CHARLESTON, SC - College of Charleston's
Tony White, Jr. hit a layup with 1.6 seconds left and
Willis Hall added a career-high 16 points to give the Cougars a 70-68 win over Wofford Friday night in Southern Conference action at the Carolina First Arena. Charleston improves to 13-6, 8-0 in conference play and travels to Western Carolina on Monday. Wofford falls to 13-8 overall, 5-3 in the SoCon, and returns home on Monday to host Chattanooga.
The win is the Cougars' seventh-straight, extending the home win streak to nine dating back to a two-point win over Wofford on February 26 of last season. Charleston is on its best SoCon start since joining the league in the 1998-99 season when it went undefeated in league play. The 5,175 in attendance is the second-largest crowd in the Carolina First Arena.
"Everyone knew that Wofford's game plan was to pound it inside and that we'd have trouble stopping that," said Head Coach Bobby Cremins. "We were just trying to keep the lead. I figured, if we can't stop them but we have the lead, that's fine."
Four Charleston players scored in double-digits, including Hall, Donovan Monroe with 15, White with 12 and Andrew Goudelock with 10. Wofford was led by Noah Dahlman with 23 points, shooting 50 percent from the field, and Tim Johnson's double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds.
After the seventh tie of the game at the 1:21 mark, Hall hit a layup with one minute left for a 67-65 CofC lead. The teams would trade free-throws in the final 30 seconds before White took the ball up the left side of the lane and laid it in for the win.
"I love it when seniors, that have paid the price, come through for you, " said Cremins. "To see Tony White, Jr. make a play like that is something. Wofford did a good job denying Goudelock but Tony made a great play.
"It was a great game. The atmosphere was incredible and I am so proud of our fans, of our students, to see them produce that type of atmosphere."
Charleston went into halftime with a six-point lead after four lead changes in the first half. The Cougars increased its lead to 10 with a three-pointer from Goudelock at the 12:52 mark and kept the lead until the 2:46 mark when Wofford's Cameron Rundles hit a jumper to tie the game at 61. Monroe hit two free throws twenty-seconds later for the lead but fouled Jamar Diggs who returned the favor, tying the game for the sixth time with 2:10 remaining. The Cougars never trailed in the final two minutes.
The two teams played a close first half as Wofford went out to an early three-point lead before White tied it with his first trey of the game. Charleston kept the lead until Kevin Giltner hit a three-pointer at the 9:22 mark gave Wofford a one-point advantage. Andrew Lawrence's layup with 6:33 left in the first half started an 11-2 Charleston run for 10 point lead with 2:09 remaining in the half. Wofford's Tim Johnson scored the final four points of the half to cut the Charleston lead to six going into the half.
