Cougars Cruise to 75-40 Victory in Grant's Debut

 

Final Score: College of Charleston 75, Furman 40

Top Performers:

Adjehi Baru 16 pts, 8 rebs

Anthony Stitt 19 pts, 3-5 3pm-a

The Cougars started the 2014-2015 season strong with a 35-point victory over former SoCon member Furman last night. Shortly before tipoff, word came out that two of the Paladin's starters - Stephen Croone and Aaron O'neill - would both miss the game with concussions. Croone in particular was a big blow. He's the straw that stirs the drink on offense and without him Furman struggled to get good looks at the basket all night. 

So anemic was the Furman offense that they only made 10 field goals for the game (CofC was 31 for 59). Credit the Cougar defense. The contest, deny and box out style of Wojcik's teams is showing signs of phasing out in favor of a more swarming and active style. A little more VCU than Michigan State, which attributed to 8 steals for CofC.

On offense the Cougars leaned heavily on their seniors. Stitt and Baru combined for 35 points, with the former getting to the rim and draining his threes and the latter showing his patience and jump shot around the paint. The ball was moving a lot faster than it did last year. Joe Chealey tied his career high for assists with 7 and CofC as a team had an impressive 20-7 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Donovan Gilmore and Cam Johnson also picked up where they left off in the exhibition game. Both freshmen were leaned on heavily when the score started to stretch itself. Gilmore maintained his efficient stat lines, crunching two dunks off dump off passes and drilling a long jumper. His only misses were off what should have been a wide open alley oop, but the pass was off target and a missed short jumper. Cam Johnson used his big frame to pull down 5 boards and went 2 for 3 from behind the arc in 27 minutes of play. Neither had a turnover.

The battle for the starting forward spot opposite Baru left a little to be desired. Terrance O'Donahue got the nod, but foul trouble for himself (4), David Wishon (4) and Glenn Pierre (3) left the spot as a rotating carousel of bodies. Each one showed signs of what they could do, but Grant was forced to mostly play four guards around Baru or Gilmore for much of the game. TO, Wishon and Pierre combined for just 2 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. 

If there was one area where the Cougars struggled it was the fouling disparity. Furman was able to briefly cut the CofC lead to 4 late in the first half because free throws kept them in it. Furman attempted 35 free throws to just 4 by Charleston. I'm not overly concerned with the ticky-tack calls on the CofC bigs because they can generally get away with those in the CAA. You have to remember these were Friday Socon refs and the game was in Greenville. But you don't want something like being unable to produce easy points come back to bite CofC like it did many times last year. Stitt, Chealey, Barry and Johnson can all get to the rim and finish through contact, I'd like to see more of that on Monday.

The Cougars will host Gardner-Webb for their home opener - a team that plays LSU today in their first game. They're a solid mid-major team and should be healthy for Monday. It will be a good barometer of where the Cougars stand as they head into Puerto Rico.