CHARLESTON, S.C. – Zep Jasper registered a career-high 38 points to lead College of Charleston to an 86-83 victory over NCAA Division II Columbus State in overtime on Saturday at TD Arena.
 
The Cougars (9-9), who had both of their Colonial Athletic Association road games at Hofstra postponed this weekend, added Columbus State (5-7) to the home slate on Thursday.
 
CSU came out hot behind the play of Hunter Preston and Kalen Clifton, who both were in double figures and led their squad to a 43-32 lead at halftime.
 
Key free throws from DeAngelo Epps, Jasper and Payton Willis helped Charleston tie the ballgame up to send the game into the extra period.
 
Willis joined Jasper in double figures with 16 points. Preston and Clifton ended the game with 19 and 14 points respectively for Columbus State, who have not been able to play a Peach Belt Conference game the last couple of weeks due to their opponents' being on team pauses.
 
Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant played Division II basketball at Georgia College, also in the Peach Belt.
 
The Cougars will close out the CAA regular season this week with UNCW (7-8, 1-5 CAA). The first meeting will be played on the road at Wilmington on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. (ET) and second on Senior Day to be held on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena.
 
POSTGAME NOTES
· For the 11th-consecutive game, College of Charleston started Zep Jasper, Payton Willis, Brenden Tucker, Lorenzo Edwards and Osinachi Smart (7-4).
· It was a first-ever meeting between College of Charleston and Columbus State. The Cougars improve to 1-0 in the all-time series with CSU.
· Zep Jasper knocked down a career-high 38 points on 13-of-18 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc and 8-for-9 from the charity stripe. He extended his career-best double-digit scoring streak to seven-straight games and has led the Cougars in scoring the last five-straight contests. It tied former CofC greats Ken Gustafson and Dontaye Draper for the fifth-most points scored in a single game in school history and tied as the third-most in the program's NCAA Division I Era (1992-Present).
· Payton Willis registered 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field against Columbus State. It marked his 14th double-digit scoring game of the season. He also dished out four of the team's 10 assists in the ballgame.
· For the Cougars, it marked their third overtime game of the season (2-1) next to Western Carolina (OT) on Dec. 18 and Towson (2OT) on Feb. 6. All were played at TD Arena.
 
POSTGAME QUOTES
 
College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant
On the overtime win …
"I was really proud that our guys were able to find a way to compete until the end. Find a way to win the game. Certainly, we were tested today by a good (NCAA) Division II team. I played Division II (at Georgia College). Coach (Moore) from Columbus State is someone I've known for 20 years. My senior year, we played them in the NCAA Elite Eight. He was an assistant at Columbus State. They had us down 20 at half. We came back and won. I was very familiar with how they play – changing defenses and doing a lot of different things. Took us a while to really figure that out. Give our guys credit for having enough character and fortitude to play until the end and find a way to win."
 
On what the team had to do down the stretch …
"Everything had to go right. About 30 seconds left and we were down five. We didn't want to foul right away. We wanted to try to steal the ball. We were able to turn them over once or twice. Then we fouled certain shooters that we knew their (shooting) percentages and that they may not make them (free throws). Then, we put the ball in Zep Jasper's hand. He made some big plays. We knew we needed to get to the free throw line, so the clock could stop. We did a good job of executing late and finding a way to win."
 
On the play of Zep Jasper …
"Zep is our quarterback. He is our point guard. That's what you envision as a head coach. You want to coach a confident guy at the point. Somebody that is experienced and somebody that is tough. Zep is all of that. He had an unbelievable game. I'm glad he's on our team. It's really good to see him have that kind of success and it's something he can build on."
 
College of Charleston Junior Guard Zep Jasper
On his career-best performance …
"What was clicking for me today? I came into the game with confidence. Everything I worked on in workouts and late night, I perfected it going out there. I didn't take their team lightly. Give hats off to Columbus State for their players playing hard. It was a big game for them. I knew coming into this game, I had to play hard. No let ups."
 
On the difference down the stretch to tie the game …
"I want to give a shout out to DeAngelo Epps. He came into the game in the second half and gave the team an energy boost. He helped us out a lot. He helped us in the second half by playing hard. I think it (the difference) was just us getting stops. Realizing that if we don't get stops, we won't win the game. In order to win the game, we needed stops, which were crucial at the end of the game."