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CHARLESTON, S.C. – Senior Jeremy Simmons (Lithonia, Ga.) registered a team-high 18 points and nine rebounds, including his 1,000th career point, to lead College of Charleston to a 73-64 victory over Appalachian State before a crowd of 4,758 fans on Saturday at Carolina First Arena.
It wasn't the best shooting night for either team as the Cougars (14-6, 7-1) went a league season-low 44.8 percent on 26-of-58 shooting from the floor and 6-of-23 from long distance. Meanwhile, the Mountaineers (8-11, 4-5) were held to just 39.3 and 33.3 percent shooting in both categories by the CofC defense.
The win avenged a disappointing 23-point loss to Appalachian State which ended CofC's postseason run in the semifinals of the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament a year ago in Charlotte, N.C.
Simmons becomes only the 28th player in school history to gain entrance into the 1,000-Point Club which also includes fellow seniors Andrew Goudelock (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and Donavan Monroe (Waxhaw, N.C.). It marked the first time in program history to have three 1,000-point scorers playing together in a single season.
Simmons and junior Antwaine Wiggins (Greeneville, Tenn.) sparked the offense early by leading CofC on a 5-0 game-opening run. Three-pointers by Goudelock, the nation's fourth-leading scorer, and sophomore reserve Andrew Lawrence (London, England) put the Cougars up 11-4 with 15:15 remaining in the first half as ASU first-year head coach Jason Capel called a timeout for his team to regroup.
CofC continued to outdistance itself by building a 10-point lead, 28-18, on another long-range three by Goudelock with 6:21 to go. Appalachian State's Donald Sims, who also ranks among the top 15 scorers in the country, cut it down to seven with a layup at the three-minute mark, 35-28, but the Cougars didn't budge and held on to a 42-31 halftime lead.
In the second half, Wiggins scored 12 of his 14 points and gave the Cougars' their largest lead of the ballgame, 47-32, on a three-pointer off the dish from sophomore Willis Hall (Charlotte, N.C.) at the 17:45 minute mark. Wiggins previously went scoreless in Thursday night's game against Western Carolina and shot 5-of-8 from the field. ASU would cut it down to nine on four occasions in the half, but never got closer.
The Cougars are still tied for first-place in the South Division of the SoCon standings with a 7-1 mark along with defending champion Wofford (10-9, 7-1). They will play their next two SoCon games on the road beginning with Georgia Southern on Wednesday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. (ET) in Statesboro, Ga., and followed by Davidson on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. (ET) in Davidson, N.C.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the 18th time this season, CofC used the starting five of senior Donavan Monroe, senior Andrew Goudelock, junior Antwaine Wiggins, sophomore Willis Hall and senior Jeremy Simmons (12-6).
• With the win, the Cougars now lead 16-10 in the all-time series with Appalachian State. They have won five out of the last six meetings between the two schools.
• CofC Head Coach Bobby Cremins picked up his 10th career victory against his former school. He previously coached the Mountaineers from 1975-80.
• Andrew Goudelock, the school's all-time leading scorer, was presented with a game ball from former record holder Ken (Gus) Gustafson in a ceremony held at center court prior to tip-off with ASU. He has now compiled 2,162 career points to date and his seven field goals in the game moved him into the SoCon's top 10 list for career field goals made (814). He surpassed John Taft of Marshall (811) for 10th.
• Jeremy Simmons recorded his 1,000th career point on a pair of free throws at the 10:06 minute mark of the second half of play. He was one rebound short of a double-double with 18 points and nine boards. It marked the third time this season in which he led the team in scoring and sixth time in rebounding.
• Simmons (1,002) becomes only the 28th player in school history to gain entrance into the exclusive 1,000-Point Club which includes Goudelock (2,162) and Donavan Monroe (1,155). It marked the first time in program history to have three 1,000-point scorers playing together in a single season.
• The Cougars donned their gold-colored uniforms (2-0) for only the second time this season next to its 2K Sports Classic game at Toledo on Nov. 21. They are now 5-1 all-time when wearing their gold uniforms.
• CofC made a season-low seven turnovers in the ballgame, but shot a league season-low 44.8 percent from the floor and 26.1 percent from beyond the arc.
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Bobby Cremins
On the game …
“I know everyone was expecting a big shootout with two great offensive players on the court today. It was a different game. It was a defensive game. Obviously, we were keying on (Donald) Sims and they were keying on (Andrew) Goudelock. They are two great scorers. They are incredible. Every time either one of them had the ball, there were two men around them. It came down to other guys making plays. Again, Andrew Lawrence coming off the bench in the first half gave us a big boost. He made some shots. Antwaine Wiggins helped us in the second half. He was struggling and had zero points the last game (against Western Carolina). He made some big shots and had a nice drive. It was an interesting game. It wasn't one of those great shootouts. It was a hard-fought game with a lot of defense. (Jeremy) Simmons was rebounding and playing defense. We're happy to protect our home court, because it's important. We had great respect for Appalachian coming in here. We know they are a great offensive team. We wanted to play well and take care of business.”
On Jeremy Simmons' play against Appalachian State …
“We are definitely trying to get the ball inside more to Jeremy. We want Jeremy to play defensively and keep rebounding. I don't care about his offensive game. We need his inside presence, defensive presence and his rebounding. He is really getting better on his offensive moves. He is so athletic and when he gets up there to contest shots, there is an old saying, 'you might not block a lot of shots, but you can alter a whole bunch of shots.' I have seen players like that through the years. They don't give them credit for blocks, but they contest shots so well that they cause a lot of misses and there is no stat for that. Jeremy can be that type of player, where he can cause a lot of people to miss, without blocking their shot.”
On Simmons' 1,000th career point and this year's senior class …
“It's a great accomplishment for Jeremy. I'm going to miss those guys when they are gone. But, we have to keep the program going. We lose big, but we have a great big man coming in and a couple of good guards. I'll worry about coaching in the future in the offseason. Those three seniors mean a lot to me. I have to think about another time in my coaching career when I lost three players like that. I don't want to get sentimental now. I'll wait until their last game. They have been so important to our program.”
College of Charleston Senior Guard Andrew Goudelock
On the game …
“We didn't come out with a lot of energy. The game wasn't real energetic as some of the other games we had. We didn't shoot that well. We stuck in there and played good defense and rebounded. We did what we had to do. We did some of the little things to come up with another big win. We didn't play well and we are just fortunate to get the win. We were missing shots and didn't shoot a great percentage. We shot 6-for-23 from the three and that's uncharacteristic for us. Sometimes it is going to happen. It just depends on how we play defense and if we are rebounding. Luckily, we held Omar Carter to 4-of-15 (from the floor) and he is averaging 15 points a game. Our game plan was to keep him down and we did.”
On the pregame ceremony commemorating him breaking the school's all-time career scoring mark …
“It was another special moment for me. My dad (Marvin Austin) was here again. It was a very proud moment for him. I was just thankful Ken Gustafson was here and I finally got to meet and talk to him. It was great to meet someone from that time period and get to talk to him and get his perspective on the whole thing. It was another great moment.”
College of Charleston Senior Forward Jeremy Simmons
On his 1,000-career point milestone …
“It felt real good to hear everybody cheering. When they say, 'hard works pays off,' it does. It's just a good accomplishment.”
