Cougars on the Road to Face Furman Tonight!

The 9-8 (4-3) College of Charleston Cougars head to Greensville, SC tonight to face the Furman Paladins 2-15 (1-7). Furman has only beat the College once at Timmons Arena, but our rivalry is one of the oldest in the state, which since joining the SoCon, the Cougars lead the Paladins 18-2. The Cougs need to control the tempo (run with the Cougars) and work hard in the paint tonight: controlling the boards and getting the ball to the big men underneath. Furman shouldn't be taken lightly because their record doesn't reflect their talent and ability.

Recon Report: Alex Opacic is the guy the Cougs need to shut down tonight. Opacic is averaging 10.4 points a game, with 5 rebounds and 1.1 assists. Also, the word on the street is that Furman's freshman Nolte will get his first start tonight, the kid is a natural shooter and a southpaw which makes for an interesting opportunity for the Cougars to show their defensive skills. Finally, I haven't heard much about this kid Dehm but evidently he's a talented, scappy kid for the Paladins.

Game Time: Tonight's game will air on CSS (Channel 42), tip-off is at 5 pm.

Davidson, Furman and Appalachian State advance to the Semi-Finals

#1-seed, Davidson defeated UT-Chattanooga (15-18) by 10-points, 78-68 as Jason Richards and SoCon Rookie of the Year, Stephen Curry put 20-points on the board to give the Wildcats a chance to be in it to win it. The Wildcats improve their season to 27-4 and face the Furman Paladins tonight at 6pm.

The Furman Paladins improved to 15-15 beating UNC-Greensboro by 2-points, 73-71 last night. Robby Bostain scored 18-points and Moussa Diagne added 16-points in their win over the favored Hawks. Furman will face Davidson at 6pm tonight.

#2-seed, Appalachian State Mountaineers (25-6) had a lot of help from their bench last night with Doug McLaughlin-Williams scoring 12-points, Eduardo Bergendez and Donte Minter both had 11-points during the contest. All-Conference team recipient, D.J. Thompson led the Mountaineers with 15-points. The Mountaineers will host the College of Charleston's super-powered, dynamic offense tonight at 8:30pm.

The College of Charleston wins in double-over-time against Furman

The Cougars would keep the game close in the 2nd half as the patented Bobby Cremins' man-2-man defense began to close the Paladins' lead. Although Furman held a better percentage in field-goals shooting 43% to the Cougars 39%, the Cougars seemed to have more heart, especially in the paint. The "shake and bake" combo of Josh Jackson and Jermaine Johnson outscored the Paladins in the paint, 28 to 22 in the 2nd half. Furman kept themselves in the game with the 3-ball, but Charleston's Dontaye Draper, Tony White Jr. and recently off the injured-list, Renardo Dickerson answered with their own barrage of baskets from behind the arc. (Photo of Furman Paladin compliments of Furman Sports)

Josh Jackson had some trouble from the Charity Stripe as did his counter-part Jermaine Johnson, but as the final minutes of regular time passed, every Cougar to reach the line came up big. The Cougars would tie the game on six separate occasions and lead three times. Sidelined with 2 fouls in the 1st half, Dontaye Draper scored all of his 12-points and had 3-rebounds in the 2nd half. Alex Opacic and Moussa Diagne kept the Paladins in the game and forced over-time on the Cougars.

1st OT: The first OT was absolutely horrid as the Cougars put up paltry numbers. The College did stay alive with clutch baskets from Josh Jackson and Dontaye Draper. The first OT would end with a 68-68 tie game.

2nd OT: Tony White Jr. would open the 2nd OT with a basket as he drew the foul by Furman guard Eric Webb. (Webb would foul out of the game with 6-points after this infraction.) TW Jr would make the shot from the Charity-Stripe for his 10th point of the game, giving the Cougars a 3-point lead (71-68). Taking the ball down the court, George Brozos was fouled and made two-crucial baskets for the Paladins shortening the Cougs lead to 1. Moussa Diagne would rebound and bring the ball back for a jump-hook and the foul against Dontaye Draper-his 4th foul. The Paladins led 73-71. (The Cougars were unable to stop Diagne's jump-hook shot all night long.)

