Hofstra Outslugs College of Charleston

Over the past nearly ten years that I have been writing about college basketball, one term occasionally is thrown about, especially in #CAAHoops circles; the term "rockfight".   The term was started by several CAA bloggers and fans, often to denote Drexel basketball.   Rockfight in CAA circles is often a low scoring, often bad shooting knock em down, drag out, physical affair.  There are lots of fouls, but not a lot of points. Basically the kind of game Drexel and Bruiser Flint seemingly loved to play over the years.  The wrestling announcer Jim Ross would call such a game "a slobberknocker".

Thus was the case last night between Hofstra and the College of Charleston at TD Arena on the campus of the College of Charleston.   The two teams were at the opposite ends of the Colonial standings. Hofstra was tied for first at 2-0, while CofC was 0-2.   But as the other games in the CAA last night showed, standings and previous game play didn't matter.

It was nice to be back at TD Arena in one of my favorite cities in the United States and only two hours from where I live in Columbia.  And there's nothing better than a good high school steel drum band, which greeted us in the concourse of the arena.

The game started out slowly from an offensive standpoint.  Neither team was shooting well and the score after eight minutes of play was 8-4 Hofstra.  After nine and a half minutes it was 11-4.  Then in the span of seventy five seconds, CofC scored nearly doubled their point total with a 7-0 run to tie the game at eleven on a Canyon Barry three pointer.

But both teams would continue to struggle, as they shot under thirty percent for most of the first half . With about nine minutes left in the first half, there were as many fouls by both teams, thirteen, as Hofstra had points.  Things didn't get any better as the score was only 17-13 with six minutes left in the half.

This was due in large part to the physical play on the court.   There were several non calls on Hofstra which made the CofC fans irate.  When a foul was finally called on Hofstra, there was a huge howl from the crowd, basically as a sigh of relief from the previous officiating of the game.

The pace would pick up over those final six minutes and The Pride would enter halftime up 28-24.  At the beginning of the halftime, the public address announcer noted that if Charleston wins a game by scoring 71 or more points, the fans would be treated to a meal deal at a local restaurant.   In this case, that would mean the Cougars would have to basically double their output in the first half, an unlikely event given their shooting percentage.

Ameen Tanksley started the second half, doing what he does best, burying a three pointer to put the Pride up seven, 31-24.  But the Cougars came to life and as a result, so did the crowd.  CofC outscored Hofstra 13-5 over the next six and a half minutes.  Anthony Stitt's jumper put the Cougars up 37-36 and the CofC fans in attendance made the most noise they had all night. After a Green free throw tied the game at thirty seven, Baru hit a jumper to put the Cougars up two 39-37.

The Pride responded with a 12-3 spurt of their own, scoring all their points on three pointers. , Green and Dion Nesmith each hit one, then Tanksley hit two in a row.  His second three pointer put Hofstra up 49-42 with a little under nine minutes left.  It looked like the Pride were hitting their stride shooting wise.

However, the Cougars had another run in them.   They outscored Hofstra 13-3 over the span of four minutes.  Barry again did a good part of the damage.   His three pointer tied the game at fifty two.  Then Cameron Johnson banked in a three to put the CofC up 55-52 with 4:51 left and the John Kresse Court was the loudest it had been all night.

For the first thirty five minutes of the game, the Pride had struggled from the line.  They had shot eleven of nineteen going into those last four minutes and fifty one seconds of the game.

Then a strange thing happened.  Brian Bernardi was fouled on a three point attempt.  He calmly sank all three free throws to tie the game at fifty five.  After Donovan Gilmore put the Cougars back up with two free throws, Green tied the game for Hofstra again, making both of his free throws, which made it five three throws in a row for Hofstra.  Green would come up huge again, hitting a jumper to put Hofstra up 59-57 with 2:48 left.

While Hofstra had troubles from the charity stripe for most the game, CofC had been very good, shooting 11 of 13 from the line.  But down the stretch, the Cougars charity stripe shooting failed them.  Johnson first had a chance to tie the game, but only made one of two free throws to cut the lead to one, 59-58.  Then after a terrific drive and layup by Dion Nesmith put the Pride up three, 61-58 with a little over a minute left, Adjehi Baru had a chance to cut the lead to one.  He missed one of two free throws as well.

The Cougars were down two, 61-59 with thirty eight seconds left and had to foul the rest of the game.  But Green and Nesmith were huge down the stretch, hitting all eight of their free throws.  Mix in a great pass from Nesmith to Moussa Kone for a thunderous dunk and Hofstra escaped with the 71-66 win.

After both teams combined for fifty two points in the first half, each team scored over forty points in the second half.  Go figure.  Still, the Pride had more fouls, twenty, than baskets, nineteen.  For CofC, it was close. Twenty two baskets to twenty one fouls.

Green had another stat stuffer game with 26 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.  Green shot 13 of 14 from the charity stripe.  Tanksley added 17 points and Nesmith had 11 points off the bench for the Pride.  Hofstra went 13 for 13 from the line over the last 4:22 of the game.

