CCU women bounce back with resounding victory over Texas State

A tough loss on Thursday wasn’t going to get the Coastal Carolina women’s basketball team feeling down.

And a strong second half performance ensured the Chanticleers would come out on top Saturday with a 64-48 victory over Texas State at the HTC Center.

“I’m most proud of in the second half we took care of the ball,” said CCU head coach Jaida Williams, whose team cut down its turnovers by 17 over its previous game – a 70-41 loss to UTA on Thursday. “Only two turnovers to bring our turnover total down from 28 to 11.”

Kennedy Archer put up 19 points to go along with four assists and two rebounds, while Ced Gibson scored 13 and Rachael Gregory put up 12 points each for the Chants.

Coastal Carolina held the Bobcats to 35.7 percent shooting from the field, including 6-of-26 (23 percent) on 3-pointers, while shooting 40.4 percent itself. The Chants also committed just nine fouls, and they also outrebounded Texas State 38-32.

“I’m really proud of our team just all around. Defensively, we held a team that scored in the 80s to the 40s this time,” Williams said. “We shot 40 percent, and they typically keep teams at about 32 percent or below and they’re holding teams to 50 points per game and we superseded that by scoring 64 points.”

But Archer’s performance was the spark the Chants needed Saturday, and she has impressed Williams with her play thus far this year.

“Kennedy has been playing pretty solid all season,” Williams said. “She’s had a few games where she’s slumped a little bit, but she has bounced back. Kennedy goes hard every day in practice; she’s that glue that holds us all together.”

The Chants moved to 9-10 overall and 4-5 in Sun Belt Conference play, and will look to gain some more momentum during a trip to Arkansas with meetings against Arkansas State (Thursday, 8 p.m.) and Little Rock (Saturday, 5 p.m.).

“I’m really proud of our student-athletes for executing the game plan and bouncing back from a tumultuous loss,” Williams said. “Now it’s on to Arkansas.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 4:38 PM with the headline "CCU women bounce back with resounding victory over Texas State."