On the Cougars end, Josh Jackson scored with the foul, making both baskets, giving the Cougars a 2-point lead 75-73, with 2:27 left on the clock. Moussa would score once again with his jump-hook shot, tying the game at 75. Josh would pick up the foul again, making 1 of the 2 baskets. After a miss from the Paladins, Dontaye drove the lane and made a left-handed lay-up, putting the Cougs back up by 3, 78-75. Furman's Tony Anderson would miss a basket on the other end of the court, but pull the foul from David Lawrence-his 2nd, shortening the Cougars lead to 1 with 15.6 seconds left on the clock.

With the clock running out, Evans would foul Dontaye on the in-bounds. Draper would get a "shooter's bounce" from his first shot and then "nada but net" his second from the Charity-Stripe, giving the Cougars a 80-77 lead. Cremins called a time-out with 14.5 seconds left on the clock to talk things over. Furman would get three different looks at the basket, but as the clock ran out, Anderson couldn't get the basket to fall.

The Cougars made it out of G-Vegas with a win, 80-77. Great job by the players and the coaching staff tonight! Furman, thanks for playing!

Furman leads the College of Charleston 27-24 at the half!

Furman forward Moussa Diagne from Thies, Senegal is leading the field with 12-points for the Paladins, followed by Alex Opacic with 6 (both 3-balls). Scoring leaders for the Cougars in the first half are Jermaine Johnson with 8-points, Renardo Dickerson with 6 (both 3-balls) and Tony White Jr. with 5-points. Special guest at the game is former Cougar stand-out and NBA player for the Dallas Mavericks A.J. (see side-bar). (Photo of Moussa Diagne compliments of Furman Sports)

Dontaye Draper was benched early after receiving his second foul in the first 8-minutes. Tony White Jr. would step in to fill his shoes at the point and drop 5-points in the first-half. Furman took an early lead 11-9 against the Cougars. Philip McCandies would drop a 3-ball to shorten the Paladins' lead to one (13-12) with 9:42 on the clock. Renardo Dickerson would put the Cougs back into the game with back to back treys, the first tying the game at 15; the second 3-ball would give the Cougars a 3-point lead (18-15) with 6:06 left on the clock. Jermaine Johnson would score his 8th point of the game giving the Cougs a 5-point lead.

Furman moved to a pick and roll offense but couldn't connect on their end of the basket. Jermaine had an excellent position underneath the basket and put away a couple of lay-ups during the Cougars' 13-2 run, 22-17. Furman's shooter Alex Opacic would hit back to back three-pointers, shortening the Cougars lead to 1 with 2:40 remaining.

Moussa Diagne would give the Paladins a 25-24 lead after the "official-timeout" with a field goal and follow up with an uncontested dunk to give Furman a 27-24 lead with 1:15 left on the clock. Neither team would score in the remaining moments of the game.

Charleston vs Furman tonight 7pm on CSS!

On their way to a 20-win season, the College of Charleston basketball team (18-9, 11-4 SoCon) continues their road-trip as they face the Furman Paladins tonight, 7 pm. The game will air on CSS (Comcast Channel 42). This will be the 68th meeting between the two schools with Furman holding a 39-28 lead in the series. However, the College has won 5 straight and 16 of the last 18 meetings between the two schools. With the SoCon Tournament quickly closing in (February 28th at the North Charleston Coliseum), the Cougs have the opportunity to become more comfortable playing in a larger arena as tonight’s game will not be on held on Furman’s campus, but at the Bi-Lo Center in downtown Greenville. Tonight’s game marks only the 2nd time the Paladins have played a regular season game in the Bi-Lo Center since 1999-Furman lost to Davidson on January 10, 2007 for their first return to the Bi-Lo Center.

The College is playing their 2nd of 4 games in a 7-day stretch. The Cougars defeated Wofford soundly at the Benjamin Johnson Arena on Saturday, 71-58. A win tonight will clinch a 1st round bye for the Cougs and give them a 4th seed spot in the SoCon Tournament. After tonight the remaining games on the Cougars’ schedule are at home against the Citadel on Thursday and away at Georgia Southern on Saturday (ESPN 2).

