Byington Gets First Victory, Cougars End Skid

2012 graduate of Ball-So-Hard University

Final Score: College of Charleston 68, Samford 52

Top Performers: Antwaine Wiggins 25 points (career high), 5-9 3p%

                              Trent Wiedeman 6 points, 14 rebounds (5 offensive)

With their backs against the wall, the 10 players who made the trip to Birmingham were not going to drop their first ever game to the Samford Bulldogs. Despite poor shooting early on, the Cougars were able to gut out a pretty substantial victory by fixing 2 of the 3 glaring issues that have caused this team to freefall over the past four games. They rebounded, especially on the offensive end and they made their free throws. Still way too many three point shots though...

Here are my notes from the game. Kind of hard to really take in what was going on, but Everett and Jeff do paint a lovely motion picture of the action in my imagination.

• Lots of energy and hustle to begin the game. Heard "Sundberg dives to the floor!" a couple times throughout the contest and Lawrence was able to steal a few Samford rebounds from their bigs.
• This type of hustle on the offensive glass and to get turnovers really kept us in the game as Wiggins was the only one hitting shots in the first half
• "They're moving the ball like they did against Morehead State"- Everett German. Thank you Lord Baby Jesus
• First half stats to like: forced 9 Samford turnovers. Wiggins 4-6 from three and with 16 points. 12 offensive rebounds. 11 assists.
• First half stat to NOT like: 8-22 from three. Why on Earth is this team still taking 22 shots from outside? Not sure what was worse, the team taking heavily contested shots or missing wide open looks. 
• Sundberg 4-10 from three for the game. Better than 0-7 I guess.
• ATTACK THE RIM
• No way Andrew Lawrence survives 4 games in 4 days in Asheville. No way. He's gonna be on oxygen and have an IV in him by the second half of Game 2.
• Falling asleep on defense + Samford getting hot from behind the arc = scoring runs by the Bulldogs. Samford had a 16-4 run in the first half and another that cut our 16 point lead to 8.
• Block by Sundberg? Is this real life?
• Samford plays a very methodical offense (kind of like Wofford). Credit the Cougars for keeping the pressure on and not allowing too many backdoor cuts and wide open layups
• To their credit, Cougars cut their three point attempts in half in the second period
• Andrew Lawrence finished the game with 8 assists but shot 3-12 from the field

Stat of the game: Cougars 11-12 from the free throw line. That includes trips to the line for Wiggins and James Carlton.

And a big congratulations to Mr. Wiggins. His previous career high of 24 was against....you guessed it, Samford last year at Carolina First Arena. Go Cougars!