SoCon Fans

(1S) College of Charleston 63, (3S) Furman 58

In case you haven’t noticed, the top seeds in small-conference tournaments are tumbling one by one. The College of Charleston fought bravely and savagely on Sunday night in an attempt to avoid the trend that has swept through the college basketball community. After 40 minutes and not one second less, the Cougars’ determination and persistence were handsomely rewarded.

In a game that started slowly but finished with a flourish, the College of Charleston defeated the Furman Paladins in the semifinals of the 2011 Southern Conference Tournament on Sunday night. The Cougars will face the defending conference champion Wofford Terriers in the SoCon Tournament championship game on Monday night from McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The score was tied at 12 after 12 minutes, and Furman led by four at the half (29-25), its largest lead to that point. Regular-season league MVP Andrew Goudelock had 13 of Charleston’s 25 points at the break, and Furman leading scorer Amu Saaka posted only two of Furman’s 29 points. The Paladins nailed only 9 of 27 attempts in the first half, and the Cougars hit just 7 of 25 attempts. Teams who played nighttime quarterfinals the day before were leg-weary, and the first-half action revealed as much.

In the second half, though, the scent of a spot in the SoCon final began to invigorate each side. First, Furman started fast and jumped to an 11-point lead, at 46-35, with 11 minutes left in the game behind a fast-breaking, outside-shooting offense. Charleston head coach Bobby Cremins reportedly instructed his Cougars to stand tall and play with confidence at that point, and the Charleston squad responded with a 14-3 run to tie the score at 51 with seven minutes remaining. Moments later, the regular-season champion in the SoCon added four more points to extend the run to 18-3 and take a 55-51 edge. Although it never led by more than five points, and despite Furman’s ability to pull within a basket more than once in the closing minutes, Charleston never lost the lead for the remainder of the game.

Goudelock led the Cougar comeback with 31 points and seven rebounds. Instructively, Goudelock cleaned up his game during the C of C’s rally; the turnovers that crept into his game for the first 30 minutes of the night were eradicated down the stretch. Trent Wiedeman’s strong inside presence was felt on the floor for Charleston as well. The unheralded post player outfought Furman for 50-50 balls in the final 10 minutes of regulation, and that’s a big reason why the Paladins went several minutes without a field goal during the Cougars’ decisive 18-3 run. Wiedeman finished with 10 points and 12 very big rebounds to give Charleston more possessions at crunch time, setting the table for Goudelock to work his magic.

Jordan Miller led the 10 players that scored for the Paladins in a hard-fought battle. The young man produced 11 points. Saaka had 10 points and 9 rebounds for Jeff Jackson’s team in its third game in as many days. One could say that Furman’s three-games-in-three-days schedule caught up with the Paladins in the final minutes, but then again, Furman looked pretty fresh and confident when it led by 11 with 11 minutes to go. Charleston was about to join Florida Atlantic, Missouri State, Vermont, Fairfield, and a bunch of other teams as the latest top seed to lose in a conference tournament, but the Cougars dug very, very deep to avoid that fate. Tired legs didn’t lose this game for Furman; Charleston’s effort and pride truly made the difference.

Charleston swept its championship opponent Wofford in both of the teams’ games this season, 77-73 in Spartanburg, S.C., and 79-54 at home in Charleston. The game is at 9:05 p.m. Eastern tonight on ESPN2.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer