Final Score: College of Charleston 76, Davidson 64
Top Performers:
Willis Hall 26 points, 21 rebounds, 40 minutes played
De'Mon Brooks 7 points, 3 rebounds in 19 minutes (fouled out)
Anthony Thomas 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals
The Cougars started off the new year with a bang this afternoon. Playing at Davidson's Belk Arena, where CofC has not one since a miracle finish versus Steph Curry in 2009, the Cougar front line dominated the much smaller Wildcats to pull away in the second half and win by a dozen. The MVP of the game as well as my universe was senior Willis Hall. Before a small contingency of family and friends, Willis turned in the biggest game of his career with The College's first ever 20-20 game at the DI level and utterly put the team on his back in his last game against the Wildcats. The grown man double-double was the fourth of the year for Hall, matching his career total and giving him enough points and rebounds for two games worth of numbers.
I said that the team would not get by with just every Cougar playing a solid game; and aside from Willis they got contributions from several other teammates, mostly along the front line. Adjehi Baru picked up his first foul less than a minute into the game and was quickly replaced by David Wishon. The big man immediately established Wojcik's strategy to control the paint as he rumbled through Davidson's minuscule forward line-up for the Cougars' first four points. He finished with 8 points and showed that if he can hold on to the ball when he's looking to pass and gets doubled he can be an above serviceable back up. A true "utility" stat line from AT and a 9 assist floor game from Anthony Stitt should also not be over shadowed by Hall's stellar performance.
The game started as close as any, with 13 lead changes and neither team building more than a 4-point lead in the first half. The Cougar defense was stout all afternoon but 13 second-chance points for Davidson were keeping them in it despite CofC holding the advantage in shooting percentage. In the second half it was all Cougars, especially as McKillop had to be cautious with how he managed Brooks' foul trouble. The Cougars are already taller at every position and the spot minutes for Brooks only further solidified the advantage. For the game the Cougars shot an insane 73.3% from inside the arc. Many of these were within a few feet of the basket as Hall, Wishon, Baru and Thomas had their way.
In the second period, some timely threes by Nori Johnson (3 of the team's 4 treys, 11 points), Baru and further beast-moding by Willis Hall stretched the lead to as many as 15. Davidson was troubled all night by forced turnovers and poor shooting. The Wildcats shot 45% from the charity stripe on 20 attempts. This coming after last year's Davidson squad was the best free throw shooting team in the country.
This was a big win for several reasons. It was just the 4th win at Belk Arena for the Cougars and the first victory over Davidson in Wojcik's career. The 3 game sweep of the SoCon in OOC play is also a nice send-off as we move into the first CAA game on Tuesday. The Wojcik system was successful against Davidson. The Cougars got easy shots off and worked their advantage inside (39-27 rebounding edge also) to put up 76 points without a good three-point shooting night. The Cougars also milked the clock for the last 8 minutes of the game. When they can work the clock down and get a shot to fall they can put opponents away, when they milk the clock down and don't score you get grumbling from fans about lack of offense. Today it worked.
Very solid start to the year against a quality team who has had the Cougars' number for some time. Up next is the last out-of-conference game against Howard on Saturday and then it's on to the first ever CAA game against JMU the day before school starts back up. Happy New Year and Go Cougars!
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