The scoreboard showed a comfortable win, the University of Charleston men's basketball team opening Mountain East Conference play with a 93-80 victory over UVa-Wise. Yet UC coach Dwaine Osborne was left to wonder how much more comfortable that victory could have been.
The Golden Eagles saw plenty of bright spots, but some areas of improvement as well as they remained undefeated (3-0, 1-0 MEC) on the young season.
"You can say a 13-point win was comfortable," Osborne said, "but I wasn't comfortable until about 20 seconds left."
Shaq Speights led UC with 24 points, while Justin Coleman added 16 points and 17 rebounds. Charleston continues its three-game home stand at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex at 7:30 p.m. Monday against Concord.
UC put plenty of distance between it and Wise (1-3) before that 20-second mark. The Cavaliers cut Charleston's lead to five when Chance Sheffey's layup with 2:44 left made it 78-73, UC. But Speights and Coleman helped push the lead back to as many as 15 points before the final buzzer.
Plenty went the Golden Eagles' way in the game. Charleston shot 58.6 percent from the floor, hitting 34 of 58 shots. UC dominated the glass, outrebounding the Cavaliers 44-26. The Golden Eagles were even 8 of 18 from 3-point range and 17 of 20 from the free-throw line.
Yet one category - turnovers - kept frustrating the Golden Eagles. Charleston committed 19 for the game, 13 in the first half. That helped turn a 37-31 UC lead with 3:43 left before halftime into a 40-39 Cavaliers lead with 45 seconds left. After Dimitri Sousa hit a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left to tie the game at 39, Ricardo Hill Jr. picked Elliot Cole's pocket and drove to the hoop. Jonathan Joseph had to foul for UC, and Hill made 1 of 2 from the line.
Keir Anderson put the Golden Eagles ahead again with 22 seconds left, his 3-pointer giving Charleston a 42-40 lead UC took into halftime.
"We were careless and stupid with it," Osborne said. "It was so frustrating. I thought we were really lethargic with the ball. Our passing and catching is a problem, and that's what you're supposed to learn in the third grade."
Cohesion can be an issue if, as in UC's case, there are so many new faces. Of the nine who played Saturday afternoon, only Coleman was on the roster last season. Osborne said that can make it feel like a first-year program, and Speights agreed that team chemistry might take some time.
"We're still learning the system," Speights said. "It's getting better, but we're still learning it. There are new guys, new teammates, so it's tough trying to figure out what everyone can do."
It was clear Saturday that Speights could score. He made 8 of 16 shots from the floor, 4 of 9 from 3-point range, in his season-high point total. The St. Petersburg (Florida) College transfer credited assistant coach Brett Rector with that outburst.
"The first couple of games, my shot wasn't really falling like that," he said. "I got in the gym with [Rector], got up some shots, and today they fell."
Sousa led Wise with 20 points, making 4 of 10 3-pointers. Taiwo Badmus added 19 points and seven rebounds for the Cavaliers. Cole scored 17 points for UC, with seven rebounds and five assists.
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.