CHARLESTON, S.C. – UNCW overcame a season-low 26-percent shooting effort and double-doubles by College of Charleston senior big man Adjehi Baru and sophomore guard Canyon Barry to steal a 58-56 overtime victory in Colonial Athletic Association play on Wednesday night at TD Arena.

The Cougars (6-14, 1-6 CAA) maintained a 40-percent shooting effort on the night and pulled down one more rebound (43-42) than UNCW (10-8, 5-2 CAA), but committed a season-high 20 turnovers, which led directly to 18 points the other way. CofC was also beset by 16 offensive boards by the Seahawks, resulting in 12 second-chance points.

Barry (Colorado Springs, Colo.) achieved his first-career double-double with a game-high 16 points and 10 rebounds, marking the seventh time the sophomore has led the Cougars in scoring this season. Baru (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) followed with 11 points and 12 boards.

UNCW was led by three players in double figures, most notably Addison Spruill with 11 points – which matched the team high – and 13 boards for a double-double of his own, his ninth team-high rebounding effort this year.

In a game that saw 12 ties and 12 lead changes, the Cougars never trailed by more than four points. CofC had a chance to win the game with 3.2 seconds left in regulation, but an in-bounds violation eventually sent the game into overtime, and the ill-fated Cougars would close the game on an eight-minute field-goal drought.

Long before that, however, Baru made a layup through defensive contact and knocked down the ensuing free-throw for an old-fashioned three-point play, fueling a 5-2 run leading into the first media timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, the Seahawks switched into a zone-press defensive look which would torment the Cougars over the remainder of the contest and drive up CofC's turnover count.

The Cougars were kept off the board for three minutes while UNCW seized an 11-7 lead, but freshman Donovan Gilmore (Greensboro, N.C.) knocked down back-to-back baskets, snapping the scoreless drought and spawning a 7-0 run over the next four minutes.

CofC then committed turnovers on four consecutive possessions allowing UNCW to tie the score, but Barry pulled down a long defensive rebound and took it coast-to-coast for a tough layup to put CofC back up, 16-14, just over midway through the first half.

The Cougar defense was stout the rest of the half, forcing the Seahawks to miss 9-of-10 down the stretch and finish with a 22.6 percent first-half shooting effort.

A buzzer-beating three-pointer from sophomore reserve Terrance O'Donohue (Norcross, Ga.) in the corner capped off a 7-0 CofC run and ended the half with the Cougars leading 27-20.

UNCW initiated the press again to start the second half, forcing the Cougars into back-to-back turnovers as the lead evaporated, but back-to-back crowd-pleasing jumpers by Barry – a shot-clock-beating step-back fade-away jumper and a long-range three-pointer – quickly re-extended it to seven.

Trouble ensued for the Cougars, as the next three-plus minutes saw the Cougars turn the ball over three times and miss four shots before UNCW took a 35-34 lead at the 12-minute mark.

Baru scored four points in a 6-2 run which put CofC back on top 40-37 at the midway point of the second half, and the teams would stay within one possession the rest of the way.

The Cougars again led by three at the six-minute mark, but a 5-0 UNCW run shifted the tides once more.

Baru tied the score at 50-50 at the four-minute mark, and Barry ignited the 3,013 fan crowd when he blocked a shot from behind at the UNCW free-throw stripe, scooped the loose ball, and took it the distance for a contested two-handed slam, giving the Cougars a 52-50 edge with 3:12 to play in regulation.

Unfortunately for The College, the play would ultimately mark the final Cougar field-goal, overtime included, as UNCW later tied the score on a layup.

Though CofC went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the overtime period, the Cougars did not convert a field goal, including a game-winning attempt, which was blocked in the final seconds.

Another quick turnaround is ahead for the Cougars on limited rest as they travel for a noon (ET) tip-off at Drexel on Saturday, Jan. 24 in Philadelphia, Pa. The game will be televised live nationally on the NBC Sports Network.

POSTGAME NOTES

• For the fourth time this season and fourth-straight conference game, the Cougars started Joe Chealey, Cameron Johnson, Canyon Barry, Donovan Gilmore and Adjehi Baru (1-3). They were once again playing without the services of senior guard Anthony Stitt, who is recovering from a knee injury.

• UNCW has now won back-to-back games in the all-time series, which College of Charleston still leads, 10-6. The last two outings between both schools have been decided in overtime – and by two points in favor of the Seahawks – 57-55 overtime win on Feb. 22, 2014.

• Adjehi Baru registered his third double-double of the season and 18th of his four-year career with 11 points and a season-high tying 12 rebounds against UNCW.

