Coastal Carolina men’s basketball picks up first win of season in rout of Coppin State

After two straight losses to open the season, Coastal Carolina came out ready to play Wednesday night.

The Chanticleers went on a 16-0 run just four minutes into the game and never looked back as five players scored in double figures en route to an 89-59 home win – their first of the season – over Coppin State.

Coastal Carolina (1-2) was coming off a 71-64 loss to College of Charleston on Monday and 70-53 loss to Alabama to open the season.

"The first five minutes were so critical. We just shot the ball, we were playing good defense and were rebounding. It was one of those nights where we came out on fire," Chants coach Cliff Ellis said. "It doesn’t happen all the time. What’s good about it is we lost a couple of games, came out and were ready to play. I think that’s the big thing."

Coastal Carolina was led by senior Elijah Wilson once again, who had 18 points and six rebounds and is the team’s leading scorer as he’s averaging 15.3 points per game after three contests.

Juniors Joseph Williams-Powell and Jaylen Shaw had 13 points apiece, junior newcomer Demario Beck added 12 points and seven rebounds and freshman Amidou Bamba had 11 points and 13 rebounds to round out the Chants’ leading scorers. Meanwhile, role players Artur Labinowicz – a freshman – and junior Jaylan Robertson combined for 15 points and the Chants had 38 points off the bench.

"A lot of balance, a lot of people were getting into the game; there’s a lot of good balance there. A lot of good balance," Ellis said. "We need that. We need to spread it out."

Ellis was also impressed with the play of Bamba.

"Been up and down as far as rebounding tonight and tonight, that’s the kind of effort we want to see every night," he said.

Chants senior Michel Enanga saw his first minutes of the season after missing the first two games due to a knee injury that has hampered him the past year or so.

Enanga had just two points and one rebound but only played six minutes as Coastal Carolina saw itself with a huge lead in the second half. He went up fo

"He really truly had just been cleared two days ago," Ellis said. "He hadn’t been able to practice and we just put him in. He’s not in shape and has some things to work on ."

Coastal Carolina – which had its lead eventually balloon to 41 points – dominated inside, outscoring the Eagles 28-8 in the paint and outrebounded them 59-38. The Chants – who shot 46 percent from the field in the game – also limited Coppin State on its shots as the Eagles were just 19-of-70 (27 percent) from the field.

"We were knocking shots down. Our defense was very good and our rebounding was the most significant thing about that game. We did a good job of owning the glass," Ellis said. "We outrebounded Alabama and College of Charleston outrebounded us, and I told our guys, ‘Look, if we can outrebound Alabama, we have to do it every night.’ We came back and had a solid performance."

Now the Chants are getting prepared for a trip out west as part of a tough early season schedule as they play BYU in Utah on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Southern Utah in Las Vegas 3 p.m. Monday.

"We know this early schedule will help us," Ellis said. "We’ve got some big time opponents and we’ll have to see where we’re at."

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 11:18 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina men’s basketball picks up first win of season in rout of Coppin State."