College of Charleston
Winthrop (CTV)
Charleston Survives For Ninth Straight
12/22/2008 5:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Charles Bennett of the Charleston Post and Courier
ROCK HILL ? It seemed the College of Charleston's defensive strategy against Winthrop Monday night was to wait for the Eagles' Charles Corbin to miss.
He almost didn't.
Corbin made 11 straight shots before missing two jump hooks on key possessions in the final 1:30, and a put back in the lane by Charleston's Antwaine Wiggins with 24 seconds to play let the Cougars escape with a 77-76 victory at Winthrop Coliseum.
"I feel very fortunate," said Charleston coach Bobby Cremins. "It was a great fight at the end. We hung on for dear life. I feel for Winthrop. They outplayed us. We hung in there and got the breaks at the end."
Charleston (10-1) is now off to its best start since the 2001-2002 season when the Cougars also started 10-1.
Andrew Goudelock led the Cougars with 21 points and Wiggins added 16 on a night when the Cougars shot 49 percent from the field.
Winthrop (1-9) came into the game on an eight-game losing streak, but the Eagles had played all but two of their previous games on the road, and against strong opposition.
The Eagles lost despite shooting 55 percent from the field and scoring a season-high 76 points.
Cremins knew his team could be in trouble against the Eagles, and it was. The Cougars trailed most of the game and their biggest lead of the game was five points, that coming in the first half.
In the second half, the biggest lead for either team was four points, and that belonged to Winthrop with 11:45 to play.
"It seemed like every shot we hit, they came back and hit another shot," said Goudelock. "It was a hard game. We feel lucky to come away with it."
In the closing minutes, with forward Dustin Scott fouled out and forward Jeremy Simmons on the bench because of a knee injury, the Cougars were thin inside and it looked like the Eagles might pull it out.
But after the first of Corbin's misses Wiggins managed to slip into the lane and put back a missed shot by Goudelock to put the Cougars ahead, 77-76.
"I was thinking one of my teammates was going to get the ball," Wiggins said. "The next thing I knew it popped into my hands and I put it up."
Winthrop worked the ball again to Corbin, who missed his second shot of the night.
Charleston cleared the rebound and Jermaine Johnson drew a foul with 10.4 seconds to play. Johnson missed both free throws. Winthrop worked the ball to Cameron Stanley but his open 3-pointer was off the mark.
Corbin finished with 22 points and said, "The rim looked like the ocean."
The Eagles led 44-41 after shooting 60 percent from the field in the first half.
Winthrop scored on 15 of its last 16 possessions.
Charleston stayed in it by shooting 53.8 percent from the field, including 7-of-13 shooting from 3-point range.
"We couldn't come up with an answer defensively," Cremins said. "We couldn't stop them. It came down to two key plays at the end."
