CofC Edge Richmond 92-90 in OT

By all accounts the College of Charleston men’s basketball team had a good opening week to the 2022-23 season. In their first contest they took down defending SoCon champs Chattanooga 85-78 Monday (Nov 7th), before giving top ranked North Carolina a run for their money before falling 102-86 this past Friday.

Week two started out with the Cougars hosting Richmond, the defending Atlantic 10 champs. The Spiders brought a 2-0 record to TD Arena, after easily getting by VMI and Northern Iowa. The last time the two teams met was December 14, 2019 when the Spiders took the 78-71 victory in Richmond, with starters Andre Gustavson and Matt Grace the only to Spiders remaining from that squad.

The Tar Heel contest aside, when fans look back the match up between Charleston and Richmond may go down as the most exciting game of the year. When the Spider’s Isaiah Bigelow hit a 3-pointer with 2:40 left to play, Richmond took their first lead (77-76) of the night. A missed jumper by Bigelow as time expired sent the game into overtime, tied at 81 all.

Reyne Smith was the spark that kept Charleston rolling throughout. The sophomore guard drained five 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes of play as the Cougars a comfortable 45-31 at the break. Smith would add three more treys in the second period for a total of 8 of 16 from beyond the arc. He would have set the school record with nine, but his shot was determined to be after the shot clock had gone off. Smith lead CofC finishing with 29 points overall, his best in a Cougar uniform.

Behind two threes by Smith and several layups the Cougars quickly jumped out on top 12-3 inside of five minutes. Not long after a Raekwon Horton steal leading to a slam dunk put the home team up 17-7, as CofC were easily controlling the tempo of the game. Nearing the midway mark a layup by Dalton Bolon put Charleston up 29-7, before they settled on a 14 point advantage at intermission.

The Cougars came out of the locker room with the same gusto. When Smith drained his sixth 3-pointer the Cougars went up by 20 (53-23), holding on to the same margin (60-40) at the 14:12 mark. However, the Spiders were relentless from that point on, making it a one possession (72-70) contest when Grace connected from long range.

A fast break dunk by Babacar Faye put Charleston up 76-71 before Richmond put together a closing 10-5 run in the final minutes two minutes to send the game into overtime. Needing one trey to set the single game three-point school record, Smith was fouled from the behind the arc to give the Cougars a chance to tie. Smith sank all three shots from the foul line to tie the contest at 81 apiece.

The Spiders would take a five point advantage midway thru the extra period before Jaylon Scott made connected from long range, adding three the hard way, to put the Cougars ahead. Tyler Burton who lead all scorers with a game high 38 points misfired from long range as time expired, sending the visitors home with their first loss of the young season.

Richmond had three other players hit for double figures with Grace finishing with 16 points, going 2 of 2 from long range. Bigelow chipped in 15 points off the bench with Jason Nelson adding 10 for the visiting team. With the loss Richmond fall to 2-1 on the season.

The final stats proved close with Charleston having an advantage on the offensive boards. Dalton Bolon and Faye finished with 13 and 11 points respectively with Faye hauling in a game best 10 rebounds.  Charleston got 36 points off the bench. The Cougars improve to 2-1 heading into this weekend’s ESPN Charleston Classic.

Charleston prepare to face Davidson in the Charleston Classic on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in TD Arena. Although it’s played on the Cougars home court it is considered a neutral site, and none of the contests for CofC are home games. For tickets and info visit https://espnevents.com/charleston-classic/