CofC Wins 6th Straight to Take Sole Possession of 1st Place

Remember when the Cougars were 3–3 on the CAA season? That seems like a distant memory now after Charleston has ripped off six consecutive victories over the past three weeks. Earl Grant’s team now has a one game lead on William & Mary and Northeastern, and a two game lead on Hofstra — with a 2–0 sweep of the latter two teams.

The Northeastern/Hofstra road trip is always a difficult jaunt for Charleston. It’s the furthest distance the team travels in conference play, and both opponents have always been competitive during CofC’s time in the Colonial. Given the Cougars’ sub-optimal road performances through the first half of CAA play, many fans were prepared for a 1–1 record coming back to the Holy City. After all, all of these teams were fighting for the same positioning at the top of the league, and the Huskies and Pride were looking to avenge losses at TD Arena.

But the Cougars showed a lot of resolve to go 2–0 on the trip, and in the process, take their first sole possession of first place in the CAA. Let’s see how it happened.

Cougar faithful were out in full force at historic Matthews Arena in Boston. On a sleepy Thursday evening, there were times when the 100+ CofC fans in attendance were louder than the home crowd. The team in their road black uniforms seemed to feed off of it, as Charleston got off to one of their better starts. Right off the tip, Grant, Jarrell, Joe and Nick set up shop in the paint. The Cougars got to the rim with ease against the Husky defense, earning two and-1 opportunities within the first 5 minutes of the contest.

The Cougars built a 23–14 lead midway through the first half before they started to cool off. And cool off they did — especially from outside. Charleston would not hit a three point attempt for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Northeastern started to warm up, led by guard Donnell Gresham. As the Cougars started settling for threes, the Huskies started hitting them, and got themselves back into a tie using a 9–0 run (including 5 straight points from Gersham).

What Charleston was able to do to keep themselves in the game despite their shooting slump was something Coach Grant has romanticized since his first day: defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball. Nick Harris and Joe Chealey combined for nine rebounds in the first half, and the Cougars supplemented their offense with a steady diet of layups and free throws. On the night, Charleston had a commanding 40–22 advantage in points in the paint.

In the second half Charleston started to pull away again by recognizing they were the bigger and stronger team. Brantley took NU freshman Tomas Murphy to the basket on every possession, and Chealey kept the pressure on the defense to put himself on the line five times after the break.

If there was one downside to the aggressive play, it was that Riller and Brantley both had four fouls with 8:38 still to play in the game. That forced Coach Grant to leave Pointer and McManus in the game and play more zone defense. Northeastern started one last push to retake control. The Huskies outscored the Cougar 13–7 over the next five minutes to tie the game. That sequence included three free throws from leading scorer Vasa Pusica, a three from Gresham and two more free throws from Enemy of the State Bolden Brace.

But then… Jaylen McManus happened. Needing a basket, the Cougars got it in the most unlikely way. McManus, who was 0–1 on the night with zero points, got the ball behind the arc, shimmy shook Enemy of the State Bolden Brace and swished a long two to give CofC the lead with three minutes to play. Maybe the most confident shot I’ve ever seen Jaylen take.

The teams would trade points on the next two possessions, but Northeastern would not get closer than 2 points away. Cam and Joe both sank pairs of free throws to keep the Huskies at bay and come out of Boston with a 69–64 victory.

That win dropped Northeastern down a peg, and turned a three-way tie for first into a two-way between CofC and W&M. Two days later, William & Mary dropped a winnable home game against Drexel in the CAA’s afternoon slate. That temporarily put Charleston in the driver seat to close out the week. Win at Hofstra and the Cougars would be in sole possession of first. Lose, and there would be a FOUR-way tie for first place.

Hofstra really wanted to beat Charleston. The Pride had choked away a 13-point lead the last time these two teams met, and they came out of their corner swinging. Hofstra hit 7 of their first 10 shots to open the game, and on two of those misses they chased down the offensive rebound and kicked it out for a three.

