Dreadful Shooting Dooms Cougars in OT Loss

Final Score (OT): UNC Asheville 67, College of Charleston 58
Top Performers: 
Andrew Rowsey 23 points, 8-11 FG, 3-6 3PFG
Adjehi Baru 12 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals

Well, I guess this is what we should have been more afraid of. Following an emotional victory against UNC Charlotte earlier in the week, the Cougars came out of the gates looking flat and could not find the bottom of the basket for much last night's game. Falling behind double digits for the second straight contest, the Cougars once again fought back to get this one to overtime. Unfortunately, the lid remained on the basket in OT and the Cougars couldn't get anything to fall in the extra period.

It's a shame this one goes in the loss column because the Cougars improved on a lot of things that had hurt them in the Louisville and Charlotte games. They cut their turnovers from an average 18 per contest to just 6, Adjehi Baru was able to stay on the floor and give a dominating performance and the guys made 90% of their free throws. In fact, if you look at all the numbers outside of shooting percentages you could easily postulate that the Cougars were victorious. The Bulldogs were crushed on the offensive boards 17-8, turned the ball over more than twice as often as the Cougars and attempted half as many threes.

Whether it was from tired legs, lack of focus or some combination of the two, CofC could not buy a basket for much of the game: the Cougs shot 18.5% from three and 31% from the field. You just can't win many games with that sort of performance. One of the things we learned last year about Wojcik's very deliberate offense is that you have to hit the shot at the end of the play. The poor shooting last night was not a result of taking bad shots. Time after time the guys would run a play only to miss a bunny at the rim or see a wide open three rattle off the iron.

An early second half run that saw the Cougars come all the way back (and briefly take the lead) was spurned by Barry, Thomas and Baru attacking the rim. Good things always happen when you have playmakers in front of the basket. Eventually Asheville went back to the 2-3 zone, daring the Cougars to shoot their way back into it. This was a strategy that was a killer last year and once again proved successful as the shots stopped falling.

From an RPI standpoint this is a bad loss. The Bulldogs were winless on the season and you want to beat the teams you should beat. With Duke and Charlotte on their schedule in the coming days, Asheville wanted a win a lot more and the Cougars could not keep any home court momentum they had built during the week. The 1-2 record going into the big home game Monday against Miami doesn't concern me being as that's probably what our record should have been had we lost to Charlotte and beat Asheville. The defending ACC champs are struggling and are a very beatable team this year. Then next on the schedule is a matchup with former SoCon foe Furman. If the Cougars can sweep both teams at TD Arena we'll have some real momentum heading into California. Not as hot as 4-1 would have been but 3-2 with wins over Charlotte and Miami would feel good heading into the Wooden Legacy Tournament with the road warrior mentality.

A couple other notes:

• Take away the shooting of Baru and Thomas and the field goal percentage numbers are downright ghastly. The guy that really needs to get it going is Anthony Stitt. Going into the season, Anthony was expected to lead this team with the absence of Andrew Lawrence. Instead, the All-CAA honorable mention is having an awful start to his junior year, hitting just 2-18 from outside the arc this season (11%) after being amongst the team's best last season. Not only that, he hasn't gotten sent to the line since the Louisville game. We all painfully watched last year when Stitt went through that god-awful 0-20 something shooting slump. Hope he can work his way out of this one sooner than later. 
• Night and day difference when Adjehi is on the floor versus off it. He was able to keep Cunningham in check for most of the game and, even though he somewhat struggled offensively, still finished with an easy double-double. The one thing I'd continue to push Adjehi to do (Wishon as well) is to finish strong at the rim. Both those guys will physically impose virtually any other opponent they face, why they would elect to avoid contact and go for a reverse lay-up instead of a dunk is baffling. Aggression, guys.
• Chealey and Barry began to cool off as well. They were a combined 3-15 from behind the arc. Both excel at getting to the rim, which is what the Cougars need to do when the offense sputters but these are the types of growing pains we will see when your two top scorers are freshmen.