West Virginia Wesleyan rallied late to force overtime and spoiled Charleston's first game in the new H. Bernard Wehrle Sr. Athletic Arena with an 86-84 victory Saturday.
Trailing 83-82 in the closing seconds of overtime, Wesleyan's Clay Todd was fouled as he hit a 3-pointer from the corner and completed the four-point play. UC's Keir Anderson made one of two free throws and Justin Coleman's last-second putback attempt rimmed out to end the game with a heart-breaking fifth loss in a row for the Golden Eagles.
"Unfortunately, we just couldn't make plays when we needed to and they did," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. "Every time we had a chance to bury them in the second half, we just couldn't ever seem to make the layup or the free throw or get the stop we needed, and they also managed to make those key plays."
Charleston (9-5 overall, 3-5 Mountain East Conference) led for the majority of the game thanks in large part to a staggering performance from Elliott Cole. The senior guard from Chicago had stretches where he was on fire, finishing with a game-high 39 points.
Cole made 13 of 24 shots from the field, including 12 of 20 attempts on 3-pointers.
"He's a good player. The only thing I knew was that it felt like Elliott was the only one out there for us today who was capable of making shots," Osborne said. "We've got guys who are in some big slumps. ... Elliott had been bad the last four games, but he was better today and made shots we needed from him."
For large stretches of the second half, Cole went back and forth with West Virginia Wesleyan point guard Mo Berchie - who held his ground and didn't give an inch as he kept the Bobcats in the game.
Berchie finished with 34 points, including a 3-pointer to tie the game and send it to overtime with 5 seconds left in regulation.
Along with Berchie's play, West Virginia Wesleyan (6-9, 3-6) was able to make its way back into the game in the second half with an efficient performance offensively while also taking advantage of Charleston's mistakes.
The Bobcats shot 67.7 percent in the second half and turned the Golden Eagles' 14 turnovers into 23 points by using their steady, consistent defensive approach.
"That was a microcosm of the game," Osborne said. "They are just solid defensively. They play good, solid defense and don't try to do things that they're not capable of doing, they don't play out of character and we played out of character."
Wesleyan opened the game s on a 9-2 run and eventually led by as many as 11 within the first 10 minutes. But a 13-2 UC run helped the Golden Eagles take control heading into the locker room as the Bobcats made just one field goal in the final 6:08 of the half.
Keir Anderson added 13 points and seven rebounds for Charleston while L.J. Johnson and Jonathan Tshibuy scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Golden Eagles.
The Bobcats got 15 points from Kevin Kangni and 11 from Todd.
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.