Despite Career Best 27 Pts. From Galloway, Cougars Fall At Home
By: Jeff Walker, Sports Writer
The College of Charleston’s men’s basketball team, looking to bounce back after a miserable 81-57 loss to former SoCon opponent Furman on Saturday, welcomed Marshall to TD Arena Wednesday night. After decisive wins over Arkansas State and Wright State, the Thundering Herd came to Charleston aiming to stay undefeated, with the Cougars hoping to re-right the ship.
After 40 minutes of hard fought basketball Marshall prevailed using a balanced scoring attack, and getting behind a late run to down CofC 84-72. With the win the Herd improve to 3-0 on the season, with Charleston suffering their second straight loss at home, falling to 1-3 overall.
Brevin Galloway was one of three Cougars to hit for double figures. Galloway lead all scorers with a career best 27 points including 18 points from beyond the arc. Zep Jasper and Payton Willis chipped in 16 and 12 points in a losing effort. Osinachi Smart hauled in the game best 10 rebounds for CofC.
Starting the season with three losses in four games is something Galloway is not accustomed to. “It’s pretty much the same feeling (as the Furman game). In my five years here, we’re not really used to losing. It’s a different feeling and something we have to change.”
Even though it was tied at the half, the game came down to offensive spurts. CofC Head Coach Earl Grant gave Marshall their due, adding poor execution by his players made a huge difference.
“Overall, I think our guys played hard. There were a couple of runs in the game. Marshall made one in the first half and we made a run to tie it back up. In the second half, they made a run and we weren’t able to deliver late in the game. I think some of our shot selections hurt us tonight. We have to value our possessions a little bit better and see if we can continue to grow this team.”
Jannson Williams and Jarrod West lead the Marshall attack finishing with 19 points apiece. Taevion Kinsey and Darius George pumped in 13 and 11 points respectively. After shooting 63% from the floor in the first half, the Herd finished 31 of 56 from the field for 55%, including adding 12 of 21 from long range.
The Cougars added 12 from long range but took another ten shots to make a dozen threes. CofC shot less than 30% from the field in the second half, going without a basket for nearly eight minutes, as Marshall went on a 19-3 run extending their lead to 77-62 late in the contest.
Four and a half minutes into the contest, Galloway’s fifth point tied the game at eight all. Galloway 13th point on the night tied the game again at 22 all. But Marshall was hot from long range, draining 7 of 8 in 15 minutes of play to go up 40-26 with 4:48 left in the half. The Cougars found some offense, ending the first period of play on a 17-3 run to make it 43 all at the break.
Galloway hit from long range as the second half opened, with the Cougars going up 53-51 after a little more than three minutes. CofC held a 59-58 advantage, midway thru the period, however 10 unanswered points by Marshall, lead to a 19-3 run, putting the home team out of reach as the clock was winding down.
Coach Grant said Marshall’s veteran squad proved formidable Wednesday night. “Marshall is a very good team. They return every player. They were a little bit ahead of us. They were better executing with their offensive actions.”
With SC State on tap Friday night at TD Arena, Grant admits there’s work to do especially on defense. “We are making progress, but we are not where weneed to be yet. I thought we played hard at times. 80 points for us is almost a foreign thing to us. We don’t give up that many points. We still have some work to do, to develop this team, to defend the way we want to, so we can execute better.”
The Cougars will have a one-day turnaround to get ready for South Carolina State (0-5), a game slated for Friday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena.
