Final Score: College of Charleston 61, Cal State Fullerton 48
Top Performers:
Adjehi Baru 13 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks
Michael Williams 14 points, 6 rebounds
After suffering back-to-back blowout losses to San Diego State and Arizona State, the Cougars started to get defensive. No, they did not lash out at media or fans who questioned the team's game time strategies - they simply locked down the Cal State Fullerton Titans and produced enough easy offense to win comfortably. The win over the Wooden Legacy host team gave the Cougars a 7th place finish in the ESPN tournament.
The star of this one was the man in the middle - Adjehi Baru. From the opening tip Baru took full advantage of the thin Titan front line on his way to another double-double and a season-high 5 blocks just to let everyone in orange know who was boss. There were questions about how CofC was going to balance a three-guard attack with the obvious advantage of a dominant big man in Adjehi - the latter seemingly under-used in the first few games. That judgement was put to rest in Anaheim as Adjehi was the best player for Charleston over the entire three-game stretch. Playing more as a help defender with Fullerton's lack of quality bigs, Baru feasted on whatever the Titans tossed up from inside the paint. As an offensive force he continues to see double teams but if the perimeter players can feed him the ball before help arrives he still has quick (and high) enough moves to finish against most teams. Adjehi's 10 rebounds, and Willis Hall's 11, helped the Cougars edge the Titans in rebounding 40-35.
Getting back to what they did best last year, the Cougars won this game with defense. A few minutes into the 1st half they threw a 2-3 zone at the Titans that proved to be highly effective. This was where the length of Chealey, Barry, AT and Baru is so clutch. The Titans spent their first 3-4 possessions against the zone passing the ball around the perimeter, unable to penetrate with the outstretched arms of the Cougars filling nearly every passing lane. Long threes and contested mid-range jumpers were almost all the Titans could muster with those 4 sharing the court (AT was the only significant contributor off the bench, playing 21 minutes). CofC held Cal State to just 31% shooting for the game, including a 5 for 20 mark from behind the arc.
All four starters were effective last night. In addition to Hall's dominance on the boards and Adjehi's all around game, Anthony Stitt and Canyon Barry actually led the Cougs with 14 points apiece and Joe Chealey contributed another dozen. All three still have their flaws: Stitt with his hot-and-cold shooting, Barry sometimes takes too many long twos and Chealey often holds on the ball for too long before setting up the offense, but last night they were efficient and steady throughout the entire game.
Great defense, good enough offense adds up to a standard Doug Wojcik-style victory. The Anaheim tournament went about as I expected. San Diego and Arizona State will both be NCAA Tournament teams this year. As great as it would have been to beat them (or even bring it down to the wire), the only loss the Cougars have dropped the ball in this year was the OT contest against Asheville. The one where the they couldn't throw a beach ball through a hula hoop if they tried.
The schedule eases up from here on out. Following exams is a matchup with non-D1 Coker, then Marist, ODU and Kent State. All of those games are winnable and I'd love to see guys like Wishon, Cook, O'Donohue and Theo Johnson get some burn before conference play. The Cougars could use the boost off the bench after the starters carried them in this game.
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