This past weekend, TD Arena in beautiful downtown Charleston played host to the Charleston Classic, an annual kick-off tournament that showcases some of the NCAA’s most elite talent. This year’s field featured the likes of Temple, Clemson, Auburn and Dayton, among others. While this may not have looked like the most exciting tournament on paper, the Charleston Classic went above and beyond to provide fans with an excellent start to the College Basketball season.
The success of the tournament can be attributed to the amazing atmosphere. Competitive games and passionate fans merged together to form an experience that any true basketball fan would enjoy. The exciting competition was capped off by a hard fought championship game in which the Temple Owls edged out the Clemson Tigers in a 67-60 battle. It is a real shame if you didn’t get a chance to catch at least one of these games. But if not, no worries, I’ve got you covered with a quick recap of all the things that made the 2017 Charleston Classic one for the books
Bracket and Results
Quarterfinals
Auburn 83, Indiana State 64. – Temple 76, Old Dominion 65.
Clemson 81, Ohio 76. – Hofstra 72, Dayton 69.
Semifinals
Temple 88, Auburn 74. – Clemson 78, Hofstra, 59.
Championship
Temple 67, Clemson 60.
Tournament MVP
Obi Enechionyia was awarded the Tournament MVP honors after helping lead the Temple Owls to a Charleston Classic Championship on Sunday night. The 6′ 10″ big man kicked off his Senior season with some seriously impressive numbers in the Charleston Classic, including a total of 46 points, 4 blocks and 22 rebounds in three tournament matchups.
Championship Recap
The Championship matchup between the Temple Owls and the Clemson Tigers was an intense, scrappy, defensive war. After two dogged halves of physical basketball, the Temple Owls found themselves victorious thanks to outstanding efforts from multiple players on the court. Everyone on Temple was shooting the ball well, including five different Owls players (Obi Enechionyia, Shizz Alston Jr., Quinton Rose, Josh Brown and Alani Moore II) managing to put up double digit numbers.
Clemson turnovers proved to be a major factor in this one, most notably when heavy defensive pressure from Temple forced the Tigers to turn the ball over 10 times within the first 9 minutes of the second half. Temple Senior Josh Brown put up a career high 13 points, hitting 3 big shots from behind the arc, two of which ultimately sealed the deal late in the second half. Sophomore Quinton Rose also collected his first career double-double to add to the very impressive team win.
Spirit Award: Dayton
Ok, so these days handing out “spirit awards” comes off as kind of a sarcastic gesture… But, I’m dead serious with this one. The Dayton Flyers fanbase deserves every spirit award in existence for the support it was able to give its team this weekend. If I didn’t know any better, I seriously would have thought TD Arena was located in Ohio based on the amount of red I saw in the crowd. It was estimated that over 1000 Dayton fans traveled to Charleston this past weekend to cheer on their beloved Flyers. On top of that, they were the only school to bring along a full band with them to make their team feel extra comfortable on the road. Despite losing in the first round, the Dayton fanbase helped the Flyers on to moderate success in the loser’s bracket.
Scoring Leaders
Darrell Davis (Dayton) – 72 points (24 ppg) *
Jordan Dartis (Ohio) – 58 points (19.3 ppg) *
Shizz Alston Jr. (Temple) – 55 (18.3 ppg)
Donte Grantham (Clemson) – 55 (18.3 ppg)
Quinton Rose (Temple) – 49 (16.3 ppg)
* Includes points scored in “loser’s bracket” games
ALSO: A big shoutout to the hardworking folks at ESPN, TD Arena and the College of Charleston for making this awesome event possible…. And for providing me with media credentials so I could get some real Big J Journalism done this weekend!