An apology for the "dueling banjos" comment

And what pray tell would cause us here at the CofC Sports Fan to post an apology, the answer is 6-year veteran and co-captain of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders squad, 29-year old Leigh Killian a 1999 graduate of Appalachian State and a recent guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. A correctional probation officer by day and a cheerleader on the weekends makes this High Point, NC native quite an interesting woman. Our bad Leigh.

Link to the Professional Cheerleader Blog for the entire article

College of Charleston beats Appalachian State 68 to 63

From the Post & Courier:

BOONE, N.C. — The College of Charleston has had its share of heartbreaking losses this season, so perhaps it was only fitting that the Cougars would earn a heartwarming basketball win.

Trailing by five points, Charleston outscored Appalachian State 10-0 over the final 2:12 of the game to beat the Mountaineers 68-63 Thursday night at the Holmes Center.

"This is the biggest win of the season for us by far," said Charleston coach Bobby Cremins. "It looked like we were going to lose another close one, and finally the breaks went our way. I'm really excited."

Charleston (11-12, 6-7 SoCon) had lost at home to Appalachian State (14-8,

9-4) 70-66 in Charleston on Jan. 3, a victory that jumpstarted the Mountaineers to nine victories in their last 10 games. Meanwhile, the Cougars struggled and went 4-5 over the same span.

But on Thursday night, Charleston made all the plays down the stretch against the Mountaineers.

Andrew Goudelock, who led the Cougars with 19 points, made a jumper with 25 seconds to play to put Charleston ahead 64-63.

After a Mountaineers' turnover, Charleston guard Tony White Jr., an 82 percent free throw shooter who missed the front end of a one-and-one in the closing seconds of the Cougars' 67-66 loss at Wofford on Jan. 28, made two free throws with 14.5 seconds to play for a 66-63 Charleston lead.

Charleston forward Jeremy Simmons, a 56 percent free throw shooter, made two free throws with 6.6 seconds to play for the coup de grace.

"I can't say enough about our team," Cremins said. "I'm just really excited abut this victory. This is what we needed. We needed something good to happen. Finally, when it looked like we were going down for another defeat, the breaks went our way. We got a tremendous win. Now we've got something to build on."

The Cougars missed 12 of their first 13 3-pointers, but made their next two to lead 30-27 at the half.

The game started out close and stayed that way in the first half , with neither team leading by more than three points.

An 8-0 run to start the second half put the Cougars ahead 38-27 with 18:33 to play, but the Mountaineers rallied to get back in the game.

Cougs travel to the "Dueling Banjos Arena" to take on Appalachian State tonight!

The College of Charleston Cougars travel to Boone, North Carolina tonight to take on the App State Mountaineers. The Mountaineers squeaked out a four point victory over the Cougars in the last meeting between the two schools on January 3^rd. Game time is at 7 pm and will air here in Charleston on WTMZ 910-AM.

Recon: App State’s guard Kellen Brand was wheeled off the court in a stretcher late in their game last Saturday against Western Carolina, Brand is noted as having received a “slight” concussion, and although concussed, Brand is expected to play in tonight’s game. Forward eremy Clayton has been hot recently, blocking six shots and pulling down a career-high 17 rebounds against Elon on January 28th, on his way for a double-double with 12 points. Forward Donte Minter was out with the flu against Elon, but was back in the following game against Western Carolina scoring 13 points (team high) for the Mountaineers. Finally, ASU guard Donald Sims really started to make an impact for the Mountaineers in January with 34 assists and 12 turnovers for the month, giving him a 3 to 1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Although, the App State has seven games which were decided by five points or less this season, ASU is 5-2, and a major threat in the SoCon, combined with a two-game win streak, the College of Charleston needs to play tight defense (especially in the paint) if we want to come home with a win on the road and continue our one-game win streak.

(Photo courtesy of pizzaz.net)

Cougs Host Appalachian State Tonight @ 7 pm

The College of Charleston Cougars (6-6, 1-1 SoCon) are favored by 2 tonight as they host the Mountaineers at Kresse Arena. You can catch the game on local radio 910-AM or on Comcast Channel 42. The Cougs are kicking off an eighteen-plus-game stretch of SoCon Games with App tonight and Elon on Saturday (I included the SoCon Tourney as the plus). Appalachian State is 5-6, 0-2 SoCon with conference loses to E.T.S.U. and Davidson.

And of course, we will get our fair share of the Mountaineers starters: forward (Sr) Donte Minter (11.1 ppg), sophomore guard Kellen Brand (11 ppg) and senior forward Jeremy Clayton (7 ppg). Which of course, does brings some point of concern in the Maroon Nation as the Cougs have been a bit lax on the glass of late.
I’ll see you at the game! Go Cougs!

The College of Charleston Wins Over Appalachian State!

The Cougars won 89-87 in OT tonight against Appalachian State and will face Davidson in the Championship Game tomorrow night at 6:00 pm! The game will air on ESPN 2.

Dontaye Draper set a new career-high and College of Charleston record of most points scored in a game with 38-points! More on this later! It is time to celebrate with the Maroon Nation!
(Photo compliments of CofC Sports.com)

Scouting Appalachian State for tonight's game

The Cougars dropped both of their games against the Mountaineers this year: @ Kresse they lost 57-68 and at App the Cougars lost 56-67. In the December 2, 2006 game, Dontaye Draper was held to 5-points all from the charity-stripe. In the last meeting between the two schools, Dontaye scored 3-points (from behind the arc) in 33-minutes of play. (Photo courtesy of SoCon Sports.com)

Draper knows that he has to shake those Mountaineer blues if the Cougars are to advance this evening to tomorrow's Championship game. If you watched the last game at Appalachian State, you are well aware that Draper was cold, but so wasn't the rest of the squad. Dontaye made great dishes, but the Cougs (shooting 34.5% from the field, 22.7% from behind the arc and 65% from the charity-stripe) couldn't get the ball to drop. Philip and Josh both ended with 12-points for the game. All Conference 3rd Team honoree, David Lawrence had 9-points and Jermaine added 6. Marcus Hammond had 4-points against App and Tony White Jr and Taurus both finished with 3-points.

