The Charleston Cougars (24-7) were almost the victims of some March Madness in the first game of the CAA Quarterfinals on Saturday.
Charleston needed to rally to knock off the Drexel Dragons (13-20) and keep its hopes of grabbing a spot in the NCAA Tournament alive. The Cougars trailed by three points at the break, and things didn’t look good for the pre-tournament favorites early on in the second half. Charleston went over four minutes without scoring and trailed by nine points with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the game.
As has been the case all year though, Charleston’s big three came up big when it mattered most. G Joe Chealey led the charge with 22 points on 8-18 shooting. G Grant Riller ended up with good numbers, hitting 7-12 from the floor to finish with 17 points.
The most important contributions came from F Jarrell Brantley though. There were concerns about the availability of F Nick Harris coming into the day after he was hurt in the win over Elon in the Cougars’ penultimate regular season game, and Harris had a very limited impact. He was the team’s leading rebounder coming into the game, but Brantley led the way in this one with 11 rebounds.
Cougars’ fans had to be sweating bullets after what Drexel had done just a few weeks earlier. The Dragons set the record for the biggest comeback in Division I history by coming back from a 34-point deficit to knock off Delaware. In that effort, Drexel hit nearly 60 percent of their field goals in the second half.
Like so many other failed upset bids, it was the failure to connect from downtown that did Drexel in. The Dragons went just 3-18 from beyond the arc in the loss.
Charleston still has to be considered the favorite to win the CAA Tournament, even thought they struggled to beat Drexel. The Cougars have Harris back, even if he isn’t 100 percent, and have the benefit of playing at home in North Charleston Coliseum.
The Dragons were able to cover the 9.5-point spread, making underdogs 3-3 in the CAA Tournament to date.
With the win, Charleston moves on to the CAA Tournament Semifinals, where they will face the winner of No. 4 William & Mary and No. 5 Towson on Monday at 6 p.m. ET. That game will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
