COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (12-5, 3-2 CAA) vs. ELON (11-7, 3-2 CAA)
Game #18
January 13, 2018 • 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Alumni Gym (1,607)
at Elon, N.C.
 
Television: CollegeSportsLive | CAA.tv
Radio: College of Charleston Radio Network (ESPN Radio 910 AM)
Series History: CofC Leads 18-6
Last Meeting: CofC def. Elon, 71-58, on Feb. 4, 2017 in Charleston, S.C.
Internet: Free Live Statistics at www.ElonStats.com
Live Video: Live Video at http://www.collegesportslive.com/?media=567452
Tickets: www.ElonPhoenix.com
Twitter: @CofCBasketball
 
THE COACHES
College of Charleston: Earl Grant
Fourth Year at CofC: 63-53
Fourth Year Overall: 63-53
Elon: Matt Matheny
Ninth Year at Elon: 137-137
Ninth Year Overall: 137-137
 
TELEVISION (CollegeSportsLive)
Play-By-Play: Jeff McCarragher
Color Analyst: Mack McCarthy
 
RADIO (College of Charleston Radio Network)
Play-By-Play: Everett German
 
GAME PREVIEW
College of Charleston (12-5, 3-2 CAA) treks to Elon (11-7, 3-2 CAA) for both teams' first meeting of the regular season on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. (ET) at Alumni Gym in Elon, N.C. It's not a surprise that this particular matchup was selected as an early-season Colonial Athletic Association Game of the Week. In the preseason, the Cougars were picked to win the league and the Phoenix to finish third. When the two former Southern Conference rivals joined the Colonial in 2013 and 2014 respectively, both programs stood in the shadows of the already established schools in the league. Five and four years later, the Cougars and Phoenix have returned to the top of the standings in true form of their previous SoCon roots. CofC got back to its winning ways with an 82-66 victory over Northeastern on Jan. 11 at TD Arena and will have played three of its last four games on the road in CAA play. The Cougars (1st, 66.0 ppg) will have also faced three teams in a row, aside from themselves, who lead the league in scoring defense: Towson (2nd, 66.4), Northeastern (3rd, 68.9) and Elon (4th, 73.2). Three of the five preseason All-CAA First Team selections will take to the floor in Saturday's ballgame headlined by Preseason CAA Player of the Year Joe Chealey (17.8 ppg) and Jarrell Brantley (17.6 ppg) for Charleston and Tyler Seibring (13.9 ppg) for Elon.
 
A LOOK AT ELON
Elon is looking to rebound from a tough overtime home loss to UNCW (L, 78-80) on Jan. 11. It marked the team's fourth overtime game and first home loss of the season. The Phoenix currently rank second in the league in field-goal percentage defense holding opponents to a 41.8 percent accuracy from the field this season. They have five players averaging double figures in scoring and are led in both the scoring and rebounding columns by junior forward Tyler Seibring (13.9 ppg and 6.4 rpg).
 
COUGARS ON THE AIRWAVES
Fans can listen to all CofC men's basketball games throughout the 2017-18 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 Alumni Gym on the College of Charleston Radio Network.
 
PROJECTED COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON STARTERS
#13 Joe Chealey, G, 6-4, 190, Sr. (17.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.2 apg, 35.4 min)
#1 Grant Riller, G, 6-3, 195, So. (15.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.9 apg, 33.0 min)
#12 Cameron Johnson, G, 6-4, 200, Sr. (8.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.8 apg, 33.0 min)
#5 Jarrell Brantley, F, 6-7, 250, Jr. (17.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.0 apg, 30.1 min)
#23 Nick Harris, F, 6-10, 260, Jr. (6.6 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 0.5 apg, 25.7 min)
 
PROJECTED ELON STARTERS
#13 Dainan Swoope, G, 6-0, 185, Jr. (13.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3.7 apg, 34.1 min)
#22 Steven Santa Ana, G, 6-4, 190, Jr. (10.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.1 apg, 28.6 min)
#2 Dmitri Thompson, G, 6-4, 205, Sr. (11.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 32.4 min)
#41 Tyler Seibring, F, 6-9, 225, Jr. (13.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 33.9 min)
#00 Brian Dawkins, F, 6-8, 240, RS-Sr. (11.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.1 apg, 28.1 min)
 
WHAT 2 WATCH 4
College of Charleston is home to three of the Top 10 active CAA career scoring leaders in senior Joe Chealey (1,518 career points to date), junior Jarrell Brantley (983) and senior Cameron Johnson (987). Brantley is 17 points and Johnson 13 points shy of joining the 1,000 Career-Point Club. They would become only the 35th and 36th all-time players (NCAA Division I and NAIA) in school history to do so.
 
HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS
The Cougars are currently averaging 72.1 points per game this season – the highest scoring output during the Earl Grant Era. They have scored more than 70 points in a single game on eight occasions this year with two in the 90-point range. Behind their signature defense, Charleston has seen a steady climb on the offensive end in regards to scoring and field-goal percentage from Year 1 to Year 4 under Grant.
 
