MLILY Mattresses in Charleston, SC

The Charleston (SC) Cougars (22-6) will attempt to build on a seven-game winning streak when they host the Hampton Pirates (7-21) on March 8, 2025 at TD Arena.

On Thursday, in its most recent game, Charleston (SC) defeated Campbell 75-54. With 22 points, Lara Rohkohl was its top scorer. In its previous game, Hampton lost to UNC Wilmington on Thursday, 68-54. Its high scorer was Jasha Clinton with 13 points.

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When is Charleston (SC) vs. Hampton and when does it start?

This contest between the Cougars and Pirates will happen on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Be ready to see the opening tip at 2 p.m. ET.

The Cougars and Pirates will take to the hardwood at TD Arena for this matchup on March 8, and if you’d like to see the game live, get your tickets now from Vivid Seats!

Watch women’s college basketball all season on Fubo.

Charleston (SC) Cougars vs. Hampton Pirates Game Preview

Charleston (SC) is outscoring opponents by 18.4 points per game with a +517 scoring differential overall. It puts up 74.4 points per game (48th in college basketball) and allows 56.0 per contest (24th in college basketball).

The 74.4 points the Cougars average are 7.1 more than the Pirates concede.

Charleston (SC) connects on 7.3 three-pointers per game (77th in college basketball), 1.6 more than its opponents (5.7). It is shooting 30.1% from deep (227th in college basketball) while allowing opponents to shoot 30.3%.

The Cougars put up 80.4 points per game at home, compared to 68.5 points per game on the road, a difference of 11.9 points per contest.

Charleston (SC) has been putting up 76.5 points per game in its last 10 times on the court, an average that’s slightly higher than the 74.4 it has scored over the course of the 2024-25 campaign.

Hampton has been outscored by 9.7 points per game (posting 57.6 points per game, 324th in college basketball, while allowing 67.3 per outing, 243rd in college basketball) and has a -273 scoring differential.

The Pirates post only 1.6 more points per game (57.6) than the Cougars concede (56.0).

Hampton makes 4.3 three-pointers per game (318th in college basketball) at a 25.7% rate (336th in college basketball), compared to the 5.0 its opponents make, shooting 30.7% from beyond the arc.

In 2024-25 the Pirates are averaging 3.0 more points per game at home (58.6) than on the road (55.6).

Over its previous 10 games, Hampton is scoring 56.6 points per game, 1.0 fewer point than its season average (57.6).

Want to attend this game live? Buy tickets for Charleston (SC) vs. Hampton on Vivid Seats.

Rep your favorite team with officially licensed apparel from Lids or Fanatics.

And for more CBB game previews, NCAA basketball picks or even how to bet on college basketball check out the latest NCAAB lines on Betsperts.

A company owned by Charleston investor and philanthropist Ben Navarro will pay $250 million to buy Union Pier Terminal along the peninsula's waterfront, with a mortgage this week sealing the deal.

Navarro's Marti Holdings LLC and the S.C. State Ports Authority filed the document with the county Register of Deeds on March 4. It capped more than a year of negotiating the sale terms and working with local governments to form a special tax district that would pay for costly public infrastructure upgrades at the roughly 65-acre industrial site between Concord Street and Charleston Harbor.

The mortgage doesn't state a purchase price but references a $250 million deposit that Marti Holdings has placed on the property. The SPA confirmed Wednesday that figure matches the sale price.

Other details of the deal are included in a purchase agreement that was cited in the mortgage but not publicly filed. That document was signed a year ago, about the same time the SPA announced the sale to Navarro.

"The purchase and sale agreement are not public until the deal closes and the transfer deed is recorded," the SPA said in a written statement. "We do not release terms of the sale of an ongoing real estate transaction."

The $250 million also matches the assumed price cited in a footnote in a document outlining the special tax-district that Charleston City Council approved on Nov. 5.

The notation included another key detail — that the deal is expected to close in 2027.

A spokesperson for Beemok Capital, the "family office" that oversees Navarro's investments, said the company is "excited to proceed with closing this transaction with the Ports Authority."

At $250 million, the purchase price is well below the $400 million or so that some real estate analysts expected the prime property to fetch when the SPA announced in 2020 that it was putting Union Pier up for sale. The maritime agency has said it plans to use the proceeds for general operating expenses.

