The Charleston Cougars gave us one of our first little bits of March Madness on Tuesday night. Charleston was looking to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999 and were slight favorites heading into their game against Northeastern.
However, the Huskies looked set to play spoiler. They dominated the first half thanks to some great play from Vasa Pusica, who has been fantastic this season, and led by as many as 17 points in the second half.
The home crowd looked drained as it looked like the Cougars would lose a bid on their home court for the second straight year, but then the Huskies fell apart. Charleston started hitting shots and Northeastern’s offense started to feel the pressure of the moment. The Huskies turned the ball over 14 times in the second half, including on each of their final two possessions in regulation, and allowed the Cougars to storm back in order to take the game to overtime.
From there, it was all Charleston. The Cougars hit their first four field goals in the extra frame, running away from the Huskies and delivering a bad beat to Northeastern bettors.
For Charleston, the star of the game was Joe Chealey. Chealey finished with 32 points on the evening and did most of his damage from the free throw line. He was able to get to the line often against the Huskies, and made them pay each time he was there. Chealey went 16-16 from the stripe and it turned out his team needed every one of those points.
It’s not often a team loses a game when it shoots over 55 percent from behind the arc, but turnovers killed the Huskies. Northeastern went 15-27 from distance, with Pusica going 6-11. When you turn the ball over 20 times in a game though, it’s tough to win.
With the win, Charleston claimed the CAA’s automatic bid for the first time since joining the conference. The Cougars’ four previous tournament appearances came when the school was a member of either the TAAC or the SoCon.
Charleston will find out where it is seeded on Selection Sunday, but early projections pin them as either a No. 13 or No. 14 seed.
