Final Score: College of Charleston 73, Citadel 69
Top Performers:
Adjehi Baru 16 points, 12 rebounds
Mike Groselle 19 points, 9 rebounds
It looks as though the intra-city rivalry between CofC and El Cid may not be as dead as some of us thought. Despite a 10-game losing streak, one of the worst RPI's in Division I and enough wins to count on one hand, the cadets played their best game of the season only to come up short in yet another close conference contest. As close as the scoreboard indicates, this was not as ugly a game for the Cougars as the Samford and Anderson home contests. The Bulldogs played way over their heads (to be expected given the opposition) and it took some clutch shots and defense from CofC to pull this one out.
First off, how awesome is it that those two guys are the top performers? High-octane scoring amongst guards is fun but didn't you want this game to be the slugfest under the basket that it turned out to be? Two of the best big men in mid-major basketball, going punch for punch with one another for sole ownership of the Charleston fan base? Complete with Trent Wiedeman jawing at the cadets during timeouts, a Matt Van Scyoc technical for taunting and my favorite quote of the season. When asked what he thinks about the Citadel/CofC rivalry, Adjehi answered bluntly "I think about winning". Oh I get chills just thinking about it.
Ok ok so the basketball itself. After CofC jumped to an early double-digit lead, Driesell started getting creative with his defenses. A little zone here, a little press there and maybe some man-to-man thrown in for good measure. This brought that up-tempo offense the Cougars displayed last week to a grinding halt. Then the Bulldogs started getting it going offensively. Really got it going. With the game in flux, Wojcik did a curious thing and pretty much emptied his line like a hockey team. The Cougar lineup of Stitt-Johnson-Johnson-Sundberg-Wiedeman quickly got outmanned and outperformed by the Citadel and the Cougars all of the sudden were in a deficit.
It's hard to judge the move in retrospect. On one hand that lineup substitution resulted in some bad offense and some worse defense that really allowed the Bulldogs to get momentum on their side. On the other it insured that our most important players were fresh for the second half. That didn't appear to be the case for Citadel.
In the second half the Cougars finally got their shots to fall and the Citadel had a much harder time executing their offense with everybody winded. Still, the Citadel had a few opportunities to win this one but the Cougar defense held strong.
Since this is CofC-Citadel we're going bullet point mode for the rest of my observations:
- Another game where the Cougars managed to win AND put up a reasonable number of points even with the backcourt struggling. Lawrence was 5-14 and Stitt 5-12. Definitely didn't feel that way. Most of their struggles were in the first half. Stitt hit at least 2-3 huge shots in the second half and Lawrence was responsible for the go-ahead basket and free throws
- What did I predict about Baru in the SoCon? Going against so many BCS opponents early is really paying off for the big man. He's got three straight double-double games, all against conference teams
- Not to be overshadowed in clutch situations, Anthony Thomas really sparked the team when things were all tied up late in the second. The Cougars finally wrestled the lead back when he knifed his way to the bucket twice, the second for an and-1
- Not a good final shot by the Bulldogs. Groselle got the ball a little further from the basket than he may have been expecting and shot a highly contested fadeaway with Baru right on him. But to be fair I have no problem with the ball going inside. If I were Driesell, Groselle is the only one I trust with the ball in that situation.
- Free throws. Cougars shot 14-18 with Anthony Stitt attempting exactly zero. Great job by AT, Baru and Wiedeman.
- Offensive rebounds were also huge in this game. Cougars came up with 16 (compared to 20 defensive) and used them to make up for some of the 1st half turnovers
- Next up is another road game to Statesboro to take on a hot GSU team that just upset Davidson
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