Shaw leads CCU men’s basketball to victory over Little Rock

Jaylen Shaw is perhaps playing his best basketball.

And it comes at a time when Coastal Carolina needs the junior most.

Shaw has led the team in scoring in each of the past two games, both Sun Belt Conference wins – the latest a 66-63 Chanticleers victory over Little Rock on Monday to improve to 3-1 in conference play.

“It’s definitely nice to be scoring a lot, but all that matters is we get the win,” said Shaw, who had 16 points Monday and a career-high 24 in Saturday’s win over Arkansas St. “We’re getting better and better and we all know our potential.”

Although the team’s offense didn’t exactly play its best, the defense stepped up once again to keep the Chanticleers afloat.

Coastal Carolina did lead by as much as 16 points with a little under 12 minutes left to play, but the Trojans battled back by outscoring CCU 27-14 from that point on.

Little Rock had a chance to tie the Chants at the end of the game, but Maurius Hill missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer as Coastal Carolina escaped with the narrow win.

“We still need to get better. The offense isn’t where we’d like it to be. Nice solid defensive performance but still could be better,” said Chants coach Cliff Ellis. “Sure, great to get the win. But we need to get better.”

CCU was below its season shooting average, shooting just 39 percent from the field and was 8-of-23 (34.7 percent) on 3-pointers.

Shaw – a junior guard – did help with his big night, and junior Demario Beck also came up big with his third double-double of the season as he put up 15 points and grabbed 10 boards.

Senior guard Shivaughn Wiggins – in just his second game back with the Chants since an indefinite suspension last season – came off the bench to contribute 12 points.

“Shivaughn, it’s good to have him back and we know he can step up and really help this team out,” Shaw said.

Deondre Burns had a game-high 17 points to pace Little Rock, while Marcus Johnson added 15 points off the bench, and Lis Shoshi scored 10.

The Trojans (11-6, 2-2 SBC) finished with a 39 percent mark from the field, and were 7-of-24 (29.1 percent) on 3-pointers.

“Just a good solid defensive performance, but the offense needs to come together a little more,” Shaw said. “We definitely didn’t make it easy on ourselves.”

Coastal Carolina will look to keep the ball rolling in conference play as it hosts Appalachian State on Saturday before hitting the road for contests at Georgia State and Georgia Southern.

“We have full faith in [Ellis] and know that if we just listen to what he says and execute, we’re going to be all right,” Shaw said.

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 12:24 AM with the headline "Shaw leads CCU men’s basketball to victory over Little Rock."