Cougars Fall to Auburn, Drop to 0-2 in Charleston Classic

Final Score: Auburn 55, College of Charleston 51
Top Performers: Frankie Sullivan 24 pts, 5 rebs
                             Matt Sundberg 8 pts, 3 rebs (10 minutes)

Last night CofC dropped their second home game in as many days as the Tigers of Auburn held a comfortable enough cushion to outlast the poor-shooting and turnover plagued Charleston Cougars. Without Andrew Lawrence (who was too sick to attend the game) the Cougars were left with just one primary ball-handler in Anthony Stitt, who uncharacteristically had six turnovers with zero assists. The team also struggled from the free throw line yet again with 55.6% shooting from the stripe for the night.

The Tigers were led by 5th year senior Frankie Sullivan. In the night cap of Thursday's slate of games, Sullivan dove head first for a loose ball into the boards with a crash that could probably be heard on campus. He laid on the ground for some time, punching the court in pain, before being carried off and receiving 25 stitches on his elbow. It shows a lot of heart by the Auburn captain to come back on the court less than 24 hours later and put up 24 very gritty points.

Once again the Cougars were unable to knock down shots. Auburn's defense, outside of maybe in transition, was nothing worse than what St John's threw at us and the Cougs still couldn't convert good looks into points. Maybe it's the optimist talking but I can't see how this could be a regular trend over the course of the season. We know guys like Trent Wiedeman and Anthony Stitt can make the shots they're taking: we saw it last year. Anthony Thomas is more of an unknown commodity but from the exhibition games up until now he has not shown that he's the type of player to take contested shots or volume shoot. Those three combined shot 9-30 for the game.

The sky isn't falling despite the frustrations of the fans, players and coaching staff. This tournament is the first real test of how player's perform in the new Wojcik system: defensively and offensively. The Cougars actually held Auburn to a lower shooting percentage (35.8%) from the field than they themselves shot (38.3%). Adjehi Baru and the Cougars also out-rebounded Auburn 42-26 including 6 more offensive boards. Normally these stats are indicators of a victory, but the Cougars' most glaring weaknesses were the free throw shooting (10-18), zero fast break points and especially the 19 turnovers (nearly double what Auburn had).

Fortunately, the Cougars are improving in one area that I thought would be an issue after the first few games: production off the bench. Nori Johnson has been the Cougar's best scoring option this tournament. He was the leading scorer off the bench in Thursday's game and in starting for Lawrence in last nights game he had 7 points, 4 rebounds and two assists. Theo Johnson has looked leaps and bounds better in consecutive games after he struggled against Towson. He once again played major minutes for the Cougars with Willis in foul trouble and Trent getting injured. Despite their similarities in athletic skills, Theo already looks like a more polished version of James Carlton who can give good production in limited time (6 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in 26 mins last night).

Finally, what more can you say about Matt Sundberg? I was admittedly worried when he entered the game in the first half. The team needed points but Matt's liabilities on defense didn't seem like the antidote to stop the bleeding. Sunny D immediately went to work, getting two big offensive rebound putbacks, a steal and a made three to get the Cougars right back in the game. He was the definition of what you want from your bench players; he did the little things to help the team, didn't hurt us on defense and got the crowd and the team fired up. A lot of us thought Matt was in the doghouse with the new coach in town, but Wojcik said afterward that the concussion suffered by Sundberg in the preseason had the team cautious about bringing him on too quickly.

Right now the Cougars need to use this day of rest to regroup and refocus. It's been a trying two days and the team is real beat up. I'm keeping especially close tabs on Trent's injury. After the game, David Wishon and Canyon Barry were essentially carrying Trent through the hallways underneath TD Arena as the rest of the team huddled up after the game. That would obviously be a huge blow to morale if Trent were to miss significant time and if he needs to take off Sunday in order to avoid another painful season than so be it. Boston College and CofC play for the super-consolation game tomorrow and one team will exit the Charleston Classic with an 0-3 finish. Hopefully it's not the host team.