Charleston: 2023-24 Coastal Men's Basketball Champions

 

WASHINGTON -- Reyne Smith scored eight of his 23 points in overtime and finished with 6 3-pointers, and top-seeded Charleston beat No. 7 seed Stony Brook 82-79 on Tuesday night to claim the Coastal Athletic Association tournament and an NCAA bid for a second straight season.

Smith poked it away from Tyler Stephenson-Moore near the 3-point arc and sank a 3-pointer at the other end to extend Charleston's lead to 78-73 midway through overtime. But that was Charleston's final field goal of the game, and Ante Brzovic only made one free throw in two trips to the line to keep Stony Brook in it.

After Aaron Clarke made a quick 3-pointer for Stony Brook with 3.9 seconds left, Smith sank 1 of 2 free throws for a three-point lead. Dean Noll grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a three-quarter-length shot that almost banked in at the buzzer.

Charleston (27-7) became the first team to win back-to-back CAA tournament championships since UNC Wilmington in 2016 and 2017.

Ben Burnham added 14 points, Brzovic and Frankie Policelli had 12 each and Kobe Rodgers 10 for Charleston.

Stephenson-Moore, who scored 23 points in the semifinals, finished with 26 points and seven 3-pointers for Stony Brook (20-15). Clarke, Stony Brook's second-leading scorer at 14 points per game, did not score until the 5:14 mark of the second half and finished with 11.

Charleston opened the second half on a 14-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by CJ Fulton, for a 49-42 lead. The Cougars led 73-64 with 5:01 remaining in the second half but did not score again until overtime.

Stony Brook made five-straight shots to tie it at 73-all with 2:12 left in regulation on Clarke's layup. The Seawolves had two chances in the final 30 seconds, following an offensive rebound, but Clarke had it stolen by Smith and Charleston's shot at the buzzer didn't come close as time expired.

Stony Brook was appearing in its sixth conference tournament final at the Division I level, and its first since winning the America East Championship in 2016 behind 43 points from Jameel Warney.

The Seawolves were the first No. 7 seed to advance to the CAA tournament final since East Carolina in 1993.

Charleston: 2022-23 Colonial Men's Basketball Champions

 WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – The College of Charleston (CofC) Men’s Basketball team is heading to the Big Dance.

CofC’s Ryan Larson scored 23 points and his effort at both of ends of the floor late helped send Charleston past upset-minded UNC Wilmington 63-58 on Tuesday night in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship and clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

It’s Charleston’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018 and sixth overall.

Larson, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 15 points after halftime, making 4 of 7 from 3-point range after missing his first two 3s before the break. He came up with all four of his steals after halftime, too.

Larson had pair of steals — one of which led to a breakaway layup — and banked in a 3-pointer with the Cougars (31-3) in the midst of a late 12-0 run they used to secure the win.

“I’m just so proud of this team,” said Larson, who transferred from Wofford where he played from 2018-22. “Everyone doubted us all year and we kept proving them wrong; kept winning games. Total team effort today.”

Ante Brzovic scored 16 points for Charleston which currently has the highest win total in Division I-play this season.

UNC Wilmington led 27-24 at intermission before Charleston outscored the Seawolves 18-7 over the first 5:53 of the second half for a 42-34 lead. The Seawolves countered with 15-0 run with Trazarien White scoring eight and Amari Kelly six and UNCW led 49-42 with 9:52 left. Charleston took the lead for good on Larson’s breakaway layup off the steal for a 55-53 lead with 3:33 left and the Seawolves went into an almost four-minute scoring drought.

The Cougars entered the tournament as the second seed against fourth-seed UNCW (24-10), which was coming off an overtime win the night before against top-seeded Hofstra.

Kelly and White each scored 16 points for the Seawolves.

College Of Charleston: 2017-18 Colonial Men's Basketball Champions

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- College of Charleston coach Earl Grant never doubted his team would cut down the nets at the Colonial Athletic Association championship and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 19 years.