The effort to sell Union Pier has been tortured at times. The SPA initially hired Los Angeles-based developer Lowe to get the permits in place for a sale. It also offered the real estate firm an option to buy the site.

Lowe had previously purchased the ports authority's old headquarters just south of Union Pier, with the aim of replacing the outdated office building with a high-end waterfront hotel. That 191-room project has been taken over by Navarro's Beemok Hospitality Collection, which expects to open The Cooper later this year.

Conservationists and preservation groups opposed the original Union Pier redevelopment plan that Lowe proposed as too dense and out-of-character with the city's Historic District. The SPA ultimately paid $9.9 million to sever its ties with the California developer.

The authority also agreed to a new process that involved dozens of community groups that would form a plan for Union Pier's redevelopment during months of public meetings.

Navarro and the SPA started talking about a deal in late 2023. The agency's board unanimously approved the partnership in March 2024.

Bill Stern, the port's chairman, said at the time that the agency wanted to find a local buyer to redevelop the former cargo terminal that in recent years has been used mostly as a parking lot and as a cruise ship berth.

When it decided to sell Union Pier, the SPA let lapse its home-port agreement with the operator of the Carnival Sunshine, which left Charleston in January. The special tax-district agreement with the city calls for an eventual removal of the existing passenger building.

Navarro, a Rhode Island native who quickly rose to vice president of Citigroup early in his career, founded the investment firm Sherman Financial Group in 1998 and later bought a small bank he renamed Credit One Bank.

He moved his business to Charleston more than 20 years ago.

Credit One, the sponsor of an annual professional women's tennis tournament on Daniel Island, is now one of the nation's largest credit card issuers.

The centerpiece of Navarro's local hospitality holdings is The Charleston Place, just a few blocks inland from Union Pier. He bought the 434-room hotel and shopping complex for $350 million in late 2021 and is in the throes of a $150 million multiyear renovation project.

Navarro's other investments include the Riviera Theater on King Street; Sorrelle, an Italian restaurant, and the adjoining Mercato market on Broad Street; and the American Gardens urban park under construction at 141 Meeting St.

South Carolina senator Matt Leber has sent a letter to Charleston County council members demanding the removal of recalcitrant library board members who refuse to be sworn into office by taking an oath to the state’s constitution.

Eight of the eleven trustees appointed by council have refused to take the constitutionally required oath, while only two appointees, Graham Horsman and Alessa Bertoluzzi, followed the constitutional mandate.

Article Six, Section Five of the South Carolina Constitution plainly states that “the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and all other officers of the State and its political subdivisions, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, shall take and subscribe the oath of office as prescribed in section 5 of this article.”

The constitutionally mandated oath reads as follows:

Despite the state’s constitution making it crystal-clear that all political appointees must take the oath, Leber solicited an advisory opinion from the office of South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson to make absolutely sure.

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RELATED | AMETUR THEATRICS IN CHARLESTON COUNTY

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In its advisory opinion (.pdf), Wilson’s office concluded that “members of the Charleston County Public Library Board of Trustees are offices within the meaning of Article Six, Section Four of the South Carolina Constitution. They are therefore required to take the oath of office prescribed in Article Six, Section Five of the South Carolina Constitution.”

According to Leber’s letter (.pdf), Charleston County library chair Rob Byko “refuses to recognize the Attorney General’s opinion, dismissing it as a ‘piece of paper’ and claiming that it does ‘not rise to the level of being on the agenda.'”

“Shockingly,” the letter continues, “other members of the Charleston County Library Board expressed profound disdain and even outright disgust towards the Constitution, drafting up their own “pledge” that better fits their political ideology.”

Leber opined that “taking an oath to the Constitution should not be controversial.”

“To the contrary, it is what unifies us as Americans and as South Carolinians,” he wrote.

Leber concluded his letter with a call for the swift removal of the illegally operating board members.

“I now call upon the Charleston County Council to remedy this situation by the removal of the offending trustees,” he said.

Leber is expected to address the issue from the well of the S.C. Senate later this afternoon (March 4, 2025).

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THE LETTER…

(S.C. Senate)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Construction has begun after leaders broke ground last week on a new Charleston waterfront community set to be the city’s largest mixed-use development project.

