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Buies Creek, NC- Charleston and Campbell both entered last night's CAA matchup coming off of a loss; Charleston was stunned by an at-the-time 3-win Monmouth team, while Campbell was defeated in a late-night Monday matchup against the red-hot Elon Phoenix. In a year where the CAA is the deepest it has been in many years, every game feels increasingly dire as the season progresses.
These two teams last met in the second-to-last game of the '23-'24 regular season where Charleston won at home 96-73. As usual with today's college basketball landscape, both programs look different from 11 months prior. Former Head Coach Pat Kelsey is now at Louisville and Chris Mack has since taken the helm for Charleston. Campbell lost its best player in Anthony Dell'Orso to Arizona in the transfer portal, and they added 5 incoming transfers in the offseason. The unfamiliarity of these two teams with each other added to the mystery of how this game might play out. However, on a Thursday night in January, this game still delivered a quality CAA matchup that fans are used to seeing.
On Charleston's first possession, Cam Gregory stole the ball away from pre-season player of the year Ante Brzovic. This led to a score on the fast break by Bragi Gudmundsson, who recorded his first career start in this game. Cam had 4 points in the first frame and he controlled the pace of the game. Charleston would take its first lead on a CJ Fulton three-pointer at the 17:45 mark and would not take the lead again until 8:39 left in the first half. Neither team in this game went on a run larger than 8-0. Each time one team would start to gain control, the other took it right back. This was partly due to the physical nature of this game. The Cougars went into the break up 33-30.
Charleston's sheer talent never allows for an easy gameplan, but one key pointer can usually help simplify things; stop Ante Brzovic. That was Campbell's plan, and they executed that well. He finished the game with 8 total points and did not score in the second half. Campbell head coach Kevin McGeehan had this to say postgame regarding the gameplan on Brzovic:
"That was the plan [clamping down on Brzovic]. I think we executed that part of the gameplan very, very well..."
With Brzovic being held to his second-lowest scoring total of the season, the backcourt for Charleston would need to step up if they wanted to come out victorious on the road. They did just that. Coming out of the locker room to start the second half, Charleston's Derrin Boyd had his knee in a heating pad and looked uncomfortable. He did not seem affected as he got back into the flow of the game.
With under three minutes to play, it was Boyd who scored 8 of the Cougar's 10 points in that stretch, including back-to-back deep three-pointers. The Camels did not score in the final 2:53 of the game. The nail in the coffin for Campbell was back-to-back offensive rebounds by Lazar Djokovic that would drain 28 seconds off the clock and prevent the Camels from making a late run. Charleston would go on to win 67-62. The Camels fall to 2-3 in conference play. bas
In the CAA, especially as difficult as it is this year, good teams win games, but great teams win on the road. Charleston remains near the top of the conference standings at 4-1 just behind 5-0 William & Mary. The Cougars appear to be in a great position to repeat as CAA champions.
Charleston's next game is at home on Saturday, January 18th, 2025 versus Northeastern at 5 p.m. Campbell's next game is at home on Saturday, January 18th, 2025 versus Monmouth at 2 p.m. Both games can be viewed on FloCollege. Follow along on X (@TrevorEverette) for live game updates, and for more of my work on House of College Hoops and House Enterprise, head here.
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