Charleston Falls to 2–2 with Second-Straight Road Loss
The venue may have been different, but unfortunately for the Charleston Cougars and the large contingent of CofC fans at SECU Arena, whatever funk came over the team against Drexel was still there against Towson. For the second straight game, the Cougs gave up way too many points in the first half, and for the second straight game, an inspired second half rally was not enough to get a road win.
We talked yesterday about Coach Grant’s desire to get his team back to playing like themselves, and how uncharacteristic the lackadaisical defense in conference play had been. Well, for most of the first half on Sunday, the Cougars did not play like a team that had been reality checked into playing like ball hawks again. Charleston gave up a whopping 45 points in the period, another high in conference play and just one point fewer than Wichita State put up against the Cougars earlier this season. Last season in conference play, the Cougars surrendered only 31 first half points on average, and only gave up 40 or more in the first half twice. Four games into the 2018 CAA season, the opponent first half point totals have been: 34, 44, 34 and and 45.
Towson seemingly could not miss to start the game — something that seemed like an abnormality last week, but now might be a trend. The Tigers shot 50% (17–34) from the floor, collected their own misses and turned the Cougars over multiple times. Pat Skerry’s strategy seemed to be: get the ball out of Brantley’s hands and make the rest of the team beat us. It worked wonders. With Jarrell held to zero points, zero free throw attempts and just 1 rebound, the shaky Cougar offense crumbled even more. The team hit just 7 field goals before halftime, earning 25 points.
Like the Drexel game, we saw Charleston come out looking a lot more motivated to play defense in the second half. Joe, Cam, Marquise and Grant — who played the majority of the game together with Harris in foul trouble again — started hounding and doubling ball handlers, and used the momentum to make an offensive surge. Brantley bounced back to put up 15 points after the break, taking the ball to the rack with his usual array of spin moves, fadeaways and baseline drives. Riller meanwhile had 13 points and 2 steals in the second to lead a run that got Charleston within single digits.
But Towson refused to completely fold, maybe getting bailed out by the refs on a couple of second chance attempts and late-clock situations. The Tigers got to the line 15 times in the 2nd, and did enough to keep Charleston out of striking distance until the final buzzer. The Cougars were 1 for 8 from deep in the closing period — not the formula for an epic comeback.
So here’s where things now stand: W&M is first in the CAA with a 4–0 mark, Elon and Notheastern are tied for third at 3–1, Towson and Charleston are tied with Hofstra and Delaware for seventh, and Drexel, UNCW and JMU are bringing up the rear.
The Cougars would be best served to turn things around sooner rather than later, ideally before the Northeastern game on Thursday. Easing into each conference game like they can give the minimum amount of effort necessary for a win is not cutting it thus far. It’s a bad habit to exhibit as a veteran team, but one that is correctable. Like Coach Grant said, losing their program principles means losing a little bit of who the Cougars are. Keep it up and they’ll keep losing places in the standings as well.
