Elon University junior forward Ryley Beaumont waved his arms up and down. Sophomore forward Ryan Winters and freshman center Tony Sabato cupped their hands around their hands yelling. Head coach Matt Matheny was pumping the crowd up. The sellout crowd was yelling and screaming.

And why not?

Their Phoenix ended their Southern Conference matchup with Wofford College on a 13-3 run over the last four-and-a-half minutes to pull out a 68-61 victory Saturday night.

In one of the more physical games Elon has played this season, the Phoenix fought through an aggressive Terriers squad who drew foul after foul in the first half and a bench shortened by the loss of two guards, sophomores Austin Hamilton and Kevin Blake, who both missed their second game in a row.

"I like the way our players hung together, fought together through the highs and lows of the entire game," Matheny said. "Foul trouble could have been a problem for us in the first half, but we again had people step up for us tonight from off the bench to play valuable minutes."

A lead was never more than six points in the first half. Elon led by that margin just 1:52 into the contest, but with 1:46 left in the period, the Terriers held a 29-23 lead, even with their leading scorer, sophomore guard Karl Cochran, on the bench with an iced shoulder. But two of those bench players, Winters and senior guard Josh Bonney, who scored 15 points in a win Thursday night against Furman University, hit key shots to bring the lead to just two at halftime.

Elon was sitting in foul trouble at that point - Beaumont, junior forward Lucas Troutman and freshman guard Tanner Samson all had two. But the bench guys made those shots.

"It is a whole team game," Troutman said. "The guys we had come in when we got in foul trouble, we sat out, the guys had to step in, all the guys that stepped in are what gave us this win tonight."

The Phoenix had a tough shooting first half (35.7 percent from the field, 2-of-9 from three-point range), especially junior guard Jack Isenbarger, one of the team's best shooters who was 1-of-8 from the field in the first 20 minutes.

But the Zionsville, Ind., native hit a three-pointer 3:41 into the second frame. After Wofford freshman guard Spencer Collins hit a couple shots to restore a three-point Terriers lead, Samson hit a three.

After making just two three-pointers in all of the first half, the Phoenix made two in the first 5:37 of the second half.

"I think those shots got our confidence going," Isenbarger said. "Another thing is that they went to zone in the second half, and hitting those threes forced them to pull out and go back to man-to-man, which allowed them to go one-on-one against Lucas, and you saw what happened tonight."

Troutman scored ten points in the second half, six of those in the run to end the game.

The teams traded buckets until Wofford sophomore forward Lee Skinner had four straight points to give his team a 58-55 lead with 4:30 left in the game.

Then the Phoenix erupted for the run and allowed only a long, contested three-pointer from Cochran with 62 seconds left while running the offense through Troutman, while 86-percent free-throw shooter Isenbarger hit 5-of-6 from the charity stripe to run away.

Isenbarger led Elon scorers with 17 points and snagged six rebounds. Troutman had 16 points and six boards, while Samson had ten points and three rebounds.

Cochran gave the Phoenix fits in the second half after he returned. He ended the night with 18 points and five rebounds.

"He’s really fast," Matheny said. "One thing Wofford does a great job of is setting and using screens, and he sleeps and then he takes the screens very well and it will wear you out."

The game was a "very physical" game, the coach added. The teams combined for 40 fouls and 46 free-throw attempts. Wofford head coach Mike Young was very vocal after some of the calls, even earning a technical foul in the second half after a call he deemed questionable.

One might have used the common phrase "war of attrition" to describe what happened on Alumni Gym's floor, and  at least one Elon player thought his army came out on top.

"That’s the type of game you’re going to see in the Southern Conference, very physical, guys coming after each other, and it really is going to come down to who is tougher," Isenbarger said. "I think that we showed we were physically tougher and mentally tougher tonight. Everyone stepped up to contribute, and that's why we got the win."

It was Elon's third win in a row in its fourth game in eight days. With five days off until the Phoenix's next game, next Thursday at home against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Troutman said his team is starting to understand who they are. 

"Of course, we feel great about ourselves," the 6-10 forward said. "We are a veteran team, we are a strong team, we are a tough team, and we are starting to calcify. And coming off three wins that’s also going to motivate us to keep going. Knocking down Wofford tonight, it was a big game, it was a tough game, it was a brawl."

A brawl that, for the third straight time, the Phoenix came out ahead.

Game Notes

  • Wofford head coach Mike Young was very complimentary of the sellout home crowd: "Hats off to (Elon athletic director) Dave Blank, who’s a great man, Matt and those Phoenix players, they’ve got a cool thing going. It’s a nice college basketball environment, hats off to the home team."
  • Collins finished the night with 14 points for the Terriers. Skinner had 13 points and 14 rebounds but also had six turnovers.
  • Matheny said doctors told him Hamilton twisted his knee and called it a "strained ligament." He will get an MRI soon, but the coach said, "I'm concerned." On the other hand, Blake will not be getting an MRI, but simply rest and treatment.
  • Two nights after scoring 15 points, Bonney had four points and an assist in 13 minutes of action. Matheny was happy with Bonney's play: "I’m thrilled with Josh Bonney. Thursday night, he was sensational. He made a great, a big bucket near the end of the first half (tonight), the lay-up where he used the dribble and got by him. Here’s a guy who hadn’t played very much, and now we’re calling on him to play valuable minutes and he’s really answered the call."
  • Troutman was especially fired up after a couple big plays in the second half. Afterwards, he said, "I think I popped a blood vessel. We went there last year and they put it to us. We wanted to come back this year with a statement saying, 'This is who we are and we're not going down.' That's what we've been trying to build within our team, that's what's given us energy, that's what's given us fight to keep going."