Although Appalachian State's starting forward Nathan Crawford is 3-days out of practice and inflicted with a virus, the Mountaineers' bench picked up the slack last night against Western Carolina. The University of Virginia transfer, Donte Minter, scored 11-points and had 5-boards, Doug McLaughlin-Williams scored 12-points with 6-rebounds and Eduardo Bermudez added 11-points coming off the bench. With 15-points, D.J. Thompson was the only starter to score double-digits.

The Cougars have an excellent opportunity to break the 3-game losing streak the Mountaineers have imposed and can catch the Mountaineers looking past this game to the Media's darling match-up with Davidson for the SoCon Title. As Coach Cremins said, "Everyone wants to see a Davidson vs. App. State final, but we have other plans." The Cougars need a big game from Dontaye Draper tonight and even a bigger game from the big men down in the paint. If they do so, they can contain the Mountaineers and play tomorrow for a ticket to the Big Dance!

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.

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!

The College of Charleston stays on the road to face App State tonight at 7 pm

The College of Charleston’s Men’s Basketball Team heads to the Holmes Center in Boone, N.C. to face the Mountaineers of Appalachian State University. The 7 o’clock game will broadcast on CSS (Comcast Channel 42), as well as the usual 910 AM and on SoCon TV. Mountaineer Sports Network will also broadcast the game in North Carolina. App State is currently 16-5, 8-2 (SoCon) with a three game winning streak that consists of breaking the 2nd longest Division 1 win-streak Davidson had (after embarrassing Davidson at Davidson), the Mountaineers smoked Furman by 9 and kenneled the Citadel Bulldogs by 41-points. The Cougs are playing great hoops right now and are riding a six-game win streak (winning 12 of the last 13 games), but tonight’s game will be a test for the Cougars as their remaining 8-games on the schedule (per ratings percentage index) is getting nothing but tougher.

Recon:
Head-coach for the Mountaineers Houston Fancher has assembled a very strong, 3-guard team who are shooting lights out wherever they go. App. is leading the SoCon in field goal percentage (48.2%) and 2nd only to Davidson in points per game (76.4), as well as holding the top of the heap in the North Division of the Southern Conference. Donte Minter, DJ Thompson and Nathan Cranford all average double-digits per game and as the Cougars found out in our SoCon opener, App State can bury the basketball from behind the arc, as well as beat you up in the paint. The Mountaineers are shooting 51.9% at home and in SoCon games this year. They have shot 50% or better in their last 5 games and 60% or better in 3 of those 5 games.
When I said lights out, I meant lights out; Senior-Guard Nate Cranford tied the school record for most treys in a game with 8 total 3 balls against the Citadel and the team as a whole set a new record for most treys in a game, with a total of 17 baskets (63%) made from behind the arc.

By the Numbers:
The Cougars (15-7, 8-2 SoCon) are 3-2 when playing on television, 4-4 on the road and 4-0 on Monday nights this season. Coach Cremins is 4-1 (All-time) vs. App. State and will be making his first trip back to App as head coach of the Cougars. The Mountaineer’s coach Fancher is 3-7 vs. the College. Charleston leads the overall series 10-6 and 9-4 since both teams joined the SoCon. Make no doubt about it, this game is pivotal to both programs as the season is dwindling away and the SoCon Tournament is less than a month away, so tune in tonight for the game. Go Cougs!

(Photo compliments of Blue Ridge Blog)

College of Charleston still has the best record in the SoCon!

I wanted a photo that spoke of the beauty and majesty of the College of Charleston. I couldn't find one I liked so I ran out on my lunch break and took this one with my old digi camera. (Photo courtesy of J. Trabert) Davidson is hot on our heels, but we are still number 1 in the SoCon (aka: the best in the business!)

Rank/School..........................................Record..............2006-2007

1. College of Charleston......96-40.........4-6


2. Davidson................................93-43...........7-3


3. Georgia Southern.................78-55...........5-3


4. Chattanooga.........................77-57............4-5


5. Appalachian State...............74-59...........6-3


6. UNC Greensboro................61-74............3-6


7. Furman................................59-73...........5-4


8. Wofford................................56-77...........4-6


9. Western Carolina................43-89..........4-3


10. Citadel..................................37-97...........2-8

The Cougs dropped their 3rd straight to App State

The College of Charleston dropped their 3rd straight game in front of 3,487 Maroon faithful, and their first loss in the SoCon yesterday against Cremins' old team, Appalachian State. The Cougs shot 36.2% (17-47) against the Mountaineers' 42.1% (24-57). The Cougars were off to a good start but the Mountaineers went on a 22-7 run in the first half and never looked back.

From the Den:

Leading the Cougars was David Lawrence with 16-points and 14 boards, followed by Tony White Jr's 13-points in his first start. Philip McCandies stayed solid with 10-points and 5 boards. Nothing hurt here for the Cougs. Technically we are in a rebuilding stage and it will take time before we see results. (Photo from the new Carolina First Arena taken with a Sony/Ericsson W300i, compliments of the Bushido Staff/Trabert)

1st 2nd Final

App. State 38 30 68

Coll. of Charleston 24 33 57

The Cougars (3-5, 0-1 SoCon) face South Carolina at the Colonial Center on Tuesday night @ 7:00 pm.