At some point, the Elon University men’s basketball team had to wake up. It was a lot sooner than they wished.
Trailing the entire game, the No. 2 seed Phoenix saw its season come to a close Sunday night in the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals, losing to the No. 3 seed College of Charleston Cougars 68-60.
“We’re disappointed,” said Elon head coach Matt Matheny. “We have learned to dream really big. When you walk the high wire, the fall is painful. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The Cougars started the game with an 11-0 run, begun with three straight three-pointers, forcing Elon to call a timeout just 4:37 into the first half. College of Charleston got the lead up to 15-3 with 11:42 remaining in the half before Elon went on a brief run to pull within five.
The team’s traded streaks of baskets, and the Phoenix was within four after a basket from junior forward Lucas Troutman with 41 seconds left in the frame, but Cougars senior guard Andrew Lawrence hit a floater with time winding down to give his team a 25-19 halftime lead.
The second half was like a seesaw. But unfortunately for Elon, it never fully landed on its side. The Phoenix got within four points or less three times six times in the final frame, but could never pull ahead.
After notching just two points in the first half, Lawrence scored 17 in the second, going 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.
“My teammates gave me a lot of confidence coming out in the second half to make a lot of shots,” he said. “I missed a lot of shots in the game before this and this game, so I was able to come out and make some shots tonight and my other teammates came through in a big way.”
The closest the Phoenix got was a 46-44 Cougars lead with 7:08 left after Elon senior guard Josh Bonney’s penetration layup fell. But College of Charleston junior forward Willis Hall scored seven straight points to pull the Cougars back out to a nine-point advantage.
“Elon is one of those teams that, no matter how high you get on them, you can never think you’re good because they’ll come right back at you,” Hall said. “When you get up on them, you have to keep putting them down, staying on top of them and not giving up that lead.”
Bonney, playing his final collegiate game, made sure the Phoenix didn’t go away. He had eight points in the final 3:01. Pushed into duty with junior guard Jack Isenbarger ailing, he tied a season-high with 15 points and also had three assists in 15 minutes.
“I was just trying to attack and trying to keep us in it the best I could, just do my part,” he said. “It was just a tough situation, and at that point there was nothing to do but try to attack the rim and see if we could make any big plays on defense, which we did.”
But, as Bonney also said, it was a little too late.
After the game, Matheny was especially happy with the way his team fought back from multiple possession deficits.
“I really am proud of the way our guys got off the mat,” he said. “We got off the mat not once, not twice, but three different times when Charleston gave us knockout punches. I’m proud of our guys’ mental toughness, I’m proud of the way we competed for 40 minutes.”
He also said that at halftime, he was “convinced” Elon was going to pull out the victory, and at the under-8 media timeout, he felt the same way.
“We never stopped believing that we could come back through the whole game,” said Elon junior forward Lucas Troutman, who scored a game-high 23 points. “That was the goal, that’s why we were pushing, that’s why we keep going. It’s one-and done, we have nothing to lose. We came out swinging, as hard as we can, hope for the best, and unfortunately it didn’t just work out our way.”
The Phoenix concludes the season with a 21-11 record overall. The Cougars will face No. 1 seed Davidson College in the championship game tomorrow at 7 p.m., with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.