SEASON               SCORING OFFENSE                SCORING DEFENSE                FG%
2014-15                 58.6                                            64.6                                            40.2%
2015-16                 65.4                                            62.0                                            42.0%
2016-17                 69.0                                            64.6                                            43.2%
2017-18                 72.1                                            66.0                                            44.2%
 
COUGARS GETTING BENCH PRODUCTION
In three of their last four league games of the season, the Cougars have gotten important scoring production from their bench. CofC scored a season-high 93 points in a win over Delaware on Jan. 2 behind 14 points from its bench. In its last outing versus Northeastern, sophomore forward Jaylen McManus (12 points) and junior guard Marquise Pointer (8 points) combined for 20 of the team's 82 points.
 
"We have to continue to expand our bench and strengthen it as we go through the next few games (in conference play). It's very important. We can depend on Marquise (Pointer) coming off the bench, because we know he will give us something good – some defense, offense, steals or making a three. Adding Jaylen (McManus) to the mix is a good thing for us. Our starters are playing too many minutes and we need all of the guys who are healthy to be able to come in and contribute." – Coach Grant
 
SERIES HISTORY
College of Charleston leads 18-6 in the all-time series with Elon and has won the last three-consecutive meetings. The Cougars also hold the edge having won 10 of the last 12 meetings between both schools extending back to the Southern Conference rivalry years which included two face-offs in postseason-tournament play held in Asheville in 2013 and Chattanooga in 2011.
 
LAST 10 GAMES IN THE SERIES
W, 71-58 at Charleston, S.C. on 2/4/17 (+13)
W, 66-54 at Elon, N.C. on 12/31/16 (+12)
W, 66-62 at Elon, N.C. on 2/13/16 (+4)
L, 64-65 at Charleston, S.C. on 1/16/16 (-1)
W, 77-63 at Charleston, S.C. on 2/18/15 (+14)
W, 66-50 at Elon, N.C. on 1/14/15 (+16)
W, 68-60 at Asheville, N.C.^ on 3/11/13 (+8)
W, 56-54 at Elon, N.C. on 12/1/12 (+2)
L, 98-99 (2OT) at Elon, N.C. on 2/2/12 (-1)
W, 63-44 at Charleston, S.C. on 1/14/12 (+19)
 
NORTHEASTERN RECAP
College of Charleston 82, Northeastern 66
• For the fifth-consecutive game in conference play, College of Charleston went with the starting five of Joe Chealey, Grant Riller, Cameron Johnson, Jarrell Brantley and Nick Harris.
• With the win, College of Charleston picked up back-to-back victories in the all-time series with Northeastern for the first time since both teams first met during the 2013-14 season. The Huskies, however, still lead 5-4.
• Jarrell Brantley turned in his fourth 20-point game in the last five games for the Cougars with a game-high 22 points versus Northeastern. He also a grabbed a team-and game-high tying six rebounds.
• Jaylen McManus came off the bench and recorded a conference season-high 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 shooting from long range against Northeastern. It was one-point shy of tying his career high.
• Grant Riller scored in double figures for the third-straight game with 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field versus Northeastern.
• Joe Chealey extended his double-digit scoring streak to six-straight contests with 16 points including a 9-for-10 performance from the free throw line against Northeastern. He has scored in double figures in 16-of-17 games this season. Chealey surpassed former CofC great Marion Busby (1992-95) for eighth all-time on the school's career scoring list with 1,518 career points to date.
• Nick Harris made a career-high tying four blocked shots versus Northeastern in only 18 minutes of action.
• The Cougars shot 60.0 percent from the field (30-of-50) against the Huskies – their second-best shooting performance this season behind 66.7 percent versus Delaware on Jan. 2. They also shot 46.7 percent from beyond the arc (7-of-15) including a pair of threes from Brantley and McManus each.
• CofC scored 82 points against Northeastern – its third-highest scoring output of the season.
• The Cougars' 16-point margin of victory over the Huskies was their second-largest margin of victory of the season behind a 32-point win over NCAA Division II North Greenville on Dec. 10.
 
COUGAR SOUND BITES
"All of these games in the CAA are challenging. You have to be sharp and be prepared to play. You just want to get better and improve on your last performance. That's what we were focused on (against Northeastern). It was a much better performance than the last time out (at Towson) and I saw more tough plays. A lot of it is connected to energy, activity and staying true to your core values of who you are as a team. That's defense and rebounding for us. Offense will always take care of itself with the personnel we have on this team. We have to make sure we bring a good work ethic and show a determined spirit when we go on the court." – CofC Head Coach Earl Grant on bouncing back from two CAA road losses and building on the Northeastern win heading into the Elon road matchup
 
"We just shared the ball. It was one of those games where you could tell nobody cared who scored. They just made the right play. We turned down a good shot for a much better shot. We had good offensive balance. We only took 15 threes which was good. We had some other threes that we could have taken. I thought our guys passed it up and got it into the paint. This team is trying to mature. We are a new team. The last five games, we have a really talented player who wasn't with us. We are still a new, developing team with Jarrell (Brantley) back in the lineup. With every game and every practice, we can get better and improve." – Coach Grant on what the team did well against Northeastern
 
"Every loss helps you learn. It was tough to go through. I think it was good for us to see and experience. We are a good team, but we have a lot to grow from. It's better that it happened early on in the season than in March. We have to keep going at it and keep getting better each day. We will keep pushing. In this league, it's very important to protect your home court. Every home game you try to get and then you try to go steal one on the road, like our coaches always tell us. This league is pretty tough and everybody can get a win (home or away)." – CofC Junior Forward Jarrell Brantley on the team rebounding from back-to-back road losses with the Northeastern win at home