CSNbbs

We continue CAA play on the road this week with the next game being at the College of Charleston. They are sitting at 2-1 in conference coming off of a bad loss at JMU. This is CofC's conference home opener. Before the loss to the Dukes, they had won 10 straight including @VCU and against Memphis. This is a damn good team and still likely the favorites. Last year we squeaked by them at home in OT and got smoked on the road. We played a highly competitive game in the CAAT against them.

For this season's squad, much remains the same. Riller and Brantley are their 1-2 punch. We have to try and slow 1 of them down. Brantley is scoring 20ppg with 8 rpg, Riller is scoring 22ppg grabbing 3 rpg and dishing out 4.4 apg. Both will do their damage in the lane, though Brantley can knock down 3's as well. Moving our feet and staying in front of them will be key. We do not have a stretch this season down low to mitigate Brantley's damage so he is likely to have a field day against Ali or Butler or whoever else we throw at him. This is just a bad matchup for us in my eyes with where our defense currently sits. Maybe we shocked them in Philly again, but I dont see us hanging close in this one.

DU- 64
CofC- 85

I'm afraid to even watch this one.

CofC are 14 point favorites

Thrilled that Harper is playing. I thought he'd be lost for the season after his fall on Saturday.

Down 47-41 at half. I tuned in with about 3 minutes left. Good to also see Kurk is back. CofC shot a very high percentage so its nice to only be down 7 with how they shot. We shot 53%, they shot 65%. We are actually out rebounding them by 5, which is a bit of a surprise. We will need to get stops if we plan to make a run at them. Starts of second halves have been a strength, hopefully it continues.

I had the game on in the background. I started to watch, and Drexel was actually winning, I think 41-40, and then they didn't score for the rest of the half.

Closed the gap to 5 then a series of bad floaters and a couple 3's and the 5 point deficit turned to 13. Quick timeout. Then we hit 3 straight 3's to get back to a 4 point game at 70-66. Our team seems to respond very well out of timeouts. Good thing CofC pulls everything out. They beat us on the dribble, we collapse and they pull it out and move the ball instead of keeping going at us.

If Demir could get a quicker first step he could be very dangerous. He gets a lot of bites on pump fakes, but doesnt have the quickness to blow by the defender after they leave their feet.

Charleston is doing better getting rebounds on offense this half, but our positioning has been pretty good for rebounding. It is nice to get that kind of effort. 77-68 under 4 timeout. Need to get some stops, our "defense" has started breaking down again and we are giving some wide open and easy looks/baskets

Those 2 missed FT's were a decent blow. Thankfully CofC mis handled and we got the ball back. and then converted the extra possession.

Good find after an ill-advised shot by Riller. 1:59 left, 77-72 CofC and its the Cougars ball

Got the steal and mis-handled it ourselves back to CofC. Missed opportunity.

Smart drive by Harper. Chance to cut it to 3

Harp goes 0/2. 77-72. 1:17 left. We got the rebound and missed the 3. We are giving ourselves a chance and we are not converting.. 1 minute left

In a tight game you can't have these mis-cues. We got the steal and lose it out of bounds. CofC misses and we rebound. We drive to draw a foul then miss both (with one of our best FT shooters), get an offensive rebound then miss an decent look. Now we are in foul mode.

Got the stop we needed, now need to score.

Forced drive by Harper. Got bailed out with them calling a foul

Made both. 77-74. 26 seconds left

Got a jump ball on the trap. CofC ball still

Missed front end by Brantley. Rebound Drexel. Ali passed up a 3 and Harper drives and gets the and 1. 6.5 seconds Harp on the line for the tie