Northeastern Final Foe On CAA Road Swing For Cougars

Saturday, February 18

Boston, Mass.

1:00 PM

College of Charleston

Northeastern

Northeastern Final Foe On CAA Road Swing For Cougars

2/17/2017 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Northeastern Game Notes

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (20-8, 11-4 CAA) vs. NORTHEASTERN (14-13, 7-8 CAA)
Game #29
February 18, 2017 • 1:00 p.m. (ET)
Matthews Arena (5,066)
at Boston, Mass.

Television: None
Radio: College of Charleston Radio Network (ESPN Radio 910 AM)
Series History: Northeastern Leads 5-2
Last Meeting: Northeastern def. CofC, 73-72, on Feb. 9, 2017 in Charleston, S.C.
Internet: Free Live Statistics at www.GoNUStats.com
Live Video: Free Live Video at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/northeastern/
Twitter: @CofCBasketball

THE COACHES
College of Charleston: Earl Grant
Third Year at CofC: 46-46
Third Year Overall: 46-46
Northeastern: Bill Coen
11th Year at NU: 177-173
11th Year Overall: 177-173

TELEVISION (None)

RADIO (College of Charleston Radio Network)
Play-By-Play: Everett German

GAME PREVIEW
With three games remaining in the regular season, the College of Charleston men's basketball team (20-8, 11-4 CAA) faces its final road conference foe in Northeastern (14-13, 7-8) on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. (ET) at historic Matthews Arena in Boston, Mass. Both teams last met nine days ago in a down-to-the-wire thriller that resulted in favor of the Huskies (L, 73-72) on a last-second buzzer beater on Feb. 9 at TD Arena. In fact, the last two-straight meetings between CofC and NU have been decided by one point. The Cougars remain one game back of first place in the latest CAA standings behind UNCW (12-3) and ahead of Towson (10-5) in third. They currently rank No. 17 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll and are No. 67 in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings. The third-best shooting team in the league in Northeastern (46.6%) will go up against the third-best field-goal percentage defense team in Charleston (41.9%) on Saturday. The Cougars are coming off their first-ever road win at Hofstra (76-72) where they reached the 20-win season mark for the first time since 2012-13. CofC is also one win away from posting a 10-win road record since 2012-13 (11-2).

A LOOK AT NORTHEASTERN
The College will be the third-straight opponent for Northeastern to host on its home court and on Senior Day. Since the Cougars and Huskies last met, NU fell to Hofstra (64-74) on Feb. 11 and league leader UNCW (65-66) on Feb. 16. The Huskies nearly clawed their way back from a 20-point deficit to the Seahawks after being down 39-19 at halftime. Senior guard T.J. Williams is coming off a career-high 33-point outing against UNCW.

COUGARS MOST IMPROVED
College of Charleston is one of 44 teams to have already reached the 20-win mark this season among the 351 NCAA Division I member schools in men's basketball. For the second year in a row, the Cougars are also one of the Most Improved programs in NCAA Division I under third-year head coach Earl Grant. They went 9-24 in 2014-15 and 17-14 in 2015-16.

COURT VISION
Redshirt junior point guard Joe Chealey dished out six of the team's season-high tying 15 assists at Hofstra on Feb. 16. He is 11 assists shy of turning in his second career 100+ assist season (89). Chealey has distributed five-or-more assists in a single game four times this season. He boasts a 1.89 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks fourth best in the CAA.

COUGARS ON THE AIRWAVES
Fans can listen to all CofC men's basketball games throughout the 2016-17 season on ESPN Radio 910 AM in Charleston or via a live audio link at: www.charlestonsportsradio.com. Voice of the Cougars Everett German will call the action live from Matthews Arena on the College of Charleston Radio Network.