The Paladins have won 4 of their last 5 games, and are in competition with Western Carolina for the 5th seed and bye in the SoCon Tournament. Obviously, this is too close to call as both teams have a Conference leader and a give-me left on their schedules: The Paladins have two away games left on their schedule at Davidson and at Wofford. The (Western-Carolina) Catamounts have App State and Elon left on their schedule.

Go Cougs!

Cougars face the Paladins

The College of Charleston (10-7, 3-2 SoCon) welcomes the Furman ‘Purple’ Paladins (7-8, 1-3 SoCon) Saturday night (6 pm) to Kresse Arena for the 67th game between the two schools. Furman leads the series (All-time) 39-27 but since both schools entered the SoCon, the College leads 16-2, with a current streak of 4-straight wins over Furman. The game will broadcast on CSS (Comcast Sports Southeast) with Matt Stewart doing the play-by-play and the legendary CofC Coach John Kresse painting the court as the color commentator. Also, the game will broadcast as usual on ESPN Radio-910-AM-with Tony-C and Easy-E calling the game for us.

From the Den:
Coach Cremins is 8-6 (All-time) over Furman. The last time the two schools met, the Cougars won by a basket 67-65 @ Timmons Arena, Feb.11, 2006. Josh Jackson scored 14-points; D-Lawrence scored 12-points and led the field with 9-boards. Dontaye Draper had a game high of 8-assists and had a career-high of 6 steals against Furman at the previous meeting between the two schools (1/7/06).

Furman Head Coach Jeff Jackson has a clean slate against the Cougars as this is his first year at the helm for the Paladins and Saturday will be his first trip to Kresse Arena. Coach Jackson is 28-68 in his 4 seasons as a head-coach, with a .292 (All-time) and .467 (at Furman) win percentage.

Recon
Despite having a losing record (of 7-8) and having but one win to keep the Terriers in dead-last for the South Division of the Southern Conference, the 5th-ranked Furman Paladins (1-3, SoCon) have a decent ball-club who can put points on the board. The Paladins lead the League in 3-pointers shooting 40.1%, with an average of 8.1 shots made from behind the arc per game and Furman has three starters averaging at least 12-points a game and 3 rebounds: Moussa Diagne (12.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg), Robby Ballstain (12.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.5 assists) and Eric Webb (12.9 ppg. 3.3 rpg and 5.3 apg). The Paladins lost to Georgia Southern by 2-points last Saturday and they lost to Davidson by 8-points on Wednesday. (Both Diagne and Webb scored 13-points in their loss against Davidson Wednesday night.) Side note: Furman lost to the currently undefeated Clemson Tigers on November 15th by 9-points.

Where the Paladins are weak-under the basket-Furman was out rebounded by Ga. Southern (33-19) and Davidson (39-24). Hopefully it is time for Josh Jackson to get angry! And Jackson and Johnson can do a little “shake and bake” on the boards-yes, I just said that; I can’t believe that just happened.

Southern Conference Basketball Begins!

So-Con Basketball Begins!
The CofC Cougars man-handled the Ga State Panthers (72-66) on the road, but we weren't the only ones to bring home a win in our first game.

Here are the current standings of the SoCon South Division:

1. Furman (2-0) defeated Charleston Southern 88-69 and Erskine 67-55


2. CofC (1-0) won on the road by six just a few miles from the "Thrillerdome". George Street has all of the talent and the magic of Coach Cremins, but can we deflate our egos in time to earn nationally ranking? Hey Coach, take a page out of Greg Schiano's book and just let the guys humbly chop wood, one-game-at-a-time.


3. Davidson (2-1) the Wildcats beat Central Connecticut State 91-64 and they beat Eastern Michigan on the road, 81 to 77 to get their first notch on the proverbial victory belt. Davidson may not be favored, but they always put a crafty and tough group on the hardwood, which is seen in their only loss to the Michigan Wolverines by 10 (68-78)


4. Georgia Southern (1-1) the Eagles put up triple digits in their win against UC-Davis (116-73) and lost to Duke by 24 (72-48).


5. Citadel (1-2) Our cross-town rivals the Citadel defeated Ohio Valley 79 to 58 for their home-opener Friday night to begin Ed Conroy's tenure and to kick off their Homecoming Weekend. The Bulldogs then lost (respectively) on the road to Michigan State (73-41) and Iowa (75-53).


6. Wofford (0-1) Woof! Woof!