College of Charleston
Chattanooga
Cougars Edge Past Chattanooga In Double-Overtime Thriller
12/4/2011 1:14:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Lawrence scored five points in the final 10 seconds of regulation including a coast-to-coast layup at the buzzer to send the game to the first overtime period. He also added five assists and four steals, while hitting a team-best five three-pointers from downtown.
It was the second-straight year in which the annual once-a-year meeting between the Cougars (7-1, 2-0) and Mocs (2-6, 0-2) was decided by three points or less. CofC avenged a close 91-88 road loss at UTC on Jan. 17, 2011. CofC remains undefeated at home this season, while the win marked the first double-overtime contest for the program since 2008.
After Chattanooga built a four-point lead in the first overtime, freshman Anthony Stitt (Charlotte, N.C.) hit a jumper at the top of the key to make it a one-possession game. Stitt finished with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting for his second 20-point performance of the season.
After a Chattanooga miss, redshirt-junior Matt Sundberg (Kennesaw, Ga.) corralled an offensive rebound and drew the foul, tying the game from the line at 72-all with two minutes left. Neither team could convert in their final possessions and the game went to a second overtime.
Sophomore Trent Wiedeman (Suwanee, Ga.) came up big for CofC in the second overtime, scoring six points including a dramatic layup and foul to put the Cougars up 76-75 after a Moc three-pointer. Wiedeman tallied his second-straight double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Chattanooga's Jahmal Burroughs made a layup with 1:10 remaining to put the Mocs down by just one, but sophomore Jordan Scott (Darlington, S.C.) hit a three-pointer and the Cougars went back up four and UTC could not overcome it, despite a desperation three-pointer with four seconds remaining by Keegan Bell.
Despite struggling from three-point land, senior Antwaine Wiggins (Greeneville, Tenn.) tallied a double-double with 14 points and a career-best 12 rebounds. As a team, CofC shot 38.2 percent from the field and 27.9 percent from three-point range. CofC's defense forced 17 Moc turnovers and converted those into 26 points.
Chattanooga was led by Chris Early's 18 points, while Bell registered a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
The Cougars struggled from the floor in the first half, shooting just 23.3 percent from the field and 4-of-21 from three-point range. The Chattanooga defense double-teamed every CofC entry pass and prevented dribble penetration.
CofC's defense stepped up in the first half as well, outrebounding Chattanooga, 25-21, led by Wiedeman's six first-half boards. The Mocs managed just 10 points in the paint and shot 31.3 percent from the floor. Their largest lead was six points at 21-15 at the 6:07 minute mark after a steal and three-pointer from preseason SoCon Player of the Year and leading scorer Omar Wattad, who was held to just nine points throughout the ballgame.
Free throws from Wiedeman cut the margin to 23-21 after a 6-2 Cougar run with 33 seconds remaining in the first frame, but the Mocs responded with a three-pointer to lead 26-21 at the half.
CofC trailed by nine points at the 13:35 minute mark after three free throws from Ronrico White, the younger brother of former CofC great Tony White, Jr. However, the Cougars chipped away at the lead and tied the game at 7:38 after consecutive three-pointers from Stitt.
A three-pointer from Wattad at the 1:07 mark gave Chattanooga a three-point lead and free throws made it 67-63 with 12 seconds to go. Lawrence answered with a clutch three-pointer with nine seconds remaining and a missed free throw from Bell set up Lawrence's dramatic layup with one second left in regulation.
The Cougars will have the next 11 days to focus on final exams on campus before taking on 2011 NCAA Tournament participant Tennessee on Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena. The game will be televised live nationally on ESPN2.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the eighth-straight contest, CofC went with the starting five of junior Andrew Lawrence, sophomore Jordan Scott, senior Antwaine Wiggins, sophomore Trent Wiedeman and freshman Adjehi Baru (7-1).
• With the win, the Cougars improve to 16-11 in the all-time series with Chattanooga. The last two meetings between the two schools have now been decided by three points or less as CofC avenged a close, 91-88 road loss (-3) at UTC on Jan. 17, 2011.
