College of Charleston 69, Georgia Southern 60
Top Performers
Willis Hall 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
Eric Ferguson 22 points, 5 rebounds
Save for an ugly final 10 minutes of the game that saw the Cougars nearly surrender a 23-point lead....it was a pretty good bounce back victory for CofC. Following the letdown that was the Davidson game it would have been easy for the Cougars to dial it in playing at home with the 3 seed pretty much locked. Maybe they did dial it in when they were up big in the second half, but Willis Hall came out on fire in the first half and Anthony Stitt eventually finished things off to ensure a vengeful victory against the Eagles.
Willis had 13 points in the first half alone- utilizing and capitalizing on all the little things he can do. He posted up Ferguson and converted, he hit a three, he rebounded, he assisted and he forced a travel call. The Cougar offense as a whole looked a lot better than the Thursday game. Consider the level of competition. There was much more emphasis on running the break after missed shots (maybe they picked that up watching the Davidson tape) and the CofC bigs got a ton of easy buckets when the Eagles switched to a press.
If I were to nitpick two qualms with the Cougar offense it would be Adjehi Baru's ability to finish through contact and our execution against the zone. Adjehi made 13 trips to the line last night and, although he made nine and got another double-double, the team could have easily gone up 25-30 points and Adjehi could have had a season high in if he hadn't missed so many bunnies. One of the biggest developments Baru made this year was that he seemed to realize how much of a physical advantage he has over his peers in the SoCon. Now he should expect to draw contact (as well as double teams) and not let the foul disrupt his shot.
When the Eagles dropped back into the 2-3 zone in the 2nd the Cougar offense took another nap. It looked like they were trying to run down the clock but they were slow moving the ball around the perimeter and never got the sort of wide open threes you want to take in that setting. Georgia Southern took advantage of their length and athleticism, picked off a few passes and got themselves back in it late. Couple that with the sagging CofC defense and you can imagine how the lead evaporated. Fortunately Anthony Stitt and Nori Johnson were good enough down the stretch to not let the Eagles all the way back.
Some very interesting notes from the bench in this one. Trevonte Dixon, used sparingly throughout the year, played 10 minutes when the Cougars were up double digits. Meanwhile Theo Johnson and Matt Sundberg so no court time. I think that TD is solid enough to plug into three-guard lineups for the Cougs. As long as he doesn't turn the ball over. He's a smart player and can hit from the outside. Last night his only buckets came off a nifty dribble-drive where he got his man turned around and cruised in for an easy layup.
No one needs to remind Cougar fans about the importance of depth in the SoCon Tournament. Wiedeman and Nori make a very solid 7 man rotation every game. If Matt Sundberg is on from deep and Theo is locked in defensively you have a formidable 9 man unit. If TD can play sustainable minutes against a team like Davidson, Elon or Samford and give a break to Stitt and Lawrence I'd be even more relieved. So far we have not seen the bench from Wiedeman all the way down to TD/Pat Branin used to it's full potential, but bits and pieces are there. Moving forward I'm interested to see under what circumstances Wojcik goes to the three-guard. I also don't mind this trend of pushing the tempo against like-minded teams.
Where are the students - last night it almost looked like there was a boycott as the student section was almost empty and there have been several games lately with no student support.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a general apathy among the students right now. The Cougars haven't shown up in big home games against Louisville, the Charleston Classic opponents and most recently Davidson. They also had really embarrassing home losses to Anderson and Samford.
ReplyDeleteHome court performance is a major factor to attracting students who are casual fans. They gauge the team based on what they see. They don't follow the team throughout the season like some of us do. I think a lot of students think the men's basketball team is really bad this year. That's why they don't come to the games.