CofC Advance to Championship Game in Charleston Classic

You’ve heard it said ‘the third time is a charm’, well when it comes to the College of Charleston men’s basketball team and the annual ESPN Charleston Classic apparently the fourth time is a charm. While the Cougars can only be in the tournament every fourth year per ESPN rules, their prior three appearances have all come up shy with CofC not making it to the championship game. All that changed Friday night as Charleston held off a late rally by Colorado State to down the Rams 74-64 and set up a marquee match against Virginia Tech on Sunday afternoon.

Behind a balanced scoring attack including 22 points off the bench Charleston managed to erase poor shooting early on to take a 37-27 lead into the locker room at the break. Raekwon Horton and Pat Robinson III lead the Cougars during the first 20 minutes of play. Each finished the overall contest with 11 points, as did Reyne Smith. The three players combined for six of Charleston’s eight 3-pointers.

Horton jump started the Cougars’ offense with back-to-back treys that tied the game early. Colorado State held an early four point edge in the first half before five straight unanswered points from Robinson III gave Charleston a 13-10 lead. The Cougars would control the tempo throughout the period, taking a ten point advantage at the break.

Ryan Larson and Jaylon Scott carried the offense in the final 20 minutes of play, as Charleston extended their lead to 15 (48-33) when Horton hit from long range with 17:38 remaining. The Cougars maintained a mostly double digit lead until the Rams put together a late run, cutting it to six (66-60) when Isaiah Rivera made one of two from the foul line for Colorado. Rivera lead all scorers ending the contest with 15 points for Colorado.

Forced to foul, Scott and Smith added six additional points for Charleston with Babacar Faye closing out the contest with a dunk as the Cougars secured a 10 point margin of victory. Faye would finish with eight points to go along with a game best eight rebounds. Scott finished with 12 points overall including 6 of 7 from the free throw line to lead the College of Charleston.

The final stats were decidedly in favor of the winning team with Charleston going 22 of 25 from the charity stripe for 88 percent. The Cougars as they’ve done consistently on the season outrebounded their opponents, hauling in 12 offensive boards which lead to 18 second chance points. Both teams shot 25 percent from beyond the arc, with CofC making twice (8) as many long range.

Sporting an impressive 4-1 record with their lone loss at North Carolina, the Cougars will now prepare for another ACC team as they take on 5-0 Virginia Tech Sunday at 3:30pm. The Hokies narrowly advanced to the championship game edging Penn State 61-59 earlier on Friday.