• The Cougars extended their home-court win streak to 11 consecutive games at TD Arena. It was only the third all-time overtime game for CofC in the three-year-old venue next to an 82-80 OT win over South Carolina in 2008 and a 100-87 OT upset of No. 9-ranked North Carolina in 2010.
• It also marked the first double overtime game for the Cougars since an 87-86 loss at Elon in SoCon regular-season play on Feb. 8, 2008 under Cremins.
• For only the second time this season, the Cougars trailed their opponent at halftime next to the Central Florida game on Nov. 24 (1-1).
• Andrew Lawrence scored a career-and game-high 25 points to lead the Cougars in the scoring column for the first time of his career. It was also his first career 20-point outing. He played a career-high 44 minutes with five assists with no turnovers and made a team-high four steals against the Mocs.
• Trent Wiedeman turned in his second-straight contest with a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. It marked the seventh of his career and third of the season.
• Antwaine Wiggins also registered a double-double with 14 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. It marked the third of his career and first of the season.
• Freshman Anthony Stitt came off the bench and hit two key three-pointers in the second half and ended the night with 20 points. It was his second career 20-point game behind a career-best 23 versus UMass on Nov. 26. He is currently on a three-game double-digit scoring streak.
• Former CofC great and current Los Angeles Laker Andrew Goudelock joined play-by-play announcer Everett German as a guest color analyst for the Cougar Sports Radio Network for the second game in a row. Goudelock will leave town this coming Thursday to report to Lakers training camp in Los Angeles.
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Bobby Cremins
On the game ...
"This is my 12th year coaching in the Southern Conference (at Appalachian State and Charleston combined) and that has to be one of the most exciting basketball games I've ever been involved with. This league is tough. They came to play and are a senior-based team. (Chattanooga Head Coach) John (Shulman) does a great job. They outplayed us and outcoached us. We couldn't hit the side of a barn. We have to do something about that. We have to move the ball better. I love the three ball. But, it was getting a little ugly out there. What an entertaining basketball game. We are worn out. We are very fortunate to win. Chattanooga - I hope no one is better than them this season. They played an outstanding basketball game. We just hung in there. I'm not sure how we got through the overtime. It was an incredible ending. I was so proud of Jordan Scott making that shot. Trent Wiedeman made some big baskets and we made some big plays. We made some defensive adjustments, but then the kid (Chris) Early hurt us. It was just an incredible basketball game. We feel so fortunate to be on the winning side. We have to learn from this. We cannot get outplayed and outcoached like this. I thought we were ready to play and we weren't. They did some great things. We couldn't guard them and their ball-screen offense."
College of Charleston Sophomore Forward Trent Wiedeman
On Chattanooga taking the team's post presence away on offense ...
"They were trapping us really well. The way they rotate is so tough. You think one pass is open and then it's not. If there is only one guy open, if don't you throw it to him, then it's going to be a steal every time. A big part of our offense in the second half was drive and kick, because they were taking it away from the post and we had to make a couple of big shots. Andrew (Lawrence) and (Anthony) Stitt made big shots under the 10-minute mark to get us into overtime. They (Chattanooga) definitely came ready to play and really wanted to beat us. They are very well coached and played really hard tonight."
College of Charleston Freshman Guard Anthony Stitt
On not looking like a freshman out on the court ...
"First of all, Chattanooga is a great team. They were disrupting our offense. We had to make adjustments and just roll through it. I learned a lot from Andrew Lawrence. He helps me in practice every day. I give him all of the credit, my coaches the credit and my teammates the credit for believing in me."
Chattanooga Head Coach John Shulman
On the game ...
"Our basketball team has been through an awful lot. Back in Chattanooga, right at this moment, we are nothing but a bunch of losers, but I thought our basketball team played like a bunch of winners. That's the problem about college athletics. We leave here losers and it's not a great feeling. I am really proud of our basketball team. To go through what we've been going through and to be able to come together on the road at Georgia Southern and Charleston. This is not the best place in the world to get healthy. It makes you sick. We deserved to win the basketball game. We played hard enough, we earned it, we deserved it, but we didn't. All this is to us is a test. If we keep on doing what we believe in and what we did tonight, we can get better and we will be there in the end. Hopefully, our basketball team learned a lot, but it's often difficult to learn, when you lose like that."
