College of Charleston
5-11, 0-3CAA
Hofstra
12-4, 3-0CAA
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hofstra | 28 | 43 | 71 |
| Col. of Charleston | 24 | 42 | 66 |
Cougars Outlasted By Hofstra In CAA Thriller
1/9/2015 4:42:00 AM | Men's Basketball
CofC Athletics Communications
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston men's basketball team was tagged with a 71-66 loss in a down-to-the-wire Colonial Athletic Association clash with Hofstra on Thursday night at the TD Arena.
CofC (5-11, 0-3 CAA) won the battle beneath the basket with a 34-32 rebound advantage and 18-12 edge in points in the paint, but Hofstra (12-4, 3-0 CAA) scored 24 points from the free-throw line, the most of any Cougar opponent this season.
The Cougars were led by sophomore Canyon Barry (Colorado Springs, Colo.) who tied his season high with 21 points on the night, in addition to pulling down seven rebounds, which tied with freshman Cameron Johnson (Athens, Ga.) for the game high.
Hofstra's Juan'ya Green – who came into the game ranked second in the nation in free throws – led all scorers with 26 points after going 13-of-14 from the charity stripe.
In an even, physical game which saw nine ties and six lead changes, neither team led by more than seven points at any time.
In the early going, shots were hard to come by at both ends as both teams' shooting percentages teetered below 30 percent around the halfway point of the first half. The game opened up as the pace quickened, however, and shooting numbers climbed as the teams found baskets in transition.
After five unanswered Hofstra points late in the half, Barry picked up a defensive rebound and dribbled coast to coast before splitting the Pride's non-committal defenders at the other end and soaring for a one-handed slam, electrifying the TD Arena crowd and preventing a potential Hofstra scoring run.
Barry would make two of his characteristic underhanded free throws in the final minute to send the Cougars into the break trailing 28-24.
The teams' shooters were much more prolific in the second half, with the Cougars doubling both their field goal conversions and three point conversions.
A Green three pointer in the opening possession notched the game's largest seven-point lead for Hofstra, but from the 19:37 point on, the game would only get closer.
Buckets by Barry and senior Anthony Stitt (Charlotte, N.C.) – who finished with 11 points and two steals – capped a 13-5 Cougar run to put CofC out front, 37-36, with 13 minutes left.
From there, it remained a one-possession game until Hofstra's Ameen Tanksley knocked down back-to-back three pointers, benefitting the Pride another seven-point lead.
The Cougars responded again, holding the Pride scoreless for the next two-and-a-half minutes while sophomore Joe Chealey (Orlando, Fla.) converted from beyond the arc, Barry tossed in two more free throws, and senior big man Adjehi Baru (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) backed his defender down to drop in a turnaround hook-shot to tie the game at 49-49 at the seven minute mark.
The teams exchanged three pointers and foul shots over the next four minutes, only to once again find themselves tied at 57-57 in the waning moments.
With the clock nearing the one-minute mark, Hofstra's Dion Nesmith made an incisive drive-and-score to put the Pride up three points.
After Baru split a pair of free throws, the Pride managed to stretch the lead to two possessions, and despite a Chealey three pointer and baseline layups by Barry and Johnson for the Cougars, Hofstra went 8-for-8 from the line in the final minute to thwart any potential comeback effort.
CofC will close out its three-game CAA homestand with Delaware (1-13, 0-3) on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena. The game will be televised live locally on MyTV Charleston and tickets are still available for purchase by calling (843) 953-COFC.
POSTGAME NOTES
• For the ninth time this season, the Cougars started Joe Chealey, Anthony Stitt, Canyon Barry, Donovan Gilmore and Adjehi Baru (3-6).
• Hofstra now leads 2-1 in the all-time series with College of Charleston dating back to the 2013-14 season.
• Canyon Barry tied a season-high in points (21) against Hofstra. It was his eighth game to score in double figures. He also grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds and went a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
• Anthony Stitt turned in back-to-back games in double figures with 11 points versus Hofstra. He has now tallied 1,028 career points to date.
• Cameron Johnson came off the bench and contributed a career-high seven rebounds with five on the defensive glass. It was the first time of his career to lead the team in rebounding in a single game (tied Canyon Barry with seven).
• CofC committed its second-fewest turnovers in a single game this season against Hofstra (8). The Pride only scored three of their 71 points off those miscues.
• For the second-straight game, the Cougars outrebounded their opponents, 34-32 (+2). They are 2-2 when doing so this season.
• CofC's 66 points was its fifth-highest scoring output of the season and the most since 68 versus Davidson on Dec. 20.
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant
On the game …
“I felt bad for our guys. They played well enough to win tonight. The only thing I told them is that, 'to be really good four minutes and under, you have to be stingy, you have to get shots and you have to get every rebound. When it's a tied game with 3:30 or 4 minutes to go, every possession is really crucial.' The effort was there. We outrebounded them, we shot the ball well and we didn't turn the ball over. We just didn't get stops down the stretch. I really give guard (Juan'ya) Green and (Ameen) Tanksley credit. One was 13-of-14 from the free throw line and the other was 4-of-7 from three. They look like two first-team all-conference players. We had no answer late. I told the guys we just have to find a way to continue to treat what we are going through like a marathon. We are getting better. We just need to stick together and hang together through these tough times.”
On this being part of growing pains moving from the Southern Conference to the CAA …
“Yes, I think we have good talent to compete in this conference. So far, we have played two of the best teams in the league. Hofstra, William &Mary and Northeastern are, based on what I've seen on film, are three of the best teams in our league. We have enough talent, it's just our margin for error is smaller. We can't have nights where we turn the ball over a lot. Our defense has to play well for us to win, because we are only going to score between 60-to-70 points every night.”
College of Charleston Senior Guard Anthony Stitt
On the team's mentality during the losing streak and how it wears on you emotionally …
“Yes, it does (wear on you) because you always want to go out and play your hardest and come out on top when you go into competition. But, we just have to stay positive. Coach Grant stays positive. He keeps preaching to us, 'the next game, trying to get better and keep fighting.' That is what we are trying to do as a whole team. We don't want to worry about the loss or how many games we lost. We're trying to focus on our next game (against Delaware). We need to play hard, and once we get that win, we can pull it together.”
On the play of Hofstra's Juan'ya Green …
“He (Green) did a good job of using his body and getting to the foul line. He was 13-of-14 from the free throw line and they shot 32 free throws, so we have to do a better job of playing without fouling and keeping our man in front of us – not being so hands on, which can lead to easier buckets on the offensive end on the transition.”
College of Charleston Sophomore Guard Canyon Barry
On the team taking a step forward offensively tonight, but not resulting in a win …
“It's the more just frustration in a loss. You never know how the ball is going to bounce, if its going to go in or not. But, I thought we fought hard this game. We had great effort all around. We outrebounded them, which was one of our goals. But, we just have to focus on getting better every game. We have another game coming up in two days, so we're moving on to the next one, as long as we get better every game.”
On his dunk in the first half in traffic …
“I had the offensive rebound and Coach (Grant) has given me the green light to push the floor when I get a rebound, so I was able to take it all the way to the hole. No one committed to stop me, so I was able to make a finish.”
