Bulldogs vs. Cougs: 'It should be a wild night'

There's plenty of motivation to go around for both schools when The Citadel travels to the College of Charleston's Carolina First Arena for the second meeting of the season between the city and Southern Conference rivals.

The College of Charleston (16-8, 11-2) won the earlier meeting at McAlister Field House, 61-55.

The Citadel (12-12, 6-6) beat College of Charleston twice last year, including a victory in the inaugural meeting at Carolina First Arena. Both teams finished the 2008-09 season with 15-5 regular season conference records but because of the two wins, the Bulldogs earned the tournament bye which goes to the top two teams in each division.

The Cougars are leading the Southern Conference regular season race, which offers an automatic NIT bid to the winner, and they look to be in good position for one of the tournament byes this year with five conference games left, three of them at home.

Both coaches have plenty of respect for each other.

"The Citadel is as good as anybody in the league now. Ed Conroy's turned that program around," Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said.

"They are flying high right now. They are so explosive, everybody can shoot it on their team. We will have our hands full," countered The Citadel's Conroy.

Much is made of the schools' respective top scorers and team leaders -- Charleston's Andrew

Goudelock, who is averaging a league-high 19.7 points, and The Citadel's Cameron Wells, averaging 17.7, third in the league -- but Goudelock said there's much more to the story.

"Cameron Wells is a great player," said Goudelock, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the first meeting. "But it's not an individual matchup between us. I don't even look at that. He's one of the best players I've played against, one of the best players in the conference. By no means is it a one-on-one matchup."

Charleston has been draining 3-pointers of late, going 17 for 44 against Chattanooga and then hitting 18 of 42 against Samford, with Goudelock going 7 for 8 in the second half after starting 0 for 5 against Samford.

"They are flying high right now," Conroy said. "They are so explosive. Everybody can shoot it on their team. They have so many guys who can shoot it and you have to get out there on them. But then Goudelock can go by you, (Donavan) Monroe can go by you. And there's (Jeremy) Simmons and (Casaan) Breeden on the inside. To slow them down, we'll have to be at our very best. I thought we played well against them here, but we'll have to be even better (today) because I think they are playing with more confidence now."

But The Citadel also is playing with confidence, and the Bulldogs have 3-point weapons of their own. Zach Urbanus hit 7 of 15 3-point attempts in the Bulldogs' win over Chattanooga. Five Bulldogs have attempted at least 50 3-pointers this season.

"I saw a little bit of the Samford game and they put it on them," Wells said. "They are riding with a lot of confidence right now, but I think we are, too. I think that makes for a pretty good game."

"It's not only a conference rival," Cremins said. "It's an inner city rival. It's a big game. We're playing well. We'll see what happens. It should be a wild night."