It would be the final day of the event with three possible games with teams below the Red Line. I thought about making a day of it and catching all of them, but I did not feel like sitting through Baylor vs St John's and making the late drive home after seeing Colorado against Murray State. I was feeling worn out so I decided to just stick with the afternoon session.

It is not as if I would be getting the bad end of the deal on this, being able to get a chance to see two Red Line Upsets with Dayton and Auburn playing later in the day. I was also interested in seeing the Charleston Cougars early on in the season, since I would be seeing them again several times this year. They would however be without the services of Trent Wiedeman, their best post player who injured himself in the loss to Auburn. The Cougars would have Andrew Wiggins who would be back from an illness that had him miss the Auburn game.



With Thanksgiving Break in full effect, the large student faction that had backed College of Charleston in their two previous games in the Classic was not there. The team did have the support of many of the season ticket holders to see if their team could at least pull off one win on their home court.

I should also mention this was a game that had three TMM9ers attending with myself, Ian McCormick, whom I spotted sometime after the half, and Joe Wright who I can assume was one of the few students that showed up, since I have never personally met him. They have done their usual great job so far of covering the Classic, but I wanted to join in on the fun on the final day to get a few points for my team.

Things started out slow for both teams with neither side able to establish much offensively. Charleston had an early 10-6 advantage before Boston College hit three consecutive threes, all while the Cougars' three-pointers were clanging off the rim. The rest of the half had the Eagles creeping out to a seven point lead before Charleston would answer with a few buckets to keep BC honest.

It was not the most exciting brand of basketball as I was mostly listening to the people around me, mainly Cougar fans, giving their thoughts on what the Cougars should do to get things kickstarted and how they had struggled throughout the entire tournament.

The hopes of the Cougar fans who did not want to see their team get swept in the Classic were heightened in the second half. The beginning surge was spurred on by Lawrence, who had consecutive three-point plays. He would soon pick up his third foul though and had to sit, meaning other Cougars would have to step up.

It took a few minutes, but junior forward Anthony Thomas was the one to step up and his consecutive baskets to give the Cougars a small 44-40 lead. Charleston was getting help from others as they started to pull away and looked like they would end up with comfortable RLU. Boston College equally did not want to be the team leaving Charleston without a win and the Eagles' sharpshooting Lonnie Jackson started to heat up and brought them back to be only down one with two minutes to go.

Anthony Stitt made sure that BC would not get the lead back by hitting a big three. The rest of the game was in the hands of Lawrence, who returned off the bench and sank another clutch thre and hit several big free throws down the stretch when Boston College was forced to foul.

Charleston was able to avoid going 0-for-3 in a tournament on their own home floor, so it was nice that they were able to give that distinction to the lowly Eagles. It was nowhere near the experience of a normal Charleston home game. I was able to see them last year against Georgia Southern and was impressed with the passion the fans and students have. I cannot even imagine what the TD Arena is going to be like the next time I see the Cougars when Louisville rolls into town.

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