CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – Joe Chealey scored 26 of his career-high 33 points in the second half and College of Charleston rallied from an 18-point first-half deficit to defeat Hofstra, 76-70, on Saturday at TD Arena.
 
Grant Riller added 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting for the Cougars (14-6, 5-3 CAA), who trailed 40-31 at the break.
 
With Chealey making 14-of -5 from the foul line in the second half, Charleston was 19-of-22 including 7-of-8 in the final 1:46, while Hofstra missed four of its last five shots.
 
Chealey had 10 points, including the last eight, in a 15-2 run that tied the game at 54 midway through the second half. His 3 with 4 1/2 minutes left broke a tie and the Cougars never trailed.
 
Justin Wright-Foreman had 26 points for the Pride (12-8, 5-3), who came into the game having won its last three in conference play.
 
The Cougars will next travel to Delaware (11-10, 4-4 CAA) for a league rematch on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. (ET) in Newark, Del.
 
POSTGAME NOTES
• For all eight of its CAA games this season, the College of Charleston started the lineup of Joe Chealey, Grant Riller, Cameron Johnson, Jarrell Brantley and Nick Harris.
• With the win, CofC has now won three-straight meetings in the all-time series with Hofstra. Each have been decided in single digits. The Cougars also take a one-game advantage in the series, 5-4.
• Joe Chealey scored a game-and career-high 33 points versus Hofstra which tied the second-most points scored by a CofC player ever at TD Arena next to CofC all-time leading scorer Andrew Goudelock, who scored 33 points versus Appalachian State on Jan. 21, 2009. Goudelock had 39 points against Dayton – the most points in a single game in the program's NCAA Division I history, in the NIT First Round on March 15, 2011 at TD Arena. It marked Chealey's third career 30-point game. He moved into the Top 5 on the all-time career scorers list surpassing CofC Athletics Hall of Famer Thaddeous Delaney (1,564) with 1,583 career points to date.
• Grant Riller registered 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field against Hofstra. It marked his 12th career 20-point outing and sixth game this season with 20-or-more points. He is currently on a five-game double-digit scoring streak in conference play.
• The Cougars outrebounded the Pride, 31-29, behind a game-high 11 rebounds from Nick Harris. It marked his eighth career double-figure rebounding game and fourth of the season. He also grabbed a career-high tying 10 boards on the defensive end.
• Jaylen McManus came off the bench and brought down a season-high tying six rebounds versus Hofstra.
• The CofC defense held Hofstra to its third-lowest scoring output of the season (70 points). The Pride came into the game averaging 79.5 points per game (all games) and 82.6 points per game (CAA games only).
• The Cougars welcomed back former players, coaches and staff for CofC Basketball Alumni Weekend, while also celebrating and recognizing the 20th anniversary of the program's 1998 NCAA Tournament appearance and squad, which won the TAAC Championship title that year.
 
POSTGAME QUOTES
College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant
On the game …
"The effort, the spirit, the competitive nature, the grit and the fight tonight epitomizes the reunion of the 1998 NCAA Tournament Team. It's a direct picture of how we should act all the time. We've had to overcome a lot of adversity over the last three-four years. I told the guys, 'this team is battle tested.' In the second half, I saw an unbelievable fight. A great confidence level on offense and an unbelievable fight on defense. I hope we learn that when we play that way, we are very capable of doing something really special."
 
On the team's second half of play …
"It's hard to say what happened in the first half. I thought we had the ball in the paint with opportunities. We didn't capitalize. If we had capitalized, maybe we would've had 38 points. Defensively, they (Hofstra) had talented players. We had to take away certain things. We gave up some pick-and-roll dunks, because of ball-screen defense. It requires five people to be doing their job at all times. You have two on the ball against a great player, the other three have to be in position to play four. In the second half, we got the fifth person in the right position and they couldn't find many shots at the rim or from the perimeter."
 
On the play of Joe Chealey and Grant Riller …
"Joe and Grant were both unbelievable tonight. They really scored the ball and got it into the paint. We wanted to attack the paint. We wanted to get it inside to our big guys and let our guards attack the paint. For whatever reason, our big guys couldn't get into a flow, so we went ball-screen motion and put it into Grant's and Joe's hand and even Marquise's. We let our guards figure out how to get the paint baskets and they did a great job."
 
College of Charleston Senior Guard Joe Chealey
On what Coach Grant told them in the locker room at halftime …
"Coach (Grant) just told us to keep chipping away. It didn't look good at first. But, we knew if we continued defending and getting stops, things would fall our way. We are confident in that and that's what happened."
 
On the first-half play of Grant Riller to keep the team in the game …
"He kept us in it with big shots and timely shots. Jarrell (Brantley) said it before, 'he's the best scorer I've been around.' We expect that from him and he did that tonight for us. It was highly competitive and both teams wanted to win. You can't take a night off and we expect that playing in the CAA."
 
College of Charleston Sophomore Guard Grant Riller
On the guard play on both sides …
"We just took what the defense gave us. It just happened to be us two. Jarrell (Brantley) got into foul trouble, so we had to be more aggressive. (Hofstra's Justin) Wright-Foreman is a good player and hit some tough shots."