Coastal Carolina basketball team stuns Clemson

CLEMSON -- Coastal Carolina has only played five games, but already this has the feel of a special and potentially historic season for the Chanticleers.

Or at least that's the way it seemed Tuesday night inside Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum.

A week after toppling LSU at home as the students rushed the floor to join in the celebration, the Chants did it again -- upending a more established program from one of the traditional power conferences for the second time in the span of eight days while remaining undefeated.

And while coach Cliff Ellis had called the team's win over LSU one of the biggest regular-season victories in program history, well, this one felt even bigger.

Coming out of a pair of timeouts with 7.1 seconds on the clock, senior forward Chris Gradnigo missed a short jumper in the waning moments only to get his own rebound and toss it back in as time expired to send Coastal to a momentous 60-59 win over the host Tigers and one that will surely generate some attention for a Chants program that hasn't reached the NCAA tournament since 1993.

"There's never been anything like this at Coastal Carolina," Ellis said. "LSU and Clemson in [a week], it doesn't get any better than that. It puts you on the national map. We've still got a lot of basketball to be played, but we can be proud of what's been accomplished here."

Gradnigo's game-winner -- which came as took the inbounds pass above the arc, drove toward the foul line, spun and missed a short jumper before surging unobstructed through the lane for the rebound and put-back -- was replayed throughout the night as SportsCenter's top play.

He held his arms poised down at his sides, soaking in the moment as his teammates came running toward him in the corner of the court. There were no Coastal students to rush the floor this time, but CCU athletic director Hunter Yurachek filled that role, climbing over the courtside media table as the buzzer sounded to join in the jubilant emotion of the moment as the Chants made program history by knocking off two power conference foes in the same season for the first time.

Until a year ago, they hadn't defeated any team from the so-called BCS conferences since the 1993-94 season. Now, they've done it three times since last December with two wins over LSU and their first win in six tries against Clemson.

"We believe that we can beat these teams. It's not upsets to us," Gradnigo said matter-of-factly after returning from the locker room.

Maybe he has a point.

Coming off back-to-back 28-win campaigns, Coastal (5-0) looks poised for another big season and perhaps just maybe the NCAA tournament return the program has long been awaiting.

Gradnigo and junior guard Anthony Raffa each scored 21 points to lead all scorers and lead the way as the Chants overcame a 12-point first-half deficit Tuesday night, played most of that opening half without starting junior forward Sam McLaurin (early foul trouble) and trailed for most of the second half as well before nonetheless finding a way to come out on top.

"It's hard to wrap your mind around it," McLaurin said. "We got a win over an SEC team and an ACC team in a matter of a week. That's big. ... And to get it how we did shows the character of our team. These guys won't give."

In the first half, it seemed the Chants couldn't find the same upset formula they used the previous Tuesday night while toppling LSU 71-63 at Kimbel Arena.

The game was tied at 21 when Clemson (2-2) -- which was looking to bounce back from a loss to College of Charleston on Saturday -- rattled off 12 straight points in less than two and a half minutes to gain the first separation in the game. Senior point guard Andre Young keyed that run with 10 points, including a 3-pointer from the right wing to cap the spurt and give the Tigers a 33-21 lead with 2:10 left in the half.

The Chants would get only five first-half minutes from McLaurin, who entered the game averaging nearly a double-double, and had three starters with two fouls already by the time the half ended.

"We were in serious foul trouble. We just wanted to get to the dressing room," Ellis said. "... We were limping in. We said please, the last five minutes, just get us to the locker room."

Clemson led 33-25 at halftime, but the Chants would regroup and soon mount their surge.

"We really didn't get down on ourselves," Raffa said. "We knew we're a pretty good basketball team. And we knew that they're going to make runs and we're going to make runs -- we've just got to sustain that and that's what we did."

Raffa, who also finished with four steals and seven rebounds on the night, scored eight quick points to key a 12-3 run early in the second half as Coastal drew to within a point at 38-37 with 14:32 remaining. It would be close the rest of the way.

Gradnigo, who was expected to take over as a go-to offensive force for the Chants this year, had put up some nice numbers in a couple of the team’s early tune-up games against Division III competition, but he was quiet in the upset over LSU last week with three points on 1-of-7 shooting and got off to a slow start again Tuesday night while hitting just 2 of his first 8 shots from the field.

He’d break out at just the right time, though, draining three straight jumpers midway through the second half while authoring a personal 6-2 run against the Tigers and twice putting the Chants ahead – including a 43-42 lead with 11:05 left to play.

Junior point guard Kierre Greenwood made it 45-42 a few minutes later with a pair of free throws as Coastal seized its largest advantage of the game. But Clemson, which won 22 games last season while reaching the NCAA tournament, answered with an 8-1 run to reclaim control – at least temporarily. Every lead was tenuous in this one.

Raffa forced a steal at midcourt and raced to the other end for a layup to tie it at 50, but Young -- who finished as the only Clemson player in double figures with 20 points -- delivered a 3-pointer from the right corner on the other end as the Tigers went back up 53-50.

Coastal wouldn’t lead again until the very end, but that was the only lead that mattered.

The Chants were down 59-55 with about a minute remaining when Gradnigo rattled in a 3-pointer as the ball bounced out of the cylinder and off the glass before swishing back through. The fifth-year senior, who sat out last season after transferring from Louisiana-Lafayette, would score the game's final five points and finish with 15 in the second-half in a breakout performance.

"My teammates believed in me and told me to shoot with confidence, and that's what I did," Gradnigo would say later.

After his late 3-pointer cut the Chants' deficit to a point, Clemson had a chance to add to its lead, but Young missed a layup and McLaurin secured the rebound. On the other end, Gradnigo missed a mid-range jumper, but Raffa was there for the rebound as Coastal called timeout to set up its final play with less than eight seconds remaining.

"I told every one of them, I said, 'Look in my eyes. Look in my eyes. We're winning this basketball game. Period.' And I made everyone look in my eyes," Ellis said. "He took it in and he stayed with it, which is the fight that you have to have. The shot, I thought, was going in. I mean it was right there, but then he got the follow-up, which is his resolve."

It was Ellis' first game as an opposing coach in Littlejohn Coliseum, where he spent 10 years leading Clemson from 1984-94. He remains the program's all-time leader in coaching victories (177-128), and before the game he was honored with a plaque and a nice response from the crowd. Ellis then went out and kissed the court -- he'd say later that's the way he ended his Tigers' tenure and he wanted to show his appreciation for the crowd.

But he was very much focused Tuesday night on the latest -- and likely final -- chapter of his coaching career, and it's one that is becoming increasingly intriguing in his fifth year with Coastal. This season is young, and as the Chants know well after March heartbreaks the last two years, anything can happen.

For now, though, Coastal and its fans can't help but enjoy what's transpired over the last eight days. The Chants are 5-0 with two of the more significant wins in recent program history already to their credit and mounting optimism as to where the rest of this season will go.

"LSU and Clemson, [we've] got people's attention," Ellis said. "[But there's] a lot of basketball to be played."