Coastal Carolina men’s basketball sees familiar face in win over North Carolina Central

Coastal Carolina ran into a familiar face.

Former player Ron Trapps joined North Carolina Central this season while seeking a graduate degree that wasn’t offered at Coastal Carolina, and the two teams met Saturday.

The Chanticleers have missed Trapps, but had no mercy for their former brother and his new team as Elijah Wilson had one of his best games of the season to lead Coastal Carolina to a narrow 70-67 win over the Eagles at The HTC Center.

"It’s a good little experience; a good game to play in," Wilson said. "Everybody knows [Trapps] is. Everyone wanted to come out and support us and him, and we had a pretty decent crowd tonight. We all just love those types of moments and we just try to cherish it."

Saturday’s win also marked the first time this season that the Chants took two contests in a row as they improved to 5-6 overall.

"We really wanted this one," said Wilson, who had a team- and season-high 22 points. "We started off this season pretty slow from the beginning; we were having games that we lost that we should have won. So, we were using those losses as motivation to come in and get this win,"

CCU came out of the gate strong Saturday as the Chants built a quick 10-3 lead in the opening minute. Coastal Carolina extended its lead to as much as 12 before entering halftime with a 38-32 advantage.”

"We knew they would know all of our plays because they have an assistant that played for Coach Ellis, and they have Ron Trapps who played here last year. So we knew they knew our plays, and we didn’t let it stop us," Wilson said. "We just stuck to the game plan the coaches gave us, and went out there and executed. That’s really what it was – just execution and everyone was hitting shots so it worked out in our favor."

The Chants outrebounded North Carolina Central 46-31 and outscored them 30-10 inside the paint, while Coastal Carolina also shot 44.3 percent from the field and held the Eagles to under 35 percent shooting.

Coastal Carolina did have an issue with turnovers, however, giving the ball back to North Carolina Central 15 times while only forcing nine turnovers of its own.

The Eagles capitalized and turned those turnovers into points as North Carolina Central outscored the Chants 27-9 in points off turnovers.

CCU led by 16 with a little over 10 minutes left in the contest and still led by 10 with a little under 3 minutes to go. However, the Eagles cut into the Chants’ lead to bring the game within 3 points, but that was as close as they would get.

"The thing we talked about is the fact you have to meet your passes, you have to be strong with the ball; there’s going to be a lot of hands," Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis said of what he told his team in the final minutes. "It’s getting late in the game and we got the lead; they’re going to start gambling a little bit more. You’ve got to meet your passes, protect the ball and you’re going to have to knock your free throws down and you got to play defense on the other end."

While Wilson had one of his best games Saturday, he was far from the only vital contributor for the Chants Jaylen Shaw (15 points), Josh Coleman (12 points) and Colton Ray St-Cyr (10 points) each finished in double figures.

"It was a hard-fought win and so many people had a lot to do with this game. But I think our rebounding was a big key. Josh Coleman had his best game and kept things alive, Colton had a double-double, Elijah had 22 and Jaylen Shaw scored 15. It was a good effort," Ellis said. "We scored some points, but the big thing is we need to cut the turnovers down."

That will be a focus for Ellis and the Chants as they hit the road after five straight at home in which they went 3-2. Coastal Carolina will travel to take on Auburn on Thursday.

"We basically have a new team from what we did last year," Wilson said. "We’re coming along, getting adjusted and when get back-to-back wins it instills confidence and everybody’s starting to gel so hopefully that all carries over to next game."

This story was originally published December 11, 2016 at 12:21 AM with the headline "Coastal Carolina men’s basketball sees familiar face in win over North Carolina Central."