"We didn't realize we'd have that much adversity" on the way to the title, a smiling, relieved Grant said.

Joe Chealey had 32 points as the top-seeded Cougars rallied from 17 points down in the second half to win the CAA title with an 83-76 overtime win against Northeastern.

"Amazing grit by the players, amazing toughness, amazing belief," he marveled.

It certainly was an amazing comeback for a team that looked cooked early in the second half, down 42-25 with less than 18 minutes left and struggling to find any offensive rhythm. Yet an hour later, fans mobbed the Cougars at the North Charleston Coliseum in celebration.

"I was crying my eyes out so I didn't really get to see it," said Chealey, a fifth-year senior

Now, it's off to the NCAAs, where Charleston hasn't been since 1999 when then-coach John Kresse built the Cougars into a yearly mid-major threat with four trips to the Big Dance from 1994-99. The school's most successful run came in 1997 when it knocked off then-ACC power Maryland before falling to eventual champion Arizona.

Grant believes his team might have another such run in them.

"I think this team's got some destiny," he said. "March is just starting. The madness is just starting."

After rallying to tie, the Cougars caught fire in the extra period. They hit their first four shots, including a pair of 3-pointers by Marquise Pointer to take a 75-69 lead. Northeastern (23-10) could not come back.

The Cougars (26-7) appeared done early in the second half, trailing 42-25 after Vasa Pusica's 3-pointer with 17:27 to go. That's when Charleston ramped up the pressure -- it forced 14 turnovers the second half -- and tied it at 65-all on Chealey's layup with 10.1 seconds to go.

Charleston got the ball back with the chance to win in regulation, but Chealey's long 3-pointer hit off the front of the rim.

Jerrell Brantley gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, 67-65, in overtime before Pointer's first 3 gave Charleston the lead for good. Two minutes later, Pointer did it again as the large, loud crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum exploded in delight.

Northeastern's last chance disappeared when Pusica lost the ball out of bounds on a drive with 40 seconds to go.

"I can't imagine a tougher" loss, Northeastern coach Bill Coen said.

"I thought we had a winning effort," he continued. "We had our chances. We lost our composure a little bit at a couple of key moments. Obviously, we've got a lot of emotional players in the locker room."

Pusica had 30 points to lead the Huskies, who saw their nine-game winning streak ended. Shawn Occeus added 19 points.

Grant Riller scored 20 points for Charleston, 14 of those after halftime. Brantley finished with 18.

BIG PICTURE

Northeastern: The Huskies were poised and prepared in the opening half, but fell apart after the break. They turned the ball over 15 times in the second half and overtime to fuel Charleston's rally.

College of Charleston: The Cougars finally closed the deal after missing out a year ago in their first CAA Tournament finals in their home city. A team that appeared flustered and out of sync the first 22 minutes turned up the pace and ran past Northeastern.

GRANT'S HOME

Grant, in his fourth season, grew up a few miles away from the arena. He said the past few days he jogged about four miles to his old neighborhood, channeling the good vibes from his community for the Cougars to make a winning tournament run. "Last year, I jogged it and stopped at three miles," he said. "I thought, `We've got to go further,' so I went all the way in. It's good to feel the energy of this city."

RATTLED HUSKIES


Coen said the big, pro-Cougar crowd had an effect on the Huskies. "The building got loud. I tried to quiet it down with a couple of time outs," he said. "We knew that they were going to make a run, we were just hoping we could withstand it."

MURRAY MOMENT

Bill Murray, the comic actor and sometimes Charleston resident, was among the crowd rooting home the Cougars. He jumped and cheered with Charleston fans and had a big smile on his face when the Cougars took the title.

Murray is a frequent visitor to local sporting events and wore a Charleston RiverDogs cap. Murray is part owner in the Class A baseball team.

UP NEXT

Northeastern, which shared the regular-season crown with Charleston, will see if it will get an invite to a postseason tournament.

College of Charleston awaits its NCAA Tournament seeding.