POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO
CHARLESTON, S.C. - College of Charleston used career-best performances from sophomore Nori Johnson (Greer, S.C.) and freshman Adjehi Baru (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) to capture a 62-58 victory over Western Carolina on Thursday night at TD Arena.
The win was the second-straight for CofC who has now won three out of its last four contests. The Cougars are now 15-10 and 7-7 in the Southern Conference, fighting for positioning in a tightly-packed South Division. Western Carolina fell to 10-16 and 4-9 in league play.
Johnson poured in 17 points to lead the team, eclipsing his previous career-high of 15 set at Davidson on Jan. 19. He shot 5-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-8 from three-point land, while also grabbing five rebounds and making two assists.
Baru set a new career-high with 17 rebounds to go with nine points. Eight of his boards came off the offensive glass as CofC made 27 offensive rebounds and outmanned the Catamounts on the boards, 53-43.
Senior Antwaine Wiggins (Greeneville, Tenn.) and junior Andrew Lawrence (London, England) each reached double figures in scoring with Wiggins getting 15 points and seven rebounds and Lawrence scoring 12 points along with six assists and six rebounds. Sophomore James Carlton (Winterville, N.C.) set a new career-high with five blocks and also made a big steal that sealed the win in the final minutes.
Western Carolina put three players in double figures, led by Brandon Boggs' 15 points and seven rebounds. Keaton Cole scored 12 points on 3-of-7 three-point shooting and Trey Sumler added 11.
CofC shot just 16-of-59 (27.1 percent) from the field for the game, but the Cougars made it to the line 37 times and hit 22 free throws, while WCU only went 6-of-10 from the charity stripe. The Cougars were 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc, while Western Carolina hit 6-of-20 (30 percent) threes.
The Catamounts jumped out to a 12-3 lead early in the first half after a jumper from Boggs. However, the Cougars rallied back with a 14-0 run to lead 17-12 after an offensive putback from Wiggins. CofC's shooting then cooled off and Western Carolina was able to take advantage by retaking the lead at the 4:12 minute mark with a layup from Sumler. The Cougars were able to score from the free-throw line, but three-pointers from Boggs and Sumler and a putback from Cole gave WCU a 28-24 lead at halftime.
CofC came out of halftime with renewed intensity as Lawrence and Johnson hit three-pointers to cap a 9-3 run which put the Cougars back up 33-31 with 16:05 remaining in regulation. The two teams continued to battle back and forth until a three-pointer from the Wiggins put CofC up 50-48, a lead the Cougars would not surrender.
The Catamounts had the ball trailing by just three points with a minute left, but Carlton stole an interior pass and pushed the ball forward to a sprinting Lawrence. The point guard laid it in over a WCU defender to put the Cougars up 56-51, and CofC hit free throws to preserve the victory.
CofC will celebrate Homecoming Weekend playing host to South Division rival and league leader Davidson (19-5, 13-1) on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 3 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena. The game will be televised live on the SoCon Sports Network and carried nationally on ESPN3. The day will also mark the recognition of a new CofC Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2012.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the first time this season, CofC went with the starting lineup of junior Andrew Lawrence, sophomore Nori Johnson, senior Antwaine Wiggins, redshirt junior Matt Sundberg and freshman Adjehi Baru (1-0).
• With the win, the Cougars improve to 17-7 in the all-time series with Western Carolina. They have now won four of the last six meetings between the two schools and are 5-2 against North Division foes this season.
• Sophomore Trent Wiedeman did not suit up for the game due to a sprained ankle. It was his first missed game of his career after playing in 61 consecutive games since the start of his freshman campaign in 2010-11.
• Nori Johnson turned in his fourth career game in double figures with a career-and game-high 17 points against Western Carolina. He went 5-of-11 from the floor and a career-best 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
• Adjehi Baru brought down a career-high 17 rebounds including nine on the offensive glass. It tied for the best single-game performance by a Cougar this season next to 17 boards by Trent Wiedeman versus Elon twice on Jan. 14 and Feb. 2.
• Sophomore reserve James Carlton made a career-high five of the team's season-high tying 10 blocked shots against Western Carolina. He also saw a career-best 25 minutes of action with Matt Sundberg not playing in the second half due to a lower-leg injury, according to CofC Interim Head Coach Mark Byington.
• For the second time this year, the Cougars brought down 50-or-more rebounds in a single game with 53 boards against Western Carolina. They had a season-high 55 against Elon on Jan. 14. CofC has now outrebounded its opponent nine times this season with a 7-2 mark when doing so.
• CofC shot a season-low 27.1 percent from the floor (16-of-59) and still won the ballgame. It marked the first time this season to shoot below 30 percent from the field.
• Andrew Lawrence dished out six assists with just three turnovers. It marked his sixth-straight contest with six-or-more assists in a game.
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Interim Head Coach Mark Byington
On the game ...
"I told the guys at halftime, when I found out Matt (Sundberg) wasn't going to be able to play, I said, 'let's just find a way.' I talked to the team about making memories before the season. Maybe, if it was easy, we would never remember this game. After tonight, I know our guys will remember that they stuck together and they persevered when a lot of things were going wrong. When you look over at our bench, we have three or four starters sitting there in street clothes and we found a way. I apologize to all of the purist basketball fans and Cougar fans tonight. We might have set basketball back 60 years with some of our offense tonight, maybe even back to the peach basket days. We made enough plays on offense in the second half. Our defense carried us and our defensive rebounding carried us. By no means, was it a pretty win, but we will take it. Offensively in the first half, we never got into a rhythm. We weren't getting high-percentage shots in the first half. That's on me and I will fix it. In the second half, I felt like we got more comfortable. We ran our offense more. We stuck with it and our guys made plays later in the shot clock and maybe that's what the team needs to do to be successful. We are still young and we don't know how good we can be. We saw some glimpses of how we could be at the beginning of the season. Right now, they are sticking together and playing hard. That's all I can ask for."
College of Charleston Sophomore Forward/Guard Nori Johnson
On the win and playing with a small bench due to injuries ...
"We started off pretty sluggish. For whatever reason it was, we weren't playing defense with pressure. Everybody seemed a step slower. After a few minutes, we got our second wind and everybody got it together. In the second half, we definitely came out and made a push. Western gave it their all and gave us their full effort. I salute them. We were fortunate to get the win tonight. We shot the ball 20 percent going into the second half. On offense, we started to take our time and it created more open shots for us - hitting the three-ball. It's tough, but when you can come out with a win like this going through tough circumstances like we today with so many injuries, it makes memories. It gives us a good feeling. We know when everybody comes back together and gets healthy, we will be a problem and team to reckon with."
College of Charleston Junior Point Guard Andrew Lawrence
On the win and leading the team to victory ...
"That's all that matters to me. The win column. I'm really glad with how our guys performed today. I was disappointed I couldn't make more shots tonight, but it's all about the win. Everyone keeps getting better and we are trying to get guys back healthy. We have done a great job of sticking together through everything. I'm really proud of the guys and happy we got the win."
