CofC Fall in Final Seconds to Drexel 80-79

CofC Lead Nearly Wire to Wire, Underwood Leads Cougars With 23 Pts.

By: Jeff Walker, Sportswriter

The College of Charleston men’s basketball team squander a 15-point lead midway thru the second period, only to have Drexel rally in the final minutes for an 80-79 win over CofC. The loss halts a two-game win streak on the road, with the Cougars falling to 16-13 overall and 8-9 in the CAA. Charleston will have an opportunity to improve to .500 in league play when they close out the regular season at Hofstra on Monday night.

After leading nearly wire to wire and up by one point, Dimitrius Underwood missed the front end of a 1 and 1 that might have given CofC a two- or three-point margin with 13 seconds remaining, only to have Drexel’s Amari Williams cap off the Dragons remarkable comeback with a slam dunk leaving the Cougars two seconds to pull off a miracle. Underwood who’s been an offensive powerhouse of late recorded his best ever outing in a Cougar uniform, finishing with a game high 23 points.

Maintaining a two-possession lead for most of the first half the Cougars found some additional mojo in the first 20 minutes of play outpacing the Dragons 9-3 over the final three minutes to take a comfortable 42-31 lead into the locker room at the break.

Charleston would continue to keep Drexel at bay, taking their biggest lead (55-39) on a short jumper by Brenden Tucker with 15 minutes left to play. When Reyne Smith connected from long range the Cougars were up 65-50 midway thru the period. But the home team were relentless, getting behind a 30-14 run that ended on a sour note for the visitors.

The final 30 seconds of the contest were a nail-biter. After Tucker made two from the foul line the Cougars were up 79-76 with 27 ticks on the clock. After Drexel’s Coletrane Washington missed a game tying 3-pointer, an offensive rebound sent Washington to the foul line where he brought his team within one point with 15 seconds left. Although Underwood was impressive, making 10 of 15 from the floor on the afternoon, he came up a bucket short allowing the Dragons to steal the victory.

After nursing a knee injury and seeing limited action over the past several games John Meeks chipped in 16 points for the Cougars, finishing 7 of 13 overall and 2 of 4 from beyond the arc. Tucker made 5 of 10 from the field, adding 13 points. In a strong game overall Raekwon Horton came in off the bench to score nine points, while hauling in a team best 10 rebounds for Charleston.

Drexel had impressive output from three of their starters and two players off the bench. Camren Wynter and Javier Bell lead the Dragons with 18 apiece, with Bell going 2 of 2 from 3-point land. Washington finished with 14 points, with Williams and James Butler chipping in 13 and 11 points respectively. With the win Drexel improve to 15-13,10-8 CAA.

Charleston wraps up the regular season with one final road game at Hofstra on Monday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET on FloSports.

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