Coastal Carolina teams add players during the early signing period

Coastal Carolina men’s basketball coach Cliff Ellis has signed a pair of guards in the early signing period that will help replace graduating senior point guard Jaylen Shaw beginning in the 2018-19 season.

David Pierce, who is 6-foot-2 from Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Malik Legania, who is 6-5 and played at Landry High in New Orleans, have signed to play at CCU.

Pierce averaged 23 points per game as a junior while shooting 48 percent from the field, including 45 percent from three-point range, scoring 598 points and averaging five rebounds, two assists and over a steal per game.

“David is a great kid, a really good get for our program,” Ellis said. “He reminds me of a bigger version of Jaylen Shaw. I really believe if David comes in and is willing to work, he’ll have a great career here at Coastal. His best basketball is in front of him.”

Legania has also played at Taylor Made Prep School in Florida and averaged 14 points and four rebounds per game during his senior year at Landry while being named to the all-district, all-metro and all-state teams. He helped Landry win three Louisiana Class 5A state championships in the past four years.

“He’s a huge addition to our program and is a talented guard who hasn’t tapped into his potential just yet,” Ellis said. “We think he could be a special player for the Chanticleers.”

Quinney adds three

CCU women’s golf coach Katie Quinney has signed three players, including a junior college transfer.

Alexandra Naumovski will transfer to CCU after two years at Seminole State College in Florida. The Ontario, Canada native finished in the top 10 in four of the eight tournaments she played in Canada this year, tying for second at the GAO Junior Girls Spring Classic, fourth at the Ontario Junior Girls Championship, sixth at the Golf Quebec Junior Spring Open and seventh at the CN Future Links Ontario Championship.

Tiffany Arafi of Birsfelden, Switzerland is a Swiss National Team member who attends Montverde Academy in Florida. She had a 74.52 stroke average in six international tournaments this year, finishing second at the Australian International Ladies Amateur Championship and seventh at the Italian International Amateur.

Jenjra Jinangkul is from Bangkok, Thailand and attends Trinity International School in Las Vegas.

The CCU women return to action Feb. 9-11 in an event at Florida State.

Players honored

CCU senior forward Frantzdy Pierrot and senior midfielder Louis Dargent have been named to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer All-Southeast Region Team by the United Soccer Coaches.

Senior forward Daniella Famili of the women’s soccer team was named to the All-South Region Third Team.

Pierrot has been named to the First Team after leading CCU with 24 points on 10 goals and four assists. He led the Chants with four match-winning goals while being named the Sun Belt Player of the Year

Dargent was named to the Second Team despite missing several matches early in the season due to injury. The Chants went 10-1-1 with Dargent in the lineup, the lone loss coming to third-ranked Stanford in the NCAA Championship third round. The Chants won Sun Belt regular-season and tournament titles before winning a pair of NCAA Tournament games over Mercer and Clemson.

Famili, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, tallied 10 goals and seven assists for 27 points. She was named to the All-Region First Team last season, and is the only two-time selection in program history. Other previous All-Region members were Ashleigh Gunning (2007), Kacey Kelley (2014) and Amber Adams (2016).

Academic excellence

Twelve CCU athletes received Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FAR) Academic Excellence Awards, giving CCU the most among schools in the Sun Belt Conference, which had a total of 52.

Recipients must have graduated in the past academic year with at least a 3.80 grade-point average and two years of participation in intercollegiate athletics. The award was given to 644 student-athletes nationally: 161 men and 483 women.

The CCU recipients were Rebecca Austin (women's soccer), Marie Babayan (women's tennis), Barbora Bakova (women's golf), Tahleia Bishop (volleyball), Olivia Carlton (women's basketball), Romane Delay (women's tennis), Melanie Flatter, (women's soccer), Emma Kroger (women's track and field), Francesco Migliano (men's tennis), Sebastian Schneider (men's tennis), Brittany Temple (women's soccer), Kyla Van Graan (women's track and field).

Men’s hoops falls

Coastal Carolina came from 11 points down with less than three minutes to play to force overtime Saturday, but fell to Lamar 69-67 to fall to 4-4 with its second loss to the Cardinals this season. Lamar (6-1) won in Beaumont, Texas, 66-60 on Nov. 14.

Coastal committed 23 turnovers leading to 23 Lamar points. Jaylen Shaw sent the game to OT with a late 3-pointer. Zac Cuthbertson tallied 19 points and 14 rebounds while Shaw had 16 points and five assists and Artur Labinowicz added 14 points.

CCU is on the road for its next two at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hampton and at noon Saturday against South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia.

The CCU women’s team improved to 4-4 with a 67-58 win over Fort Wayne on Monday night at the HTC Center. After surrendering a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Chants outscored Fort Wayne (2-6) 11-2 in overtime. Senior guard Jas Adams scored a career-high 29 points. The women’s team next hosts North Carolina Central at 6 p.m. Friday.

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina teams add players during the early signing period."