CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston Cougars raced out to a 10-0 lead over the first 4:24 and knocked off the visiting Elon Phoenix by a 78-65 final score in Southern Conference men’s basketball action in front of 3,111 fans from the John Kresse Arena on Saturday night. The defeat dropped the Phoenix to 6-8 overall and 4-2 in SoCon play. The Cougars improved to 7-7, 2-2 on the year.
Dustin Scott scored the first four points of the game for College of Charleston as the Cougars built a 10-0 advantage before Elon’s Ola Atoyebi hit a jumper with 15:17 to play in the first half to get the Phoenix on the board. The Cougars would stretch its advantage to 19 points on a Dustin Scott three at 10:23 that saw Elon trail 27-8.
Elon fought back, chipping away at the Cougar edge with an 18-4 run which began with a Devan carter steal and layup with 9:13 to go in the first period. The run was capped with two Chris Long free throws with 33 ticks left which closed the gap to 31-26 at the break.
After the two squads traded buckets to start the second half, CofC pulled away again and built a 15-point cushion when Jermaine Johnson put in a layup at the 16:16 mark. The Phoenix deficit climbed to as many as 20 points when Andrew Goudelock’s trey with 9:16 to play put the Cougars ahead 62-42.
Once again, Elon climbed back into the game as TJ Douglas hit consecutive three-point buckets to pull the Phoenix to within nine at 66-57 with 3:40 remaining. That 15-4 run was followed by Charleston outscoring the Phoenix 12-8 the rest of the way and end all hopes of an Elon comeback.
Scott Grable ended the evening with a season-high 10 points and season-best nine rebounds while Atoyebi led the Phoenix with 13 markers. Brett James finished the game with 12 points and Carter added 10 for Elon who shot just 39.1 percent from the floor. The Phoenix, after sinking 6-of-9 free throws in the first period, drained just 4-of-9 in the final 20 minutes of play.
Scott led all scorers with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Johnson also claimed a double-double with 12 points and 10 caroms. Tony White, Jr. scored 10 of his 19 markers from the charity stripe and Goudelock added 15 off the bench.
With its five-game road trip now finished, Elon returns home to take on SoCon favorite Davidson on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. in a game which will be televised on MASN.
– ELON –