• Canyon Barry recorded his first career double-double with a game-high 16 points and career-high 10 rebounds against the Seahawks. It marked his 12th game of the season in double figures. He is currently on a career-best five-game double-digit scoring streak.

• Four of CofC's last five games have been decided in single digits including the last two contests by a two-point margin.

• This was the second overtime game of the season for the Cougars (0-1) and third for the Seahawks (3-0).

• Terrance O'Donohue made his first career three-pointer against UNCW with one second remaining in the first half and ended the night with six points and three rebounds off the bench. He went a career-best 3-for-4 from the free throw line in makes and attempts.

• Defensively, the Cougars held UNCW to its fewest first-half points of the season (20). The Seahawks' previous season-low was 24 vs. Davidson and Louisville. CofC also forced UNCW to its worst shooting percentage of the season from the floor at 25.8 percent (16-of-62).

• CofC grabbed a season-high 43 rebounds and made a season-high six blocked shots against UNCW.

POSTGAME QUOTES

College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant

On the game …

“I really feel bad for my guys. We held them (UNCW) to 25 percent field-goal percentage defense. That's about as well as you can play on defense. I told the guys they really have to do a better job of being focused in those tight situations. I have to do a better job of making sure they do what we practice against a press. Some of the turnovers were against the press and some of them were just turnovers. We talked about this in the locker room, it's hard to win a game and you lose by two (points) in overtime, if you turn it over 20 times. Twenty times two is 40 points. You cut that in half and it's 10 times two, which is 20, and five times two is 10. If you lose by two in overtime, obviously you played with great effort. You hold them to 25 percent of field goals made – that is phenomenal. But, you have to be better decision makers and have more poise. It wasn't an issue of effort, but when you lose because of bad-decision making, it is very disappointing.”

On UNCW's full-court press …

“It wore Joe (Chealey) down, but every timeout, we were saying, 'you have to make a second cut. You don't dribble out of a press, you pass out of a press. You find the open man and push it up the floor.' We got some layups out of it early. Then I felt, Joe put too much pressure on himself to be the primary ball handler trying to get us out of the tough situations with him being our only point guard. Late in the game, we had some opportunities to go lay it in, when we broke it and didn't take advantage of the opportunities. The first time we saw a press this year (at West Virginia), we didn't handle it well. We worked on it and prepared for two days on their (UNCW) press and made formations to break it. We have to get back in the gym and work on fundamentals. With Anthony Stitt out, we can't just make up an excuse, we still have to play the games. We have to find a secondary-ball handler that's comfortable in those situations, so we can give Joe a break and not wear him down.”

College of Charleston Sophomore Guard Canyon Barry

On the loss …

“Honestly, it's real disappointing. We shot ourselves in the foot with all of the turnovers. We struggled breaking the press and didn't execute well down the stretch. It is definitely disappointing, but you have to keep your head up after a loss like this. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we can beat anyone in our conference. Our record doesn't show that, but I think our team's confident in our abilities. We just have to get better moving forward.”

On what was giving the team the most trouble against UNCW's press …

“We do play a lot of young freshmen. They are prone to making turnovers. I turned the ball over too much and Joe (Chealey) turned the ball over too much. We need to work more on getting open in the press. We had a lot of turnovers where we weren't able to get open. If we did get open, we caught it so deep in the corners it made the trap come so quickly. I think that's where we struggled. It hurts not having (Anthony) Stitt – our senior leader and a great point guard who helps our press break situation. But, we have to play with our young guards. It's the hand that's dealt to us, so we just need to get better at it.”

UNCW Head Coach Kevin Keatts

On the game …

“What a hard-fought game. You've got to give Charleston a lot of credit. It's one of those games where, knowing coming in, they've been very solid defensively. I think they have played their best basketball the last three games when you look at going to Elon and winning by 16 and then losing a tough one at Northeastern and then obviously tonight. It's an unfortunate game, because it's one of those games where you wish nobody had to lose that game, because everyone was good. Giving them credit, they did an amazing job, they held us to 22 percent (shooting in the first half), we couldn't get out of the transition and we just figured out a way to win the game. Our press was very good tonight, it's probably the best it's been all season. Anytime you force a guard and a team like Charleston into 20 turnovers and you get 10 steals, then you certainly got to take that. I'll be honest with you, it was one of the most fun games I've ever coached. It was a lot of back-and-forth – two teams in conference play. You can tell it's conference play. They wanted to win and we wanted to win. So, it is unfortunate that somebody had to lose this game.”