the lane and floated a one-handed jumper off the glass, at 82-81 lead with 2:49 remaining.
The elite shot-making would continue on the other end, and after the Bulldogs played good defense for 29 seconds, Jordan Frison, who had a team-high tying 16 points to go with nine assists, scored on a beautiful fade-away jumper as time expired on the shot-clock to put the Mocs back in front, 83-82, with 2:16 remaining.
On the Bulldogs’ next possession, The Citadel had another answer, as Christian Moore converted a nice baby hook in the lane, which barely fell over the front part of the rim, giving the Bulldogs back the lead, 84-83, with 2:02 left. Mullholland missed a wide-open three-pointer on the other end and Smith rebounded the miss, giving the Mocs another scoring opportunity, as UTC head coach Dan Earl used a 30-second timeout to draw up a play to get points with 1:32 remaining. Frison eventually finished the offensive possession with a driving layup after the timeout, giving the Mocs an 85-84 lead with 1:23 remaining.
Williams got the ball for the Bulldogs and drove hard to the bucket before being fouled by UTC’s Brennan Watkins to put the Valdosta State transfer at the line for a one-and-one with 55 seconds remaining. He made the first shot to tie the game, 85-85; however, he would miss the second, and the ball was rebounded by UTC’s freshman guard Tate Darner.
On the other end, Frison’s pull-up 15 footer hit the front of the rim, however, Mullholland came up with a big offensive rebound, but as he attempted to go back up with the ball, Bulldogs point guard Eze Wali came up with the biggest defensive play of the night for the Bulldogs, stripping the ball from Mulholland and forcing a turnover, as The Citadel’s defense held and the game remained tied.
Coming into the night, Adebisi was just a 30.8% 3-point shooter and had made only 12-of-39 shots from long-range all season, but he was the perfect man for the moment. Adebisi found himself wide open on the left wing on the Bulldogs’ ensuing possession when Williams found him, and he delivered what turned out to be the dagger to Chattanooga’s season, as his unguarded 3-pointer from the left wing was nothing but net, and the Bulldogs now held an 88-85 lead with just nine seconds remaining.
Chattanooga then had some issues getting the ball across halfcourt and was about to rush into an ill-advised 3-point attempt before Earl called a 60-second timeout with 3.2 seconds remaining. The Mocs then burned another timeout after seeing the Bulldogs’ defensive alignment, and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the ball was inbounded just in front of UTC’s bench, and Mulholland was wide open for a three, but unlike the magical run to the NIT a year ago, this had no storybook ending. The ball clanged off the front iron, and Kingsbury corralled the ball for the Bulldogs to secure the win, as The Citadel’s bench and a small smattering of fans erupted in excitement.
Adebisi’s night will be added to the catalog of big-shot moments and winning performances in the Harrah’s Cherokee annals. He finished the night 9 fof 15 from the field, including going 3 for 5 from 3-point land. The former Florida State walk-on finished 5 for 6 from the line and added seven rebounds and three blocks, two assists, and one steal. It was just one point off Adebisi’s performance last time out at Wofford, where he scored a career-high 27 points against Wofford.
Equally as important was Kenyan Davis. The junior played just three minutes against the Terriers in The Citadel’s 93-90 overtime road win, and he scored 17 of his 20 points on five first-half 3s. He connected on a total of six for the game, going 6-of-8 from long range, and finished 6 of 10 from the field. Braxton Williams added 17 points and four assists, while Christian Moore rounded out the double-figure scorers with 14.
Following the win, Ed Conroy nearly got emotional when describing what this meant to this team and to the program he had helped build. Last year, the Bulldogs went 0-18 in SoCon play. Up until January of this season, they had a streak of 37-straight losses to NCAA Division I foes before finally beating Western Carolina 79-77 in overtime on Jan. 10. He described the program’s significance in the postgame press conference.
”I’m really, really proud of our guys. Just some grit and resolve, especially from your older guys, to help you get through games like that so you can survive and advance on to the next round,” The Citadel’s Conroy said following his team’s tournament win. “I can’t help but think back to last year. We had an extremely tough year, as you all know, and Sola (Adebisi), Keynan (Davis), Christian Moore, and Dante (Kearse), I can remember being in the Renaissance (Hotel) lobby. I don’t think I slept, and I was with them probably till one or two in the morning. And just their decision to come back, even after the year we had, when it’s so easy these days to leave. I think that decision and their investment in the program (is what) helped us find a little bit extra there down the stretch in the second half.”
In the second game, the Spartans took initative from the outset, leading wire-to-wire before coasting to the 14-point win. UNCG would get out to an early 13-5 lead following a Domas Kauzonas giving the Spartans the early 13-5 lead following a jumper in the paint with 13:11 remaining in the opening half.
The Keydets closed the gap to 26-23 after Tan Yildizoglu made a pair of free throws with 4:43 remaining in the half. But the Spartans finished the half strong, using a 13-4 run. This run began with a Clyde Bailey II layup and ended with a Justin Neely 12-foot jumper with 12 seconds remaining in the half, giving the Spartans a 39-27 lead as the two teams entered the halftime locker room.
In the second half, the Keydets cut the deficit to nine when Linus Holmstrom made a three-pointer 22 seconds into the frame, making the score 39-30 with 19:38 remaining. However, after his Scandinavian counterpart, Danish-born Noah Norgaard, answered with a triple on the other end to put the Spartans’ lead back to 12, it sent an almost defiant and demoralizing message to VMI, as the Spartans were a team on a mission after four-straight tournament exits after playing only one game.
The Spartans took as much as a 19-point lead when Neely converted a layup to make it 67-49 with 7:21 remaining, but would eventually end up settling on a 14-point win.
Younger’s 29 points came on a 10-for-16 shooting night, which included a 3-for-7 effort from three-point land, as well as a perfect 6-for-6 from the line. Neely added his 19th double-double, posting 14 points and 13 boards, while Donald Whitehead Jr. finished with 13 off the bench to round out the Spartans in double figures.
UNCG shot 50% (34-of-68) for the game, despite making only 26.1% (6-of-23) of their three-point attempts.
The Keydets put four players in double figures; Linus Holmstrom led the way with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, including a 6-for-11 effort from three-point range. TJ Johnson added 15 points and eight rebounds, while Tan Yildizoglu and Kaden Stuckey rounded out the Keydets in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Stuckey finished with a double-double for VMI, adding 10 rebounds.
VMI shot just 41.7% (25-of-60) for the game and 33.3% (10-of-30) from three-point range.
