College of Charleston
6-13, 1-5CAA
Northeastern
13-5, 5-1CAA
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Col. of Charleston | 31 | 36 | 67 |
| Northeastern | 38 | 31 | 69 |
Cougars Take Northeastern Down-To-The-Wire In Road Thriller
1/18/2015 3:52:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BOSTON – College of Charleston took preseason league favorite Northeastern down-to-the-wire in a 69-67 thriller played out on Saturday night at historic Matthews Arena.
The Huskies (13-5, 5-1 CAA) maintained their lead in the Colonial Athletic Association standings making seven of its final 11 free-throw attempts in the last 43 seconds of regulation to hold on for the win. It avenged a 58-49 victory by the Cougars (6-13, 1-5) on Northeastern's home court in both teams' first all-time meeting in the series in 2014.
Five players scored in double figures for NU including 14 from David Walker, 12 from T.J. Williams and 11 each from Zach Stahl and Scott Eatherton. One of the top returning players in the league, Eatherton went 4-for-6 from the free throw line in that final stretch, after his minutes were in jeopardy with four fouls early in the second half. Quincy Ford added 10 points.
Sophomore Joe Chealey (Orlando, Fla.) registered his second career game with 20-or-more points with a game-high 23 against the Huskies. He was joined in double figures by senior big man Adjehi Baru (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) with 13 and sophomore Canyon Barry (Colorado Springs, Colo.) with 11.
Baru scored all of his points in the second half of play and reached a career milestone with his 1,000th career point after being fouled in lane on a made layup at the 2:54 minute mark to get the Cougars within four, 59-55.
A three-pointer by freshman reserve Evan Bailey (Canton, Ohio) made it a two-point game with 18 seconds left to go, 66-64, but Northeastern was able to hang on to win its fourth in a row in CAA play.
Up next, CofC will host UNCW (9-8, 4-2) in a mid-week clash on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena. The game will be televised live locally on MyTV Charleston and tickets are still available to purchase by calling (843) 953-COFC.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the third time this season, the Cougars used the starting lineup of Joe Chealey, Cameron Johnson, Canyon Barry, Donovan Gilmore and Adjehi Baru (1-2).
• Northeastern now leads 2-1 in the all-time series with College of Charleston.
• Joe Chealey extends his double-digit scoring streak to three consecutive games with a game-high 23 points and a season-high tying seven assists at Northeastern. It marked his second career game with 20-or-more points next to a career-best 30 at Charlotte on Dec. 16.
• Adjehi Baru scored all of his 13 points in the second half at Northeastern. With his AND-1 layup at the 2:54 minute mark, Baru became the 29th all-time player in school history to gain entrance into the 1,000-Career Point Club. He has now scored 1,002 career points and 820 career rebounds to date. Baru is also one of only 12 all-time players to have recorded 1,000 career points and 600 career rebounds at CofC.
• CofC shot a season-best 92.3 percent from the free throw line (12-for-13) at Northeastern including a perfect 5-for-5 performance from Adjehi Baru, 6-for-6 from Joe Chealey and 1-for-1 from Terrance O'Donohue.
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant
On the game …
“I was proud of our effort tonight. But, with our margin of error, we have to do better. There were about seven possessions in the game where we needed to do better – a bad turnover or not getting the rebound. That happened two-to-three times were we should've gotten the rebound or had a turnover at a bad time in the game. We played three freshmen tonight. We are not good enough to have seven-or-eight bad possessions. We have to be tough and get stops. Our guys played hard and really competed. But, I told them at halftime, 'we have to hold them to 63 (points).' I thought our defense failed us in the first half and we gave up too many easy baskets. If we hold them to 63, we win.”
