MYRTLE BEACH — The South Carolina Warriors continued their hot start Sunday, improving to 4-0 with a 128-102 victory over the Fayetteville Flight at the Carolina Forest Recreation Center.

However, coach John Kefalas says the Warriors have a long way to go – on defense, in particular.

“Our defense is not where I want it to be,” he said.

The Warriors gave up more than 100 for the second straight game after holding their first two opponents below the century mark.

“We did all right,” Kefalas said of his team’s overall play. “We’ve got to work on it a little bit. They played a 1-2-2 [zone]. Once we started running our offense and adjusted we did all right [offensively]. You just can’t give up that many points. We’re a team that gives up 70, 80 points max. That’s where we are. We’ve got to work on our defense. But a ‘W’ is a ‘W.’ ”

Tim Ware led the Warriors with 24 points and Marquise Gainous added 22. Mike Vogler had nine assists for South Carolina.

Emanuel Jackson played a key role for the Warriors on the second straight day, Kefalas said, as they took on another team that was a bit undersized.

“They were undersized so we had to adjust again,” Kefalas said. “Emanuel did a good job against their big guy.”

The Warriors next play on the road when they visit the Palmetto State Rizers in Columbia on Sunday.

The layoff gives the Warriors some time to work in practice.

So what will be the focus?

“Defense. Defense and defense,” Kefalas said. “I’ve been in this game almost 50 years. One of my sayings is, ‘There’s no glory in defense, just victory.’ Everybody likes to shot the ball. that’s one of the things I say. So if you suck it up and play defense we’ll find a way to win.”

For a team that reached the ABA finals last year, Kefalas believes that philosophy will go a long way.

“We’ve just got to fine-tune some things and work on the defense,” he said. “My experience in coaching is if you play defense you have an opportunity to win. If you don’t, you’ll have problems. It’s like the old saying: Offense wins games, defense wins championships.”

CCU volleyball

•  (At) Liberty 3, Coastal Carolina 1 | The top-seeded Flames outlasted the second-seed Chanticleers in the finals of the Big South Volleyball Championship.

Liberty earned the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Volleyball Championship.

CCU was led by junior Meghan Laffin, who had 13 kills and four digs. Gabriella Horvath added 11 kills, 13 digs, a service ace and a solo block. Eszter Nagy chipped in 11 kills, and Monica Hall had 10 kills.