PROJECTED COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON STARTERS
#13 Joe Chealey, G, 6-4, 195, RS-Jr. (16.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.2 apg, 33.6 min)
#1 Grant Riller, G, 6-3, 185, RS-Fr. (13.7 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.1 apg, 26.4 min)
#12 Cameron Johnson, G, 6-4, 200, Jr. (6.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.9 apg, 31.3 min)
#5 Jarrell Brantley, F, 6-7, 250, So. (13.4 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 1.3 apg, 31.8 min)
#23 Nick Harris, F, 6-10, 250, So. (5.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 0.2 apg, 24.3 min)

PROJECTED NORTHEASTERN STARTERS
#10 T.J. Williams, G, 6-3, 201, Sr. (21.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 5.2 apg, 37.7 min)
#20 Devon Begley, G, 6-4, 198, Jr. (9.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.3 apg, 33.1 min)
#2 Bolden Brace, G, 6-6, 221, Fr. (5.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.4 apg, 22.1 min)
#0 Alex Murphy, F, 6-8, 225, Gr.-Sr. (14.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.7 apg, 32.7 min)
#30 Anthony Green, C, 6-10, 252, So. (4.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 0.2 apg, 16.0 min)

SERIES HISTORY
Northeastern leads 5-2 in the all-time series with College of Charleston. Six of those seven games between the Cougars and Huskies have been decided in single digits including both teams' last road meeting in Boston – a one-point thriller on the road at Northeastern (58-57) on Feb. 25, 2016 at Matthews Arena.

LAST SEVEN GAMES IN THE SERIES
L, 72-73 (-1) on Feb. 9, 2017 in Charleston, S.C.
L, 57-58 (-1) on Feb. 25, 2016 in Boston, Mass.
W, 68-61 (+7) on Jan. 28, 2016 in Charleston, S.C.
L, 56-65 (-9) on Feb. 28, 2015 in Charleston, S.C.
L, 67-69 (-2) on Jan. 17, 2015 in Boston, Mass.
L, 44-60 (-16) on Feb. 15, 2014 in Charleston, S.C.
W, 58-49 (+9) on Jan. 13, 2014 in Boston, Mass.

HOFSTRA RECAP
College of Charleston 76, Hofstra 72
• College of Charleston claimed its first-ever road win in the all-time series with Hofstra since joining the CAA in 2013. The Cougars and Pride are now tied 4-4 in the series. CofC also swept the regular-season series for the first time.
• With the win, the Cougars turned in the program's first 20-win campaign since 2012-13. For the second year in a row, they are among the Most Improved teams in NCAA Division I under third-year head coach Earl Grant.
• Joe Chealey recorded a team-high 18 points including 13 in the second half of play at Hofstra. He now has tabulated 1,062 career points to date and is on a 10-game double-digit scoring streak. Chealey also dished out six assists against the Pride.
• Jarrell Brantley registered 17 points and has now scored in double figures in 24-of-28 games of the season. He also added a season-high tying three steals at Hofstra.
• Grant Riller extended his double-digit scoring streak to 12-consecutive games in league play with 12 points at Hofstra.
• Marquise Pointer came off the bench and was one of four double-figure scorers for the Cougars with 10 points. It was his third double-digit game of the season.
• The Cougars outrebounded the Pride, 35-25, behind a team-high six boards from Nick Harris.
• For the second-straight game, CofC shot better than 50 percent from the floor (54.5%).

COUGAR SOUND BITES
"We know we will play another really good team in Northeastern. We were so focused on getting the job done at Hofstra this week, but we will shore up our game plan quickly for Northeastern. It's the second time we've played them in the last couple of days. We know we have to do a lot better job than what we did last time. We will try to do the best of our ability on Saturday." – College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant on the quick turnaround to play Northeastern

"Joe (Chealey) has been playing well. He had a different look in his eye (at Hofstra). I knew he wanted to come out and lead the team to victory. He was really poised and did a good job of driving, sharing the ball and getting his teammates involved. That's what we need him to do. He had six assists and we need him to continue to do that." – Coach Grant on the play of redshirt junior point guard Joe Chealey