Cougars Revert to Old Ways for Second Loss

Final Score: Coastal Carolina 67, College of Charleston 61

Top Performers: 
Badou Diagne 14 pts, 10 rebs
Cameron Johnson 20 pts (7-18 FG), 3 rebs

“We knew Coastal Carolina was going to be a physical contest and tough game. We had some good spurts. We just have to learn to put teams away. With six minutes to go, we were up by five (points) and we didn’t capitalize on things to get it to nine-or-10 points. There were some things that we did good, but we have to continue to learn how to win (close games).”

That quote from Earl Grant after the game just about sums up everything you need to know from this one. The Cougars knew that Coastal's toughness and experience was going to be a challenge and when push came to shove and the Cougars needed a basket, a stop or something to turn the tide back in their favor, they came up short.

The Chants outscored CofC a whopping 34-8 in the paint and out-rebounded them 39 to 33. They were beating the Cougar defenders off the dribble and getting to the rim. In total they shot 55% from the field.

CofC was able to stay in the game off a strong performance by Cam Johnson, finally cutting down on their turnovers (they had just five on the night) and drawing some offensive fouls on the Chanticleers. 

As Grant said, the Cougars would go up five with just six minutes to go in the game. At that point you're wishing for the same decisiveness you saw the Cougs display against Navy to put that game away, but inconsistency still defines this young team. The Cougars reverted to that old Doug Wojcik special, wherein they can't for the life of them create easy scoring opportunities.

Missed jumpers, hesitancy to go to the rim and meet contact and not getting back on defense allowed CCU to rip off an 11-0 run late in the game that proved too much to come back from.

A few other notes from this one below. Lots for the Cougars to work on.

• This is a game where the team misses Joe Chealey, Grant Riller and Nick Harris (who played two minutes and is in the third week of being cleared to play following injury). Those first two guys are scorers and Nick provides a paint presence that the Cougars clearly lacked tonight.
• One of the more egregious stats from last night: the Cougars shot a putrid 11-19 (57%) from the free throw line. Points don't get any easier than that.
• Cliff Ellis' game plan was clearly to take away Canyon Barry. The Cougs' leading scorer was held to zero points in the first half.
• It's still a tad too early, but the starting front court is not getting it done. Aside from the aforementioned points in the paint disparity, the CofC forward combo of Gilmore and Brantley combined for 1 rebound and 8 points. Both played fewer minutes than O'Donohue and Bourne. Gilmore's 3 points were a season high, and he has posted single rebound games in 3 of 4 contests this year. Brantley's foul trouble limited him to zero boards after he was leading the Cougars with 7.6 per game.
• Peyton Hulsey also needs to step up the scoring if he wants to keep his starting spot over Marquise Pointer. He attempted just two field goals in 25 minutes of play (missing both) and finished with 1 point. I get that he's playing out of position, but that's exactly why I wish I saw him post up the undersized CCU guards like he did against Davidson.
• The Cougars had zero fast break points in this game

Next up is Western Carolina the day after Thanksgiving. Should be a victory for CofC if they can get back to form.