Addey making most of long-awaited opportunity for Coastal Carolina

CONWAY -- For the better part of two months, junior Bisi Addey sat fixed on the Coastal Carolina bench. His warmup attire rarely came off, his name rarely got called.

So perhaps more than a few fans were left doing a double-take Tuesday night when the little-used 6-foot-7 forward grabbed a steal near midcourt and finished with a powerful dunk on the other end as the crowd inside Kimbel Arena roared with approval.

Bisi who?

“A little bit,” Addey would say later when asked if he thought he had surprised some people while scoring a season-high nine points in a key win over UNC Asheville. “People haven’t seen me play all season.”

That’s changing, though.

Addey’s dunk midway through the second half Tuesday night capped a run of five straight points for the junior to push Coastal’s lead from three to eight as the Chanticleers kept the Big South-leading Bulldogs at bay on the way to a 74-69 victory.

After logging a total of 36 minutes while appearing in just eight of Coastal’s first 24 games, Addey has played 34 minutes over the Chants’ last two contests as coach Cliff Ellis looks to build some depth heading into the Big South Conference tournament.

And he’s capitalized on his chance.

“I’ve been waiting for Bisi to get his opportunity,” senior teammate Chris Gradnigo said. “He just got an opportunity and he took advantage of it. I’m proud of him. I’m glad he wasn’t nervous or afraid. I think in practice we go at him every day, so he should be ready for this type of moment.”

Addey is one of two junior college transfers the Chants brought in this season along with guard Charles Ashford, but both players had been mostly relegated to the role of court-side spectators since the team got into the throes of conference play.

Ellis didn’t have many options, though, last Saturday with junior point guard Kierre Greenwood suspended for a game and junior guard Danny Nieman not making the trip to Winthrop due to injury.

Addey suddenly found himself playing a season-high 20 minutes, while Ashford logged a high of 22 minutes. And with Coastal eliminated from the Big South regular-season race for first place, Ellis has committed to giving both players and senior guard Dexter Moore an extended opportunity to establish themselves as role players in the Chants’ growing rotation.

“I think we can go deeper into our bench, which is good. We’ve got to have that,” Ellis said. “I think that’s what we learned over the process of these last five games. That we know during those five games [in 11 days] that we can’t play without a bench. We’ve given our bench a chance and those guys have responded.”

It’s the chance Addey has been waiting for since signing with Coastal out of South Mountain Community College in Arizona. After three years of junior college (including a season lost to injury), Addey said he had trouble finding schools that would transfer his credits. He was fielding mostly Division II interest before Coastal came into the picture, and it just seemed like the right fit.

A bout of knee tendinitis that developed in the preseason and having to learn a new system have made the transition less than seamless, but Addey said he just stayed patient while seeking advice from supporters like his coaches at South Mountain.

“He just was like ‘Whatever happens, just keep with it. Just keep doing your school work, keep going to practice and working hard. It’s going to work out because I know the type of player you are,’ ” Addey said.

And now, it seems, he’s getting his opportunity to show the Chants and their fans as well.