Good teams win games by playing solid defense, rebounding the ball and executing on both ends of the floor down the stretch.
Four days ago, in an 81-75 loss to South Florida, the College of Charleston rebounded and played well enough on defense to beat the Bulls, the Cougars just couldn’t execute down the stretch, especially offensively.
Faced with a similar scenario Sunday afternoon against Charlotte, the Cougars were three-for-three – with their defensive play, rebounding and executing in the final minutes of the game.
Martin Kalu scored a game-high 18 points and Jlynn Counter added 17 points, and four assists as College of Charleston snapped a two-game losing streak with a 74-67 win over Charlotte before a crowd of 4,969 at TD Arena on Dec. 14.
Trailing by five points with less than five minutes to play, Counter, a grad transfer from Middle Tennessee State, went on a personal 10-0 run to give the Cougars a 70-65 lead on his free throw with 1:10 to play in the game.
“I made some pretty big plays down the stretch, but that’s because my teammates trust me,” said Counter, who was 6 of 14 from the floor. “My teammates set me up to make some of those plays. They trust me with the ball. The coaches made some great calls in the final few minutes, but I think it was out defense that won us this game.”
The Cougars (5-6) dominated for large chunks of the first half, opening up a double digit lead 39-29 on Chris Davis’ three and Christian Reeves’ dunk with 2:03 to play.
Charlotte (4-7) used 13-2 run early in the second half to claw its way back into the game. A Damoni Harrison’ dunk gave the 49ers a 50-47 lead with 12:20 to play.
Reeves, the former Clemson transfer finished with 13 points and five rebounds for the Cougars.
Notables
• Preseason first-team All-CAA forward Colby Duggan is out of his walking boot but has yet to start practicing with the Cougars.
The 6-7 Duggan, a first-team All-CAA performer at Campbell last season, fractured his foot during the preseason and has not played yet this year.