Sports
CofC Fall 74-67 to Towson on the Road
Despite Late Game Rally Cougars Suffer Second Straight Loss
By: Jeff Walker, Sportswriter
The College of Charleston men’s basketball team suffer their second straight loss, as the fall 74-67 to Towson on the road. Down by double digits with 5:30 remaining, the Cougars late game surge wasn’t enough as they left SECU Arena empty handed. Falling to 9-7 on the season and 1-3 in the CAA, Charleston will hope to rebound when they visit James Madison on Saturday.
John Meeks (5 of 10) and Ben Burnham lead the Cougars with 16 and 12 points respectively. Brenden Tucker and Dimitrius Underwood added nine and eight points apiece with Underwood grabbing in team best nine rebounds. As in their home loss on Monday to Elon the Cougars were dreadful from the field making just 22 of 67 shots, finishing just 27 percent from beyond the arc (6 of 22).
The first half was up and down, with Charleston behind by one or two possessions for most of the 20 minutes of play. The Cougars went up early only to trail most of the period. Two minutes before intermission CofC regained the lead (24-22) on a jumper by Ben Burnham, only to have the home team rally for 10 unanswered before the break to take a 32-24 lead into the locker room.
Towsom would enjoy a double-digit lead on two occasions early in the second half before the Cougars slowly began to chip away at the lead. When Reyne Smith made two from the foul line CofC went up by one (41-40) with 10:52 still left to play. But Towson was hoping to give the hometown fans something to cheer about, as a 23-12 rally over the next six minutes provided the Tigers with a ten-point margin with less than five minutes remaining in the contest.
A steal by Tucker leading to a dunk would make it a one possession (63-60) game with 2:26 showing on the scoreboard. Juwan Gray would answer from long range for Towson. Despite five points from Meeks including a 3-pointer, Towson would close the game out making 5 of 6 from the foul line to secure the victory.
Towson spread the offensive attack around with Nicolas Timberlake leading all scorers with 17 points, adding two from beyond the arc. Gray went 3 of 4 from long range for 15 points. Jason Gibson and Terry Nolan Jr. pumped in 12 and 10 apiece. While neither team shot particularly well on the night, Towson edged the Cougars overall leading to victory. With the win Towson improve to 14-5 overall and 5-1 in the CAA.
Up Next
The Cougars continue their two-game road trip when they face James Madison on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off in Harrisonburg is set for 4 p.m. ET on FloSports.