Chants close strong in win over College of Charleston

It had been nine days since the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team played an NCAA opponent, and after losing its first two such games in Hawaii to open the season, the Chanticleers arrived at College of Charleston on Tuesday night with perhaps something to prove.

And to that end, coach Cliff Ellis had to be encouraged by what he saw from his team.

The Chants overcame an eight-point second-half deficit and asserted full control over the final minutes on their way to a 67-61 win over the host Cougars inside TD Arena.

According to Coastal Carolina’s program records, it was the Chants’ first win at College of Charleston since the 1976-77 season. For that matter, the Cougars had won 15 of the last 17 meetings between the teams overall.

More importantly, though, it was simply a road win over a decent non-conference opponent that Ellis hopes will now be a springboard for his team moving forward.

“Somebody told me coming off [the court], I didn’t even know this, this is the first time Coastal’s won here since 1977. That’s a long time. But any road win is a good win,” Ellis said. “We have not been a healthy team. We’re still not healthy, but tonight’s the first game we felt like, ‘OK, we’ve got our team back a little bit.’ ...

“Tonight I think is a start for something that is going to be hopefully good.”

Senior forward Badou Diagne double-doubled with 14 points and 10 rebounds, junior guard Elijah Wilson also scored 14, junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins had 13 points, junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr added 10 and sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw chipped in eight in a balanced offensive effort for Coastal Carolina (3-2).

Wiggins was making his return to action after missing the team’s two blowout wins over non-NCAA opponents Grace Bible College and Piedmont International last week to rest an injured hamstring, and he ended up playing a team-high 31 minutes off the bench.

The most significant stat line in the game, though, was that the Chants held College of Charleston standout Canyon Barry to just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting. Barry, the youngest son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, had come into the game ranked third among all NCAA Division I players while averaging 28.0 points per game.

“All week we looked at film, looked at his tendencies, trying to figure out the best way to guard him. It worked out in our favor tonight,” Shaw said.

Those two would factor into one of the more pivotal moments in the game.

College of Charleston (2-2) had peaked its lead at 42-34 with a little less than 14 minutes remaining before the Chants came back to tie it up at 48-48 in the middle of an 11-0 run.

The visitors, in turn, surged to a 54-48 lead before the Cougars rallied to tie it again at 55-55. Overall, there were 13 lead changes in the game.

When Coastal Carolina pulled ahead again, though, it wouldn’t relinquish control.

It started when Shaw made a nice driving layup to break that tie, Wilson followed the next time down the court with a dazzling spin move and fade-away jumper and Shaw then stole the ball from Barry and went all the way for another layup to give the Chants a 61-55 lead.

“It felt real good, knowing I was in foul trouble the whole game so my minutes [were] a little down. My teammates and coaches told me to keep playing and keep my head in the game,” Shaw said of scoring half of his eight points in that key stretch.

The Chants would then seal the game at the foul line, making 6-of-8 free throws the rest of the way.

“We were just really in the mindset of playing good defense and getting good shots and trying to finish the game and getting good possessions and not giving them second chances to score,” Shaw said.

That defensive effort was what pleased Ellis the most and the area in which he saw the most improvement from the team’s season-opening losses to Nevada and Hawaii in the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic.

It also helped that Coastal Carolina managed to outscore College of Charleston 34-8 on points in the paint.

“I’m proud of our team. I thought the defense was wonderful and we were able to hold Barry down, and I think that was a big key to the game,” Ellis said. “Of course it didn’t hurt us that they missed some foul shots. They had a lead and missed some foul shots, missed a couple shots and we were able to hit a few and momentum changed and it was back and forth. It was just a great basketball game and I’m proud of our team because they hung in there and they won it with their defense and made enough shots to win it.”

Ellis said the plan against Barry was to keep fresh bodies on him and be physical if he put the ball on the floor.

The Cougars standout had not scored less than 22 points in any of his first three games before being contained Tuesday night.

College of Charleston had opened the season with a 20-point win over South Carolina State, a 14-point win over Navy and a narrow 82-81 loss at Davidson.

Meanwhile, the win gives the Chants a little momentum as they continue a tough stretch with their Big South opener Saturday at Campbell, a home game Dec. 2 against Auburn and then another tough conference test a few days later against Radford.

“It was very important to beat this team,” Wiggins said. “They were a very good team, we knew it, they were big, physical, and to come on the road and do that, that says a lot about our team.”

NOTES: Wiggins finished 4-of-8 shooting and had four assists and three turnovers in his first game back, but most importantly, he said his hamstring felt back to full strength.

“I’m feeling a lot better. I’m back at 100 percent,” he said. “I had a week off, it helped out a lot. ... I was very excited, I think I was a little too excited when I first got in, but I kind of eased in and settled in.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Chants close strong in win over College of Charleston."