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Cougars hold off WCU on Draper's late treys
Contaye Draper scored 22 points, including a trio of three-pointers late in the game, as College of Charleston averted Western Carolina's upset bid with a 77-68 Southern Conference men's basketball win before 3,381 fans last Thursday at C of C's Kresse Arena.
Tony Mitchell and Bernard Jackson both added 12 points for the Cougars.
Antonio Russell led the Catamounts (7-16, 2-8) with 17 points, David Berghoefer followed with 16, and Trey Hopkins had 11.
Charleston was up 48-34 on Mitchell's three-pointer with 17:51 left in the game before the Cats made a move to get back in contention.
Russell had seven points and Hopkins five in a 15-2 run cutting the gap to 50-48 with 12:48 on the clock.
WCU tied the score three times before taking its only lead of the second half, 64-62, on Berghoefer's tip-in at the 5:06 mark.
Draper then struck as his three-pointer gave the Cougars a 65-64 edge with 3:54 on the clock. His trey with 3:15 remaining put Charleston ahead for good, 68-65.
Another Draper three-pointer extended the lead to 73-67 with 46 seconds left, and the Cougars made four of five free throws down the stretch.
Charleston made 44.1 percent of its field goal tries compared to WCU's 43.3 percent.
Western had a 40-38 rebounding edge. Jeff Horowitz topped the Cougars with seven.
The Cats committed 22 turnovers while Charleston had 16.
Completing the WCU scoring were Rans Brempong with eight, Eric Wilson with seven, Kyle Greathouse and Corey Muirhead both with four and Lunzaya Nlandu with one.
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