Cardiac Cougars Strike Again

College of Charleston 67, Western Carolina 65

Top Performers

Trent Wiedeman 16 points, 10 rebounds in 20 mins

Trey Sumler 24 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists

With something like 5 minutes to go and the Cougars up double digits, Andrew Lawrence held the ball at the top of the arc and let shot clock time run. Then with under 10 seconds he initiated the offense. Almost every CofC player touched the ball and the play ended with Trent Wiedeman swishing a jumper as the shot clock buzzer honked. That's when I wrote this on Twitter. 

A changing of the tides! The Cougars were closing out a team! 

You guys know the rest of the story. Turnovers, missed free throws, Trey Sumler and-ones. I won't get into the late game collapse because A) it negates the 38 minutes of good basketball the Cougars played and B) the Cougars still found a way to win. That way to win was Andrew Lawrence not hesitating a second after Sumler tied the game up with 4 seconds to go and turning on the jets with one destination in mind: the rim. He got fouled with 0.6 seconds on the clock and sank both free throws to guarantee the win. Actually he sank two of six free throws. Reading Coach Wojcik's mind and knowing Lawrence would intentionally miss the second to run the clock out, Larry Hunter kept advising his players to commit lane infractions to delay the inevitable. Accidentally or not, Lawrence made a non-challenged free throw, the Catamounts full-court heave was picked off and the Cougs won their 20th game of the season.

Because of video issues I was only able to see the second half of this game. Which may not be a bad thing based on how ugly Jeff and Edog made the 1st half sound. Neither team could hit the broad side of a barn or keep the ball in their hands. A sign of things to come, both Willis and Andrew had tough shooting nights but were able to get points from the charity stripe. As a team the Cougars hit 20-28 from the free throw line but only 3-13 from three.

Trent Wiedeman was the Wee-da-man last night. He was the only Cougar big to get a double-double and he did it in just 20 minutes of playing time. Anthony Matchup-Nightmare Thomas also had his usually quiet 8 points and 7 rebounds. Rounding out the three stars of the game for the Cougars was Anthony Stitt who not only kept Sumler in check, but also hit two of CofC's three made long balls and finished with 12 points.  Last year, Anthony Stitt finishing at the rim through contact was one of my favorite highlights of any game. This year I jump out of my seat every time he swishes a mid-range jumper. It's just so sweet and such a rarity on this team for someone to hit from that distance.

Despite his inflated box score stats and late game heroics, Trey Sumler had an inefficient shooting night. He was 9 of 19 from the field (1-4 on 3's) and would have had only 12 points if the Cougars had refused to make things interesting in the final minutes. Tawaski King also had a tough time finishing through his old high school rival Trent Wiedeman and over Adjehi Baru. 

With the win the Cougars reach several milestones: double digit road victories, 20 wins on the season (already better than last years total) and the #3 seed in the SoCon Tournament. With the one seed out of reach, the 3 spot is the best place to land. It means we won't play Davidson until the Championship game (if it comes to that) and the best team on our side of the bracket is Elon- a team we already beat at their house. Better yet, if WCU can rally and get the #4 spot, some combination of Western Carolina, Georgia Southern or Samford could give Davidson quite a few bruising battles to get to the finals. 

Despite how things unfolded this was a great road win for CofC. We hadn't won in Cullowheeeee in five years. Up next is the BracketBuster against a very hot Gardner Webb team.