Magnolia Landing has been in the making for 20 years and will cover 192 acres or 1.5 miles along the Ashley River that previously sat unclaimed.

Forty-three acres of the Magnolia redevelopment site, located in the upper neck of the Charleston peninsula, was once home to a phosphate fertilizer facility that caused lead and arsenic contamination in the surrounding groundwater, surface water, sediment, and soil.

Other facilities, such as the former Ashepoo Phosphate Works and Koppers Co., Inc., contributed to the site’s land contamination.

After the discovery, the Columbia Nitrogen Corporation demolished all its structures on the site, and a cleanup of the environment began in 2023, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2022, the EPA approved the land for the redevelopment project.

Leaders, including Charleston Mayor William Cogswell and David Ginn from the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, gathered on Feb. 28 at 2198 Milford Street to break ground on the development. According to developer Highland Resources, Inc., the development will offer parks, a marina, residential spaces, hospitality zones, office space, retail shops, restaurants, waterfront docks, and a variety of entertainment options.

“Magnolia Landing is a key step in building a vibrant, sustainable Charleston,” said Mayor Cogswell. “With its focus on workforce housing, public amenities, and green spaces, this development by Highland Resources will enhance our waterfront and create lasting benefits for our residents and community.”

As far as residential options, the first phase will see a high-rise waterfront community and mid-rise community developed by Charleston-based Woodfield Development pop up along the riverfront site. The high-rise and mid-rise will contribute 600 rental residences to the land.

In addition, 158 luxury townhomes completed by a national developer are in the plans for phase one.

Phase one will see to the construction of a waterfront office building that will bring 100,000 square feet of Class-A office space, street-level retail, gourmet restaurants, and other commercial space.

A 125-key boutique hotel will be constructed as a hospitality option.

Twenty-four acres will be dedicated to public parks and green spaces, while 49 will be preserved as marshland to protect the area’s natural habitat and scenery.

The multi-phase Magnolia project is expected to be completed by 2040. However, officials say Magnolia Landing expects its first residents by 2027.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Three brothers were sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud in a $2.8 million COVID scheme.

According to a report from the United States Attorney's Office, two brothers, William Chan, 40, and Siu Chan, 32, pleaded guilty to a wire fraud conspiracy and were sentenced with 24 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision.

The third brother, Ka Ho Chan, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was sentenced to 12 months and one day imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision.

"These defendants exploited a program intended to help struggling businesses during a critical time. Their greed led them to defraud the government and taxpayers, diverting millions of dollars intended for legitimate economic relief,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina. “This sentencing sends a clear message: those who attempt to profit from pandemic aid through fraud will be held accountable."

Additionally, the brothers, along with other family members, operate a string of restaurants in the Charleston area.

READ MORE | 29 plead guilty in $5M COVID-19 unemployment fraud scheme led by SC inmates

Evidence obtained in the investigation revealed that beginning in March 2020, the Chan brothers applied for Paycheck Protect Program and Emergency Injury Disaster Loans funds using false information and documents.

The evidence presented for William and Siu Chan revealed that at least 22 loans were applied for and received totaling more than $2.5 million.

Further investigation revealed that a handful of the loans applied for by the brothers were legitimate applications, however the funds we not used for legitimate business purposes once granted. For example, evidence showed that the brothers used the loan funds to make personal car purchases and pay personal credit card expenses.

READ MORE | New report details widespread fraud in pandemic unemployment relief programs

Ka Ho Chan pleaded to a separate charge of an EIDL loan and grant he received and misused, according to the report. Evidence revealed that all the funds received by him, though his own wire fraud scheme, and the funds he received from his brothers were not used for legitimate business purposes.

In his plea agreement, he agreed to pay a restitution figure between $300,000 to $350,000 based on his receipt of fraudulent loan proceeds applied for by his brothers during their conspiracy.

The Attorney's Office states that the total amount of fraudulent loans and misuse of EIDL and PPP loan funds presented to the court during sentencing exceeded $2.8 million. In advance of sentencing, efforts had been made by the brothers to pay restitution. As a result, the outstanding restitution owed in the amount of $1,268,386.50 was ordered.