Cougars Can't Hold Lead, Lose to Samford

Final Score: Samford 62, College of Charleston 67

Top Performers:

Adjehi Baru 18 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks

Tried my best to avoid writing this recap and being forced to re-live last night again. Unfortunately we as fans have to look back at this loss and understand how the Cougars managed to not only find themselves in an early deficit but fight back, take the lead and eventually throw the game away in the final 4 minutes.

The offense, especially at home, remains a huge problem. It takes too long to facilitate movement, it's becoming very predicable and all too often the Cougars can't get easy buckets when they really need them. At the half the Cougars had shot nearly 50% of their shots from three and hit two of them. So far this season the secret to disrupting the Cougars offensively is to load the box and force Baru into taking tough shots (even if that means fouling him) and guarding the ball screens for Lawrence and Stitt when the Cougars need baskets. 

To throw gas on the fire, the Cougars rob themselves of possessions again and again when they turn the ball over. They had 13 last night, versus just 5 assists and even though I don't have the stats in front of me it seemed as though the Bulldogs turned the takeaways into about 20 easy points. 

There were two turnovers in particular that nailed the coffin. With under 4 minutes to play, up nine, Baru snatched a rebound and tried to push the ball ahead to his wing players. While I appreciate the effort to get the offense going, the ball was picked off and it turned into a wide open three for Samford. That's a 5-6 point swing. Then with a chance to put Samford away with under a minute, the Cougars made one too many wraparound passes under the basket trying to pawn off the last shot to someone else. That also led to a Samford three on the other side. 

A few other comments on a disheartening loss:

• The Cougars could really use a consistent third and fourth player on offense. Baru and Lawrence are the pillars. In most games when one of those two struggle, Anthony Stitt can make shots but he's still struggling with turnovers when tasked as the primary ball handler. Someone out of AT, Willis, Nori and Matt needs to be able to give us something game in and game out. Trent is still a ways from being his old self.
• One of the Cougars' strengths this season has been guarding the three point line. The perimeter defense wasn't there tonight. Guys continued to get blown by off the dribble and the Bulldogs shot a blistering 8-15 from behind the arc.
• At least the free throw shooting (particularly Baru) got better in this game
• Theo Johnson as well had a nice game in limited minutes