Uncle Joe Saves the Day: Cougs Go 2–0 During Homestand
There aren’t too many more superlatives and accolades that Joe Chealey can collect. First team All-CAA, all-tournament teams, preseason Player of the Year, etc. Over the weekend, “Uncle” Joe moved into fifth on Charleston’s all-time scoring list, but along the way he had two extremely clutch games to rescue his team and keep CofC within striking distance of first place.
On Thursday, two-time defending champs UNCW visited the Holy City. While some of the luster from this budding rivalry has faded after the gutting of those championship teams last summer, Charleston had still not defeated the Seahawks at TD Arena since 2014.
Things started off well for the home team. Aside from a few early Devontae Cacok finishes at the rim, and some tough made shots from Jordan Talley, the Cougar defense looked the best it had been in conference play. In fact, those two Seahawks were the only scorers for Wilmington over the first 15 minutes of game time. Charleston got a boost on offense from two unexpected contributors. Cam Johnson had 11 first half points, including a pair of threes that helped give CofC its first multi possession lead. Nick Harris, working one-on-one against Cacok, was able to score on the former Defensive Player of the Year and chip in 8 first half points.
For the first time this year, the Cougars held a CAA opponent under 34 points for the first half. Wilmington went into the locker room with 31, and Charleston rode their hot home shooting to a crisp 48 points. The 17-point lead was their largest of the CAA season thus far, and a welcome departure from the 1-point deficit they averaged in league play to that point.
In the second half, Wilmington came out of the gates like a completely revitalized team. Cacok and Talley kept making their shots, and role players like Ty Taylor and Jaylen Fornes started contributing in the scoring column. As we saw in the CAA Championship last year, the UNCW pick-and-roll with Cacok going to the basket is deadly. On multiple possessions, Harris would come out to flash on the ball-handler and either wasn’t fast enough to recover to Cacok, or wouldn’t get help from his guards (who were stuck to UNCW’s perimeter players). Cacok got several uncontested shots, and if Charleston overcommited, Taylor and Talley were nailing threes. Wilmington trimmed the lead down to single digits midway through the second half, riding over 50% shooting from deep.
Then Joe Chealey started making plays.
Nursing a rapidly-shrinking 7-point lead, Chealey sank a much-needed three off an inbound to give the crowd a jolt and the team a slight cushion midway through the period.
Wilmington didn’t go away. Taylor hit back-to-back threes, and both Fornes and Cacok got to the line to keep chipping away at Charleston’s lead. Eventually they were able to get it down to a five point deficit, 70–65 with 3:36 remaining. Chealey hit another three. Taylor and Fornes hit two more threes. With the lead down to just 2 points and about a minute to play, Chealey set up this play to Nick Harris.
Wilmington would cut the lead down to 2 one more time, with 7 seconds to play, but Chealey made two critical free throws to seal the game.
Fans had been waiting for Charleston to put together an energetic first half, and they got it against Wilmington. The Cougars displayed some bad habits in the second half, namely their lack of defensive rebounding and settling for jump shots on offense, but they did close out the game successfully. There were rumors of a flu bug making its way around the team, which may have contributed to guys looking tired in the second half (Grant’s decision to not keep the reserves in when CofC went up 20 was questionable too). Fortunately, Charleston still has Joe Chealey to bail them out of bad stretches of basketball.
Yesterday, Hofstra came into TD Arena for the second half of the two game home swing. Like Wilmington, they feature a big man who can clean the glass at an elite level (Rokas Gustys) and a bonafide scorer (Justin Wright-Foreman, who is third in the country in points per game).
From the tip, it looked like the general malaise that had hindered Charleston in the second half of the Wilmington game was still hovering over the team. Once again, the pick and roll coverage was weak, with Gustys and Hunter Sabety finding their way to the rim with ease. The Cougars did a nice job on Wright-Foreman, who did not score until the 7:29 mark of the first half, but other perimeter players like Desure Buie and Eli Pemberton were able to carry the scoring load.
Offensively the Cougars were a mess. Harris and Brantley both missed shots in the paint early in the contest that they can usually be depended on to hit. Cam Johnson was held scoreless (eventually for the game) and Hofstra did a good job of defending Chealey.
The only person who could get anything going in the first half was Grant Riller. After missing his first shot of the game, a three, Riller found an advantageous crack in the Pride defense. Using his speed and ball-handling, he slithered to the basket with almost zero resistance. Grant dropped in SEVEN straight field goals, all layups, to keep the Cougars afloat with 15 of their 31 first half points.
Still, the Pride had absolute control of the game, jumping out to as much as an 18-point advantage in the first half before a pair of three-point plays by Riller and Pointer trimmed the lead to 9 at the break.
In a move that was the total opposite of the Wilmington game, Charleston did not fold in the second half, but actually punched back. It started in the most unlikely of places with Jaylen McManus and Marquise Pointer. McManus checked in about five minutes into the second half and hauled down three big rebounds that kept possessions alive for Charleston and prevented Hofstra from scoring in transition. In the postgame, Coach Grant said he gave Marquise Pointer the personal assignment to slow down Wright-Foreman. The junior responded, and did not leave his opponent’s hip for the rest of the game.
But if those two were the spark, Chealey was the engine that powered Charleston’s comeback. After the break, he poured in an absurd 26 points on 5–8 shooting (2–4 from three) and 14 of 15 free throws. The Cougars had just three assists for the entire game, as Chealey and Riller took turns going into the teeth of the Hofstra defense. Joe owned the second half, sinking multiple and-one’s and hitting the biggest three of the game to complete the comeback.
Once the game was tied, Charleston seized all momentum. The lineup of Chealey-Pointer-Riller-McManus-Harris played the majority of the second half (Brantley picked up an early fourth foul) and capitalized on their advantages in guard play and spacing. Coach Grant also figured out a lineup and gameplan that would minimize Gustys’ rolls to the rim without giving up shots from behind the arc.
The Cougars would go on to pull away from Hofstra with some strong defensive possessions and made free throws. The numbers were not impressive for Charleston as a team. No player besides Chealey and Riller scored more than 8 points. Jarrell Brantley had just 6 points and 0 rebounds. The Cougars had the lead for less than 5 minutes of game time. They had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. But three of the CAA’s best guards were on the floor, and two played for the home team.
Chealey will likely take home the conference’s Player of the Week honor on Monday. Despite all the negativity from the Charleston fan base the last few weeks (myself included), the team is one game out of first place with a 2/3 of the schedule still to come. This team does need to learn to take some urgency onto the road, starting with next week’s matchup at Delaware. For now, fans should just be thankful that Joe Chealey is still around, and sometimes that’s enough in and of itself.