The Cougar defense had a tough time limiting the Pride to one-and-done shots. The Pride had a whopping 14 second chance points before halftime. Hofstra not only has potent scorers like Justin Wright-Foreman and Eli Pemberton, but one of the best rebounders in college basketball, Rokas Gustsys. That’s a really difficult matchup for a Charleston team that often struggles to score and secure defensive boards (Cougs still rank last in the conference in rebounding margin).

But the Cougars do have Grant Riller, and he terrorized the Pride for much of the night. Coach Mihalich had his guys play zone defense for the majority of the game, and in the past that has been really effective at preventing Riller from finding driving lanes. But just as he did the last time these two teams met, Riller slithered his way to the hoop and encountered little rim protection. Grant had 14 points in the first half on 5 field goals, including a pair of back-breaking threes when Hofstra gave him too much space.

Behind Riller’s heroics, the Cougars actually had one of their best offensive halves and were able to keep up with Hofstra’s hot shooting. Each time the Pride stretched out their lead to two or more possessions, Charleston responded with a big shot. The biggest of the first half was from Joe Chealey, who nailed a three just before the break to trim a six point CofC deficit to three. It would not end up being the biggest shot of the game.

Jarrell Brantley took his turn in the second half. As he did against Northeastern, Brantley took advantage of his size against Hofstra. With Harris occupying Gustys, Jarrell bullied every matchup he had. That included a deep three from the top of the arc to give Charleston a four point lead early in the period.

Once again however, foul trouble became an issue for Charleston’s tight rotation. Harris picked up his fourth at the 8 minute mark, and Riller and Johnson were both playing with three early in the second half. Grant had to pull Riller for a few minutes and sub in Evan Bailey, which allowed Hofstra to capitalize. They switched Bailey or Chealey onto a mismatch each time on the pick and roll, and went on a mini-run to pull back before Charleston called a timeout.

The final minutes, after Riller checked in to close out the game, were pure insanity. Justin Wright-Foreman and Joe Chealey had a competition to determine who is the best guard in the CAA. Grant Riller wanted to remind them both that he had a game-high in points. Jarrell Brantley wondered why he wasn’t being force-fed the ball against someone named Stafford Trueheart. Rokas Gustys threw his body weight around.

You can read about the individual plays in the various recaps, or watch them on CAA Basketball’s highlight package. As both coaches remarked in the postgame, this game featured two really talented teams going shot-for-shot with one another, and unfortunately one of them had to lose.

Joe Chealey’s heroic three to give Charleston a two-point lead with 34 seconds to play was the shot of the year — a super clutch, extremely gutsy play that validated Joe’s status as the CAA’s Player of the Year and completed the team’s laborious climb to retake the edge on the road.

Then Justin Wright-Foreman did the same thing.

His three was an even higher degree of difficulty — curling around a screen with Brantley’s hand in his face and Marquise Pointer draped around his feet.

With the ball, and 17 seconds on the clock, Earl drew up a play to have either Joe or Grant take the final shot. But Hofstra came out playing man-to-man defense and Coach changed the play on the fly. Jarrell Brantley got the ball in a position similar to his UNCW game-winner last year, and got the same result. As was the case all night, Hofstra did not have an option to guard Brantley on-on-one. Hofstra’s full court pass with seconds to play was unsuccessful, and Charleston gave themselves the slimmest amount of breathing room in the CAA standings.

It seems like the team is starting to figure out what it takes to win the league, and it’s showing in individual games. Rather than taking the mentality of “playing our best ball in March” and lacking an intensity in early-season road games, the Cougars are now putting their experience and talent into practice during the most important parts of games. Shutting the door on two very good teams on the road by making clutch shots and clutch defensive plays is what we expected from this team at the beginning of the year. With less than 30 days until March, Charleston is showing why they received all the preseason accolades.

The road doesn’t get any easier over the next three weeks. The Cougars still have to play William & Mary twice, and avenge a loss to the suddenly streaking Drexel Dragons. But Charleston controls their own destiny now, and can stay in command of this lead. Replicating this week’s play in each game, not just road contests against the other contenders, will help them do that.