We’re Going Streaking! Cougs Post Record Numbers in 7th, 8th Consecutive Wins

In their final back-to-back home stand of the season, Charleston got career and program-high numbers to beat William & Mary and Drexel, running their win streak to eight games.

While the Cougar offense had seemed to look more potent before Thursday’s contest against the Tribe, the team (or more specifically, one player) really took it to another level against W&M.

By now you’ve heard about Grant Riller’s Super Saiyan birthday night. I was a few rows off the court when Andrew Goudelock set the program’s D1 scoring record of 39 points, and Riller’s performance had a lot of the same “F you, try and stop me” swag. While Goudelock’s night was a shower of missiles from near the logo, Riller’s was a surgical slicing of the porous Tribe defense. The newly 21 year old got a step on every Tribe defender that tried to stop him, and flashed to the rim with ease on a zone defense that was too slow to rotate. When he was given space, Grant was able to make the defense pay by dropping in a few Goudelock bombs of his own.

When Riller can sink those outside shots, he’s unguardable. That was exactly the case in the first half when he poured in 28 of the team’s 41 points.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, William & Mary went in the locker room with a more well-rounded but still equal 41 points themselves. Similar to the Delaware game, but on a more lethal scale, Coach Grant elected to have Nick Harris defend a talented post player one-on-one. The thinking, as coach has put it in both postgames, is to pick you poison. As talented as Nathan Knight is (and he looked like a certified 1st Teamer against CofC), he would not be able to beat Riller and the Cougars by himself. Earl decided he would live with the contested shots in the paint from Knight, and have his guys glued to the Tribe’s plethora of best-in-conference shooters. Knight ate his lunch (29 points), dinner (7 rebounds) and dessert (4 assists), but William & Mary converted on just 33% of their threes and struggled with turnovers.

The second half had stretches of the Cougars playing their best on both ends. Brantley and Chealey started to get involved in the scoring party, and Riller cooled from raging inferno to bubbling simmer with an efficient 9 points in the period. When Knight went to the bench, Charleston ratcheted up the driving game once again. The Cougars attempted 15 free throws after halftime (29 for the game) and held a 10–6 advantage in second chance points.

One last surge from the Tribe got them within striking distance, but never to within less than 2 possessions over the final quarter of the game. During those final ten minutes, Joe Chealey scored nine points (including five free throws), Jarrell Brantley finished an old-fashioned three point play and Riller hit the final dagger from deep.

Charleston’s 7th straight win was an important one for both bragging rights and positioning. W&M was the only opponent CofC had not yet played, and the Tribe rank narrowly between Northeastern and Hofstra in the league’s upper half. A win gives the Cougars at least a series split, and maintains CofC’s one game lead (+ tiebreaker) over Northeastern.

Saturday’s game welcomed the red-hot Drexel Dragons to TD Arena. This was one of the three CAA teams to hand Charleston a loss this season, and a team that had won four straight before giving up an 18-point lead to Towson and losing in overtime two days prior.

Not only did the Dragons lose a massive lead, but they also lost big man Austin “Stretch” Williams. The 6'8 senior, who you may remember turning away every CofC layup a few weeks ago, suffered a foot injury and sat out Saturday’s game. Even though Williams doesn’t have the flash and pizazz of Drexel guards Kirk Lee and Tramaine Isabell, he anchors the Dragons defense and guards the rim better than anyone in the CAA. In fact, he’d be my pick for DPOY if the season ended today and likely when it does in two weeks.

Getting to the rim is the key to unlocking the Cougars’ offensive efficiency. It gets them to the line to manufacture points, opens up the outside game and puts an enormous pressure on interior defenders. When teams can nullify that, like Williams and Drexel were able to earlier this season, the CofC offense is prone to those lackluster jumpshots and cold spells.

Watching the rematch, Williams’ absence was glaring. Check out these stats from Saturday afternoon:

• Charleston had 52(!) points in the paint
• Nick Harris had 21 points (career high)
• Jarrell Brantley had 30 points (career high)
• Samba N’diaye had 4 points (career high)
• Charleston shot 57% on two-point attempts, and 50% from three

So that’s three big men posting career high numbers, and the team absolutely steamrolling their opponent inside.

The game didn’t start with that kind of dominance. The teams traded baskets the entire first half. Harris and Brantley got involved early (as did Samba, off the bench), but so did Isabell, Lee and reserve big man Tadas Kararinas — who hit a pair of first half threes.

Charleston was able to get to the rim, but so was Drexel. The Dragons shot 60% from the field in the first half, and hit five threes. Just when it looked like the Cougars would crack thing open going into the break, Lee hit a three to cut Charleston’s lead to five.

In the second half, Drexel kept punching back despite the hits they were taking under the basket. Isabell tied the game at 56–56 with 11:31 to play. That seemed to be the wakeup call for Charleston.

CofC proceeded to rip off a 22–4 run and only allow 11 more points from the Dragons through the end of the game. Those final 10+ minutes were pure basketball euphoria. Threes, tough finishes under the basket, reverse jams in transition. At one point I believe I saw the Man in Black literally levitating a few feet above the hardwood on his sideline.

Coach Grant said after the game that it was likely the best stretch of two-sided basketball that the team had played all year. It was Charleston’s largest win in conference play this season (something Jarrell Brantley mentioned in his postgame media session), and their third straight game scoring 80 or more points.

So here we are, eight games and nearly a full month since the Cougars fell at Elon and dropped to 3–3 on the season. Charleston hasn’t lost since, and draws closer and closer to securing the top seed in the CAA Tournament. Four games remain, including three on the road against JMU, UNCW and William & Mary.

I said it last week, and I’ll say it until the Cougars lose again: the team seems to be finding another gear lately. Joe Chealey’s dip in production this week is a bit concerning, as it may be the result of the massive minutes load he’s putting on his body. But Riller and Brantley have picked up the slack and having the likes of Harris, Johnson and Ndiaye contributing is a welcome sign as we draw closer to March. My prediction is CofC goes 3–1 down the stretch, losing at W&M in the season finale. That would end an impressive streak, but serve as a reality check and motivator for when the games matter most.