CHARLESTON, S.C. – The offensive end is where the College of Charleston’s struggles are right now, and that became more acute on Friday night. The Cougars had to go without a key player, and that hurt the offense even more in a 55-51 loss to Auburn in the Charleston Classic.
College of Charleston shot 37.5 percent from the field in a loss to St. John’s on Thursday. That was a big drop from shooting over 56 percent in the season opener. The Cougars also turned the ball over 31 times in their first two games, but they held their opponents to 41 percent from the field and out-rebounded them by 2.5. So before Friday’s loss, it was clear offense might be more of a concern than defense in the early going.
What made it worse was that Andrew Lawrence was unable to go for the Cougars against Auburn. The one senior starter they have, he missed the game due to a stomach virus, which pushed Nori Johnson into a bigger starting lineup. More importantly, it robbed the Cougars of their best ball handler and most experienced player, as Lawrence also played in the 2012 Olympics for the host team this summer.
Watching the game would give you the idea that this team struggled offensively, but looking at the stats really drives it home. The Cougars had 19 turnovers, a stat undoubtedly aided by Lawrence’s absence, and shot 38.3 percent from the field.
“Turnovers became an issue as well and certainly the free throws,” said head coach Doug Wojcik. “Just the fact that we don’t have the one senior up until tonight who was playing, with a lot of experience, it really affects our team. I just really have one ball-handler, and that’s Anthony Stitt. God bless his effort, and he cramped up last night.”
Stitt performed admirably given the circumstances and was the only Cougar to score in double figures with 11 points. But he also had six turnovers with no assists, and while Auburn turned the 19 turnovers into just 13 points from their own offensive struggles, the Tigers turned it over just nine times.
“We were missing another ball-handler, and it just added to our turnovers,” said Stitt. “We didn’t have someone out there that relieves some of the pressure.”
Some of the offensive struggles may be from adjusting to Wojcik as the new head coach. Bobby Cremins, who was in attendance Friday, retired after last season, and Wojcik took over after he was let go by Tulsa. But that’s probably not a major factor considering this team went on a four-day trip to Toronto in August, which gave them an early feel for what he wants to do. Most likely, the bigger factor is that it’s early, and teams don’t often execute their offense as well as they will later in the year. Removing Lawrence from the lineup certainly doesn’t help that.
Auburn shot just under 36 percent from the field, so the defensive effort was there for the Cougars. They out-rebounded the Tigers 42-26 as well, continuing to be strong in that area. Some of that came at the offensive end, as they had 11 offensive boards while Auburn had 21 defensive boards. Theo Johnson continued to look like a nice find at that end as well, as the freshman blocked three shots to bring his total to seven in three games.
One thing is for certain: coach and players are on the same page about this.
“We’re doing a great job defensively, doing a great job rebounding the ball,” said Wojcik. “We’re just not scoring it. We have to get better.”
Added Stitt: “Defense is not our problem. We out-rebounded both teams we played, played good defense. We’ve just got to get it clicking on offense.”
College of Charleston will play Boston College for seventh place on Sunday. The Eagles aren’t noted for their defense, but that’s no guarantee life will be better for the Cougars at the offensive end. It gets more difficult after that as they head on the road for three straight starting at Baylor, before four home games in a row starting with a visit from Louisville. Keeping up the strong defense will at least keep them in games, but some offensive improvement will be needed to pull out more of them. Friday’s game serves as one example since it was there to be had.
