Pride Crawls to Victory as Four Cougars Foul Out

Hofstra 75, College of Charleston 71

Top Performers:

Anthony Stitt 17 pts, 11 rebs, 7 assts

Zeke Upshaw 22 pts, 3 assts, 40 mins

In CofC's first CAA road game, the refs wasted no time welcoming the Cougars to league play. A grand total of 51 fouls were called between Hofstra and the College and the broad disparity between those called on either team resulted in the Cougars losing a game they very clearly should have won.

After the Pride went on a 6-0 run to start the game, the Cougars (playing in their most up-tempo offense all year) started torching the nets and racked up a 14-point lead in the first half of play. The refs were not shy about blowing their whistles, with both teams hovering around 20 free throw attempts. Unfortunately for the Cougars they made just 11 of 21 attempts at the charity stripe and kept a would-be-higher lead in the lower double digits. Nori Johnson again poured in buckets from outside (25 points for the game), Anthony Stitt was on his way to one of the best all-around performances and Baru was going to the line at will as he again struggled to convert in the paint.

Things started to turn when Willis Hall picked up his third foul late in the first half. Already playing Theo Johnson extended minutes, Wojcik elected to bring sparingly used freshman Terrance O'Donohue off the bench for minutes at power forward. Smelling blood in the water with a mostly inexperienced lineup on the floor to hold on until halftime, Zeke Upshaw drained two treys and the Pride went on an 8-0 run to close CofC's lead to just four points going into the break.

The second half is when things turned absolutely ludicrous. A few key stats to remember - the Cougars ranked in the Top 10 nationally last year for playing defense without fouling. With the new defensive rules in place this year, Wojcik put in a lot of hours with his players and staff to continue to play aggressive defense and adjust to the new rules. So far this year CofC is still one of the best non-fouling teams in the country: averaging just over 18 per game before last night.

In the second half of the game yesterday the Pride attempted 29 free throws....the Cougars attempted just six. Adjehi Baru fouled out, Nori and Theo Johnson fouled out, Willis Hall fouled out and Anthony Thomas could not intentionally foul in the final seconds of a one possession game because he had four. Wojcik would say after the game that he had never had four players on one team pick up five personal fouls apiece. I've never seen it either. 

In one trip to the line, the Pride attempted eight free throws before possession was given back to the Cougs because of ghost fouls on Baru, Hall and Theo Johnson. In a game with 51 fouls called the Cougars went on an 11 minute stretch in the 2nd without getting a trip to the line. Hofstra had more free throw attempts than field goal attempts. Things became downright laughable late in the game when the clock had to be stopped as both Anthony Stitt and a Hofstra player had to attend to nose bleeds - no fouls called during that sequence.

To be fair, the Pride did lose Jordan Allen due to fouls and Nwaukoni had four but this game was decided in the second half by the whistles. The Cougars shot 44% for the game, 44% from three, had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio and the CofC bench outscored Hofstra's 31-6. Credit the Pride for being one of the few teams this season to out-rebound the Cougars (38-30) but it's hard to find fault in CofC's performance. That's what makes the loss so hard to swallow.

Aside from the lackluster play of Adjehi and the missed free throws the Cougars played another solid game on the road. They should have cruised to a double-digit win with their strong guard play alone and actually had a number of chances late despite all the adversity they faced. It's just a lot to overcome when freebies at the line favor the home team 29-6.

The College can't let this loss fester because next up is another big test against the defending regular season champs; Northeastern. The Huskies should be a winded bunch coming off a double OT defeat to Drexel on Saturday but the Cougars need to shake off yesterday's disappointment and come out focused. Go Cougars.