Box Score Game Box (pdf)
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford men’s basketball team was defeated 79-50 by the College of Charleston on Saturday night at Benjamin Johnson Arena. The Cougars had a 12-0 run early in the first half and built a 21 point lead at the break that the Terriers could not overcome.
Wofford moves to 8-13 on the season and 2-6 in the Southern Conference. College of Charleston is 14-7 overall and 6-3 in the SoCon. The Terriers were led by Jarell Byrd with a career-high 15 points. The Cougars had 17 points and eight rebounds from Trent Wiedeman.
“I am speechless,” said head coach Mike Young. “I thought we played pretty well Thursday and Charleston is playing well. They were really good tonight and we were a long way from that. Charleston had something to do with that, but I thought we looked slow and sluggish. We did not have a lot of answers for what they did tonight. We have another division game this Thursday that we will come in here Monday to get ready for.”
The Terriers scored first, but the Cougars had an early 5-2 lead. Karl Cochran hit a jumper to cut the score to 5-4, however the College of Charleston scored the next four points for a 9-4 lead after four minutes of play. The Cougars pushed the run to 10-0 and had a 15-4 lead with 11:08 remaining in the first half.
Wofford ended the 12-0 run with a three pointer by C.J. Neumann with 8:42 on the clock. It ended a nine minute scoreless stretch for the Terriers. The Cougars answered with a three and had a 20-7 advantage with 7:58 on the clock. With under four minutes left in the half, the Cougars had built a 30-10 lead. Indiana Faithfull hit a three pointer at the 2:23 mark, but the College of Charleston had a 34-13 lead at the break.
The Cougars opened the second half with five straight points before Aerris Smith hit a lay-up to make it 39-15. College of Charleston had a 43-15 lead before the Terriers scored five straight points on a bucket and free throw by Jarell Byrd and a jumper by Karl Cochran to cut the score to 43-20 at the 16:45 mark. The Cougars pushed the lead to 51-23 before a three pointer by Spencer Collins made it a 51-26 game with 12:35 on the clock.
With 10:52 left in the second half, the College of Charleston lead was 56-29. Jarell Byrd had back-to-back buckets to make it a 62-34 score with seven minutes remaining in the game. After a three pointer by Spencer Collins, the score was 74-42 in favor of the Cougars with 3:50 on the clock. Justin Gordon added a three for Wofford and C.J. Neumann scored the final bucket of the game in the 79-50 loss.
Wofford shot 33.3% from the floor while College of Charleston shot 59.2% overall. The Terriers were 5-of-16 from with three, while the Cougars were 11-of-21 from behind the arc. College of Charleston was 10-of-17 from the line while Wofford was 9-of-14 on free throws. The Cougars had a 33 to 27 lead on the glass. John Swinton and Kevin Hickson missed the game due to injury.
Wofford will travel to The Citadel on Thursday night before returning home for Davidson on Saturday, February 2. The Davidson game will be the first of three straight home games for the Terriers.