Barry led the Cougars with 21 points , 7 rebounds and 3 steals.  He showed a nice all around game as he drove the basket often on Bernardi, who had a hard time covering him. Stitt added 11 points.

On a night where William and Mary and James Madison suffered their first conference defeats, Hofstra managed to squeak out a road win.  The road is often unkind to #CAAHoops teams.  When you get a win after a "rockfight" on your opponents' floor in the Colonial, the bus ride afterwards is a lot sweeter.

There must have been a lot of smiling faces on the Pride players as they headed to Elon for their next game on Saturday.

A Night in Charleston (Recap of UNC Asheville vs. College of Charleston)

In November 2008, my friend Tony Terentieff and I took a trip down to Charleston to see Hofstra play in the inaugural Charleston Classic.  I quickly fell in love with a city full of history, culture, character, wonderful southern architecture and of course, terrific food.  It was truly one of the best vacations in my life.

When I accepted a position at the University of South Carolina School of Law in August 2012, one of the things I quickly looked forward to was being able to go every so often to Charleston.  Last basketball season, I was able to see Towson play College of Charleston, but due to time constraints, I didn't have much of a chance to enjoy one of my favorite cities.

However, late this summer, I brought my family to visit Charleston for an overnight trip.  My wife and my kids immensely enjoyed this city by the water, as we took in the Aquarium, visited a plantation (with a swamp full of alligators!) and walked through Waterfront Park, The Battery and went by many historic homes.  My family quickly became fond of the second largest city in South Carolina.

When my friend, Tony Bozzella, became head coach of the Seton Hall women's basketball team, he let us know that they were playing at South Carolina on Sunday, November 17.   It also happens to be the weekend of South Carolina hosting Florida in football.   So, a group of us put plans in motion for a weekend of sports, circled around seeing our good friend, Coach Bozzella.  It was also a reunion of my Hofstra basketball trio as I would get to see Tieff and Mal.

The original plan for the sports weekend was for Mal and Tieff to fly down on Friday morning and I would show them around Columbia.  But it just so happened that the College of Charleston was hosting UNC Asheville last night.  So I had a better plan;  a night of hoops in "The Holy City".

After picking them up at Charlotte airport, I drove them back to my house here in Forest Acres, a town inside Columbia.   We then had a tasty lunch of South Carolina barbecue at my home. Afterwards, I took Mal and Tieff to check into their hotel.  Then we made the now familiar two hour drive down to "America's Most Friendly City" (as noted by Conde Nast Traveler).  

I parked in the same garage by the downtown Hampton Inn that we used for my family trip in late summer and made our way through the streets of Charleston.  After a quick dinner at a local establishment, we headed out to what my Google Maps thought where the arena was located.  We quickly realized that it was not the right direction, so thanks to a couple of helpful, female College of Charleston students, which once again proved that Charleston is "the most polite and hospitable city in America", we got to TD Arena fifteen minutes before game time.

The John Kresse Court at TD arena is nestled into the heart of the College of Charleston campus.  It opened in November of 2008 and seats 5,100 people.  The TD Arena will be hosting its sixth Charleston Classic on November 21.   The Cougars will be one of the eight teams in the tournament.  Strangely, this only the third time that the College of Charleston will have played in the tournament on its home court.  The Cougars played in the first Charleston Classic and in last season's tournament.

It was a good crowd for a drizzly Friday night.  Tieff was hoping that there was no rain this time, unlike 2008.  During the first day of action in the brand new arena, it was raining in Charleston.  And the TD Arena roof had its first leak.  It just so happened the leak was right above where Tieff was sitting and sure enough, TD Arena, sort of speak, christened Tieff.

There was one difference between last night and the previous times I had seen the College of Charleston play on John Kresse Court.  That was the CAA logo at both baskets.  The Cougars just joined the Colonial Athletic Association this fall after years of being in the Southern Conference.

Early in this college basketball season, so much has been made of the impact of freshmen like Duke's Jabari Parker, Kansas' Andrew Wiggins and Kentucky's Julius Randle.  But its not just the big name schools that have impact freshman.   UNC Asheville and College of Charleston each have a freshman leading their team in scoring.   The Bulldogs have guard Andrew Rowsey, who came into the game averaging 18 points per game. The Cougars have Rick Barry's son, Canyon Barry.  Canyon put up 36 points in a win over Charlotte.

From the outset, both freshmen made their presence known on the court.  Barry hit a layup to give Charleston a 2-0 lead.  It would be the only lead the Cougars would have for the next thirty plus minutes of game action.  After D.J Cunningham, otherwise known as "Mr. C" the rest of the night (Google it), tipped in a rebound to tie the game at two, Rowsey went to work.  He assisted on a layup, then buried a three pointer and then hit another jumper to put UNC Asheville up 9-4.  A little bit later, Rowsey hit a layup and then buried another three pointer to extend the Bulldogs lead to ten, 16-6.

After the Bulldogs went up by 13, 21-8 with about nine minutes left in the half, Barry went to work.  He would score eleven of the Cougars next thirteen points with an array of three pointers, layups, dunks and of course, trademark Rick Barry underhanded free throws.  The kicker was that entering the game, Barry was only one of seven from the free throw line.  Tieff and Mal believed that Barry had been shooting his free throws overhand in those two games and that his Dad called him to say "Us Barrys shoot their free throws underhand, son.".  Barry would go six of six shooting underhand free throws on the night.

