NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – Redshirt junior guard Joe Chealey scored 25 of his 29 points in the second half and junior Cameron Johnson scored all of his seven points in the final five minutes of play as second-seeded College of Charleston earned its first-ever trip to the CAA Men's Basketball Championship game with a 67-59 victory over third-seeded Towson in the semifinals on Sunday night at the North Charleston Coliseum.
 
Chealey, who added six rebounds and three assists, accounted for 16 points alone during a clutch stretch for the Cougars, turning a seven-point deficit with 12:07 left, into a one-point lead with 6:01 remaining.
 
Towson senior William Adala Moto finished with 16 points and eight boards, and brought his team within one (55-54) with 2:12 left after splitting a pair of free throws. CofC answered with consecutive treys from freshman Grant Riller and Johnson – sandwiched in-between two missed Towson free throws – that made it a seven-point advantage with 1:12 to spare, before the Cougars held on for the historic win from there.
 
CofC (25-8) makes its first-ever appearance in the CAA title game, and takes on top-seeded UNCW (28-5) on Monday, March 6 at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on CBS Sports Network.
 
Riller had 12 points, four assists and three boards, while sophomore Jarrell Brantley chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds in the win – the team's sixth straight.
 
The Tigers (20-13), who played in the semifinals for the first time since 2014, got a strong effort of the bench from Eddie Keith with 14 points and a pair of three-pointers in the loss. Towson outrebounded CofC on the offensive end, 15-5, but shot 35.2 percent from the floor as a team.
 
Towson opened the second half missing its first six shots, but held on to a 30-25 lead. Chealey and the Cougars kept fighting back, and his first trey of the game with 11:31 left made it 36-32. He was just getting started.
 
The redshirt junior ignited his squad, and the Cougar faithful, hitting two more three-pointers during the critical 18-10 run, with the final trey giving CofC a 47-46 lead with just over six minutes left. CofC shot 68.4 percent from the floor in the second half, including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
 
The first half was a defensive struggle, to say the least, with Towson holding a slim 26-21 lead. Keith had nine and Adala Moto had eight, though Towson had 10 made field goals. CofC, meanwhile, made just 8-of-24 shots from the field as a team, with Riller again leading the Cougars at the half with nine points.
 
The winner of tomorrow night's title game will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Fans can purchase tickets in-person at the North Charleston Coliseum Box Office or online at: www.Ticketmaster.com.
 
POSTGAME NOTES

• With the win, College of Charleston evened the all-time series with Towson to 6-6. The Cougars have won four of the last five meetings between the two schools including the first postseason contest in the series.
• The Cougars are now 9-4 all-time in conference semifinal games since becoming a NCAA Division I member in 1991-92. They will vie for the program's first NCAA Tournament berth and conference tournament title since 1999 as members of the Southern Conference (lost to Tulsa in the first round).
• The Cougars turned in only their seventh 25-win campaign in the program's NCAA Division I history.
• CofC will make its first-ever appearance in the championship game as members of the Colonial since joining the league in 2013. The Cougars last advanced to the Southern Conference championship game in 2013 (lost to Davidson).
• Joe Chealey recorded his 13th game of the season with 20-or-more points with a game-high 29 points against Towson. He extended his double-digit scoring streak to a career-best 15 consecutive games.
• Jarrell Brantley has now scored in double figures in nine-straight games with 10 points and seven rebounds against Towson in the CAA semifinals.
• Grant Riller has now scored in double figures in 20-of-33 games played of the season registering 12 points and a career-high tying four assists versus Towson.

POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant
On the game …
"I thought our team showed a lot of character. It took us a long time to establish any kind of flow to the game. We continued to hang in there. I'm so proud of our players. They never caved. We stayed tough and they had endurance. At the end, these two guys (Grant Riller and Joe Chealey) and Jarrell Brantley came up with big plays down the stretch to give us a chance to take the lead. We were able to close it out from there."
 
On being one win away from the NCAA Tournament …
"I believe it. That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to be in this position. The players worked so hard and assistant coaches put so much time into it. We were trying to get to this point and now we have a great opportunity tomorrow night."
 
On the crowd support at North Charleston Coliseum …
"The crowd really helped us out tonight. In the middle of the game in the second half, they really started to yell and we made a few shots and made some big stops. If we continued to win, we knew it would be a build up of excitement in Charleston. Hopefully, it will be an even better crowd tonight."
 
College of Charleston Redshirt Junior Guard Joe Chealey
On the mindset going into tomorrow night's championship game …
"We are thankful to have this opportunity to play in the championship game. UNCW is a great team. We both split in the regular season, so both teams know that we can win. That's kind of what you want in the championship game – to have the two top teams playing against each other. It will be a great atmosphere. We will look to make a few more plays."
 
College of Charleston Redshirt Freshman Guard Grant Riller
On making plays in the team's second-half comeback …
"We just tried to stay the course and trusted the game plan. I felt like we did a great job of staying on track and not getting too low."