Elon Does Best to Throw Game Away, Cougars Miss Opportunity

Final Score: Elon 99, College of Charleston 98
Top Performers: Andrew Lawrence 32 points, 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks
                              Trent Wiedeman 17 points, 17 rebounds

What began as a blowout turned into one of the most exciting Socon games of the season as the Cougars erased a 51-34 halftime deficit and fought through 50 minutes of action before falling by 1 on a missed Andrew Lawrence floater.

The first half was one of the worst performances to date by the Cougars. I'm not even exaggerating that to make the comeback more emotionally appealing. It was bad. The Phoenix opened on a 6-0 run and made six straight three pointers before finally missing with less than five to play in the period. Lucas Troutman was absolutely abusing Trent down low. It was probably retribution for Trent's dominance a few weeks ago. Troutman routinely took Wiedeman to the hole and scored over him at will. But more than Lucas alone, the Cougars dug themselves a hole on their own. Elon did as they pleased for 20 straight minutes; getting wide open looks, rebounds and every 50/50 ball. The Cougars had a lot of dumb fouls in their frustration and never got it going on offense. Elon was in a strict man-to-man which bothered the Cougars significantly. It wasn't until they inadvertently switched to zone that CofC could get something going.

The Cougars couldn't buy a basket in the first half. We could barely get the ball inbounds. Nori, TD and Sundberg kept getting blown by on D, which opened up Baru and Wiedeman to hack away at whoever came down the lane at them. That early foul trouble resulted in our bigs being even less aggressive and Elon continued to take advantage. But the WORST part of all of this was that the team had SEEN all these plays in the film session the morning of the game. That fact alone had Jeff and Everett in cardiac arrest at the scorers table. It was all ugly and I strongly considered turning the game off at that point.

But unfortunately for me I have a blog to write and was forced to watch what was sure to be a dreadful overall performance. But alas! The Cougars started to make things interesting upon the realization that they are also a Division 1 basketball team. My heart urges me to imagine Mark Byington giving a raucous, "Any Given Sunday" type of halftime speech to spark his team. More than likely, the closing run the Cougars went on was due in part to three things. Elon's shooting came down from Samford vs Davidson type numbers. The Cougars played adequate, still-not-great-but-adequate, defense. And the Cougars were finally hitting their own shots. That last was is probably a sort of Self Fulfilling Prophecy. The Cougars were making shots, which forced Elon to stop doubling Baru and Wiggins, which then freed up the latter to make plays.

The Cougars used this enlightenment to slowly chip away at what I thought was an insurmountable advantage for Elon. Andrew Lawrence stepped up big time (he played all 50 minutes) and Trent was demanding enough attention down low that the perimeter was open for Sundberg. CofC managed to tie the game for the first time with 22 seconds to go. The Cougars managed to do this despite poor shot selection at times and to-be-expected poor free throw shooting. The final shot of regulation was a well run play that got Nori open on the sideline but he missed a floater at the buzzer ( Johnson finished the game shooting 3-13, woof).

The overtimes were a back and forth affair much like the UTC game earlier this season. A 2-3 point run for the Phoenix here, careless turnover, 3-4 point run for the Cougars there etc. Both teams had ample opportunities to put the other away. Elon went through a funk where they couldn't get the ball to stay inbounds. The Cougars could have made it a multiple possession game if they could hit from the charity stripe.

After Trent Wiedeman, Matt Sundberg and Lucas Troutman all fouled out, Elon went on one last run to push the lead to six. Even then the Cougars showed one last burst of life to get a three from both Lawrence and Wiggins. One made free throw and one miss later and the Cougs had a shot to win at the buzzer. Lawrence kept the ball until there were less than 10 seconds to go, took a look at the defense, drove right down the middle of the lane and missed a floater as time expired.

It was a real tough loss for the Cougars but credit is due for the effort they put forth for the last 30 minutes. Whether that negates the lethargic manner in which they played the first 20 is up for debate.

In a season that has gone downhill so quickly, I'll take the positives where I can get them. This game looked like an annihilation in the making. The Cougars showed real determination in not letting that happen and had a chance to pull off a sweet victory. Things didn't go our way in the end but the fact that we had the opportunity is worthy of applause. For one night.