But despite Barry's scoring prowess, the UNC Asheville lead would continue to grow.  The Bulldogs were up 31-17 with two and a half minutes to go in the half.  This was a result of largely two things.  One, Rowsey creating offense either with a long three pointer or in one case, driving to the basket, then using an old school, rec league ball fake that resulted in a defender jumping up, leaving his man open for an easy layup. The other was "Mr. C" constantly getting post feeds and backing into his man for easy post shots.  Time after time, Cunningham was able to get an open look and there were no Cougars helping out to double team the six foot ten senior center.

Meanwhile, outside of Barry, the Cougars struggled on offense.  They only shot 8 of 29 from the field in the first half and if they weren't missing a shot, Cunningham or the Bulldogs' Jaleel Roberts were blocking them.  Cunningham had six blocks in the game and Roberts added three of his own.   UNC Asheville went into the locker room up 31-21 at half.

The College of Charleston needed to change things up to start the second half.  And the Cougars' Athletics Staff  provided the student section with the necessary arsenal to distract the Bulldogs' free throw shooters; inflatable props, consisting of palm trees, blue whales, bricks and turtles.  I think the props distracted the students more than it did the free throw shooters.  Still, it was a neat touch.

Through the first three minutes of the second half, UNC Asheville maintained a double digit lead, 37-26.  Then a Barry three pointer ignited a 16-2 run, capped on layup by Joe Chealey, another talented Cougars' freshman.   College of Charleston had its first lead, 42-39, since ninety seconds into the start of the game.

Rowsey would answer with four straight points, his first points since seven minutes left in the first half and the Bulldogs went back up 43-42.  Chealey would respond with a three pointer to put the Cougars back up two, 45-43 with ten minutes left.

It was then that Bulldogs' senior Jaron Lane offensively got on track.  Lane, a redshirt senior due to an ankle injury last season and who averaged 11.5 points per game in 2011-12, had a horrible first half as he went 0 for 6 from the field, missing badly on all of his three point attempts. In fact, Lane had missed on his first seven three pointers of the season.  But over the span of nearly six minutes, Lane accounted for nine of the next eleven points UNC Asheville scored, including a three pointer that put the Bulldogs up 54-49 with 3:20 left in the game.

The Bulldogs looked like they were going onto victory as the Cougars had not hit a field goal since eight and a half minutes left in the second half.   But some teams can't stand prosperity and the Bulldogs went away from their Rowsey dribble drive/Cunningham post game and went into a stall, with either Rowsey or Corey Littlejohn dribbling at the top of the key and Cunningham all the way over into a corner.  Their possessions ended up in badly taken shots, or in the case of Lane, a turnover.

As a result, UNC Asheville would not score another point the rest of the second half.   However, the College of Charleston barely took advantage.  First, Anthony Thomas hit a jumper to cut the lead to three, 54-51.  After missing on two consecutive possessions, the third time was the charge as Chealey setup Willis Hall nicely for a game tying three pointer with thirty five seconds left in the game.   The Bulldogs failed to score on their last possession and the game went into overtime tied at fifty four.

In the overtime period, the Bulldogs went back to the offense they unwisely had abandoned late in the second half.   On post plays, Cunningham, sorry, Mr. C hit two consecutive jumpers to put UNC Asheville up 58-54.  Adjehl Baru, who had a double of twelve points and thirteen rebounds, hit a jumper of his own to cut the Bulldogs lead to two, 58-56.  But on the next Cougars' possession, Baru missed a possible game tying jumper.  Rowsey responded with a jumper to put UNC Asheville back up four, 60-56.

As was the case for most of the game, the Cougars were ice cold from the floor down the stretch and Chealey and Thomas both missed easy layups that could have cut the deficit to two points.  From there, the Bulldogs iced the game hitting seven of eight free throws.  Meanwhile, Chealey had the last two points for the Cougars, but missed on two shots to end the game.  The Bulldogs got their first win of the season, a hard fought 67-58 overtime win.

The Bulldogs shot forty six percent from the field and fourteen of fifteen from the charity stripe.  Rowsey led all scorers with twenty three points on eight of eleven shooting from the field, including three of six from beyond the arc.  Lane scored thirteen points after the first twenty minutes.  Mr. C had a double double of twelve points and ten rebounds to go with his six blocks.

The Cougars had eighteen more field goal attempts than the Bulldogs, due to only six turnovers and forcing fourteen Bulldogs' turnovers.  Yet Charleston hit two less shots than UNC Asheville (22 to 24).  The Cougars were also a frigid five of twenty seven from beyond the arc.  Barry led Charleston with eighteen points, but he was only five of seventeen from the field, including two of nine from beyond the arc.  Baru had his double double and Chealey added ten points.

We said goodbye to "The Holy City" and made the two hour trip back to Mal and Tieff's hotel in downtown, Columbia.  Day one of our sports weekend was complete.  Day two is just beginning.