Cougars Upend Davidson in a Physical Homecoming Game

Had pretty good seats for this one

Final Score: College of Charleston 86, Davidson 78
Top Performers: Antwaine Wiggins 25 points, 10 rebounds, 9-13 FT
                            De'Mon Brooks 25 points, 9 rebounds

There aren't too many games I get to watch in person anymore, but Davidson on Homecoming was too tempting a match-up to miss when I looked at the schedule this fall. Luckily I bought tickets before the Cougars' late January slide otherwise I'm not so sure I would have shelled out the money to watch us get whipped at home. But to my pleasant surprise the Cougars played almost completely mistake free basketball and easily handled the top team in the Southern Conference.

From my vantage point, the Cougars looked prepared and focused as early as pregame warm-ups. That was the first thing I noticed that gave me a glimmer of hope. There was none of the usual dunking and joking by Jordan and James, Adjehi was honing his post moves instead of taking lazy hook shots and Trent looked lighter on his feet than he has since the exhibition games. The entire team was in a zone and their preparation would pay off.

The Cougars jumped out to an early lead behind some solid defense and timely shots by Nori (who is becoming more and more consistent) and Trent. We were moving the ball, getting open looks and my personal favorite: playing both inside and out on offense. Maybe sitting out a game to rest his ankle was what Trent really needed. Early on he was hitting a lot of those over-the-shoulder shots that he has come up short on for much of this season. He still wasn't getting real deep post position, but if he can consistently hit those shots from five feet out it won't really matter. Nori essentially stuck to his role by getting open, knocking down some threes and penetrating just often enough to sell a defender on a pump fake from the perimeter.

The Cougars really earned their stripes on defense. They limited the Wildcats to just 33 points on 32% shooting in the first half by sticking to a game plan that had a few tweaks from Coach B. The biggest difference I saw from the game at Belk was that Byington decided to put Baru on Jake Cohen rather than Trent. Cohen destroyed us from deep last time the two teams met and Adjehi did a much better job of defending the three. Baru is quicker to the three point arc than Wiedeman is and he contests the shot a lot more than his fellow big man. Last game, Trent would throw a hand up but never committed his feet out of fear than Jake would drive past him. Baru limited Cohen to an 0-3 mark from outside. Although Jake did get to the free throw quite a bit this game and scored 9 of his 13 points there.

Byington also had a defensive plan in place to stop Davidson's guards from beating the Cougs. Lawrence, Wiggins and even Jordan Scott did a good job pestering Kuhlman and Cochran into poor shooting performances and a couple turnovers. McKillop mentioned this in the postgame conference, stating that his backcourt really didn't come out with the intensity he would have wanted.

Of course you can't talk about yesterdays game without touching on the officiating: just a little bit. To the surprise of myself and many other CofC fans, the free throw disparity was actually slightly in favor of the Cougars (27 called on the Wildcats, 25 on the Cougars); but remember that the Cats were fouling a lot while they were still within double figures late in the game. All three of the Cougars' available big men (Wiedeman, Carlton and Baru) fouled out of the game if that gives you any sense of the type of physicality showed yesterday. And many of those fouls were warranted. James still plays out of control and was caught grabbing his man when he got beat off the dribble. Adjehi's technical at the end of the game was a split second after the whistle but he elbowed his man right in front of the ref. That being said, some of the officiating on both teams went beyond the typical "Oh it's just Socon Saturday refereeing". There were missed charging calls, moving picks, reach-ins and over-the-backs. Then there were calls that had both coaches questioning the vision and IQ of Billy Dunlap and company.

I know Trent has a reputation around the conference for whining, but there were some calls against him where I honestly don't know what you tell him as a coach. It's Trent's job to defend the basket and if his teammate gets beat, all he can do besides roll out a red carpet to the rim is stand there and put his hands up. I can understand the frustration.

With Wiedeman and Andrew Lawrence riding the pine for most of the first half, the Cougars got some admirable contributions from the bench. Jordan Scott hit a three and forced a couple turnovers. James Carlton had his dreams come true when he found himself alone on the break and was able to throw down a windmill dunk. Even though Carlton was a human fouling machine, his presence alone caused some tough shots by Davidson and he limited their opportunities to get to the rim.

Finally, a lot of credit has to go to Coach Byington. Whether you love him or want him to get lost, he did an excellent job of manipulating his lineups to get the most of his players. If Cremins was on the court he would've ridden Trent and Adjehi despite foul trouble until they collapsed. The lineup at the end of the game was as follows: Andrew Lawrence, Trevonte Dixon and Jordan Scott on the wings, Nori at power forward and Antwaine playing center. Mr. Wiggins was the MVP of Homecoming, not only did he play four positions, he made timely shots, grabbed rebounds down the stretch and was the only contributor who stayed out of foul trouble.

All in all it was a pretty memorable Homecoming for the Cougar faithful. The team is getting better week by week. We're pretty much locked into the 4S seed as of now. So we're going to need this type of intensity and bench play for four straight nights come March.