Cougar Defense Disarms Greensboro

College of Charleston 81, UNCG 59

Top Performers:

Trent Wiedeman 14 points, 12 rebounds

Kayel Locke 21 points, 4 rebounds

And the streak is up to 4. What streak you say? Any of them- doesn't matter. Four straight wins, four straight games of shutting down the opponents' best scorer, four straight games of opposing teams scoring in the 50's and four straight games with double digit victories for the Cougars. 

While the defensive look we gave wasn't exactly what I expected (AT ended up mostly guarding Armstrong and Stitt/Nori checked Simpson) the results were exactly what I anticipated. Simpson was held to just 12 shots (11 of them highly contested) and was lucky to get 15 points mostly from free throws. Armstrong didn't get a clean look until garbage time and ended up with just 8 points. Freshman Kayel Locke was the only player the Cougars really gave up anything to. That's fine because as talented as Locke is, even with 21 points he can't carry the team just yet. Especially with Simpson and Armstrong struggling. Simpson alone normally takes around 25 shots. 

Best of all the Cougars were able to hold their nationally dominant 3-point defense stingy against a notoriously hot jump shooting team. With at least one hand in their face on every attempt (the Cougs did a great job guarding the hand-offs on the perimeter), the Spartans shot a cold 2-14 on long balls. That's good for just over 14%. The Cougars also used a huge rebounding margin (45-34) to limit Simpson and company to just one (contested) shot per possession.

Offensively the Cougars were once again firing on all cylinders. Trent Wiedeman had another I-can't-imagine-if-he-had-both-ankles-all-season game with his first doube-double of the year. Willis Hall was one rebound shy of his own and Adjehi Baru was two boards away (he sat with foul trouble for some time). While the Spartans struggled from every place on the floor, the Cougars were white hot from the arc. The big guys did a great job of finding open shooters and AT and Willis were attentive in sealing off space. Stitt, Hall and Andrew Lawrence were a combined seven of nine on three point attempts. 

Things are really moving and grooving for the Cougars. The team hasn't looked challenged at all the past two weeks, the offense (thanks to fewer turnovers and consistent bench contributions) is humming at 75 points per game over the same time period. Not only is CofC dominating it's own opponents, but as the wins pile up they're creating space atop the SoCon bye race. Theres a tough four game stretch coming up (@Samford, @Chattanooga, Davidson, Georgia Southern) but the Cougars are playing their best basketball of the season.