Cougars fall to fourth in SoCon South

  • Tommy Braswell
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  • Posted: Sunday, January 22, 2012 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Sunday, March 18, 2012 7:06 p.m.
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The College of Charleston is now on the outside looking in when it comes to earning a bye for the Southern Conference tournament.

The short-handed Cougars lost to Georgia Southern, 64-58, on Saturday at Hanner Fieldhouse in Statesboro, Ga., and slipped to fourth place in the SoCon South Division.

The top two teams in each division will earn first-round tournament byes, and Charleston (12-7, 4-4) finds itself trailing both the Eagles and Wofford after a disastrous two-game road swing. Davidson, which beat the Cougars Thursday, leads the South at

8-0. Wofford and Georgia Southern (7-11) are both tied for second at 5-3 in the league and have wins over the College of Charleston.

Charleston, which lost freshman guard Anthony Stitt a week and a half ago, played Saturday without freshman center Adjehi Baru. Baru twisted his ankle in Thursday's loss at Davidson but is expected to return next week. Junior forward Matt Sundberg, who moved into the lineup in Baru's absence, was suffering from migraine headaches but played much of Saturday's game. And sophomore forward Trent Wiedeman played only 27 minutes after picking up two early fouls in the first half.

Senior forward Antwaine Wiggins led the Cougars, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Junior guard Andrew Lawrence also was in double figures, scoring 12 points.

Charleston shot only 36 percent from the field.

Sophomore forward Eric Ferguson led Georgia Southern with 19 points, including five dunks, and also had eight rebounds.

The first half was a nip-and-tuck battle, with the Cougars tying it at 29 at the buzzer on a dunk by freshman Trevonte Dixon. Charleston took a six-point lead, 43-37, on a basket by Dixon at the 13:46 mark. Georgia Southern put the clamps on the Cougars, holding them scoreless for more than six minutes to take a 54-45 lead. Charleston closed to within two and was down 59-57 with 2:20 left.

But the Cougars couldn't muster any offense the rest of the way as Georgia Southern pulled away.

Charleston returns to TD Arena Thursday for an 8 p.m. game against Furman.

The Cougars have a rematch with Wofford at 3 p.m. Saturday.