The College of Charleston advanced to the Southern Conference basketball tournament semifinals for a fifth consecutive year by routing Elon 78-60 Saturday night at McKenzie Arena.
Andrew Goudelock scored 25 points to lead the Cougars, who will face Furman tonight. Charleston is the only league team to reach five consecutive semifinals but has not won the tournament since 1999.
The Cougars made 17 of 29 (58.6 percent) first-half shots to take a commanding 43-22 lead into intermission. They also made five of 10 3-pointers in building the 21-point bulge.
Goudelock’s 3-pointer 45 seconds into the game gave the Cougars a 3-0 lead that grew rapidly. A reverse layup by Trent Wiedeman at the 17:43 mark made it 7-0, and a Wiedeman tip-in with 13:47 left provided the first double-digit lead at 16-6.
An 11-2 run enabled the Cougars (23-9) to go up 29-12, and they took their first 20-point lead 17 seconds before the break on a Wiedeman dunk.