Coastal Carolina men’s basketball unable to keep up with Chattanooga
Coastal Carolina men’s basketball coach Cliff Ellis and his team can agree on one thing for sure.
The Chanticleers need to get better.
While facing a tough early schedule during its debut season in the Sun Belt Conference, Coastal Carolina has found it has some kinks to work out and gelling to do – which was evident Tuesday as Chants fell to Chattanooga 68-52 at the HTC Center.
“I think we see why Chattanooga won 29 games and this is an experienced team that has everybody back,” Ellis said of the Moccasins, who never trailed and got out to an 18 point lead at halftime Tuesday. “They’re experienced and gave us a knockout punch early and we couldn’t come back and rally. They’re a very good basketball team; we had too many turnovers and too many second shots, and they made shots. We need to focus on getting better.
“But it was really a story of an experienced team going up against an inexperienced team and having their way.”
After the loss, Ellis reiterated to his players in the locker room that they need to keep improving and growing as a team.
“We see what we’ve gotta do. That’s a 29-win team; everybody back,” Ellis said of Chattanooga, a 2016 NCAA tournament team. “What we need to do is focus on getting better because they’re showing you how it needs to be played. Our focus is [on getting] better.”
Jaylen Shaw was the Chants’ highest scorer with 12 points and afterward gave Chattanooga credit while agreeing with Ellis that there’s room for improvement.
“We just have to put this behind us and come back tomorrow and [keep getting] better,” he said. “We played a good team but we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to come back and play harder and step up.”
Coastal Carolina will have an opportunity less than 24 hours later as the Chants host Methodist at 8:30 p.m. in the second of five straight at home.
“Home court is something you want to take advantage of. When you take on an experienced team you need that home-court advantage. What’s important for us is that we need everyone to come out and give us that home-court advantage,” Ellis said. “If you don’t have that then you’re just playing a game. We have to focus on our execution, share the ball a lot better, cut our turnovers down and play better defense.”
CHATTANOOGA (5-2)—London 4-10 0-2 11, Tuoyo 3-6 0-0 6, McLean 10-17 2-3 26, Pryor 2-9 1-1 5, Burroughs-Cook 2-6 0-2 4, Massenburg 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 1-3 0-0 3, Foreman 0-1 0-0 0, Woods 0-0 2-2 2, Chatman 4-6 0-0 9, Brewster 0-0 0-0 0, Dixon 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-59 5-10 68.
COASTAL CAROLINA (2-5)—Bamba 2-7 1-2 5, Beck 4-11 0-0 8, Ray-St Cyr 1-2 1-2 3, Shaw 5-9 0-0 12, Wilson 4-11 3-4 11, Williams-Powell 1-3 0-0 2, Enanga 1-2 2-4 5, Holmes 0-2 0-0 0, Coleman 0-0 0-0 0, Robertson 1-2 0-0 2, Labinowicz 1-5 2-2 4. Totals 20-54 9-14 52.
Halftime—Chattanooga 41-23. 3-Point Goals—Chattanooga 9-27 (McLean 4-7, London 3-6, Jones 1-1, Chatman 1-1, Foreman 0-1, Tuoyo 0-1, Burroughs-Cook 0-3, Pryor 0-7), Coastal Carolina 3-16 (Shaw 2-3, Enanga 1-1, Williams-Powell 0-1, Holmes 0-1, Ray-St Cyr 0-1, Labinowicz 0-3, Wilson 0-3, Beck 0-3). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Chattanooga 33 (Tuoyo, McLean 9), Coastal Carolina 31 (Beck 9). Assists—Chattanooga 14 (Pryor 4), Coastal Carolina 10 (Ray-St Cyr 3). Total Fouls—Chattanooga 19, Coastal Carolina 13. A—1,339 (3,212).
Max McKinnon: 843-626-0302, @mmckinnonTSN
This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 11:35 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina men’s basketball unable to keep up with Chattanooga."