Coastal Carolina holds off pesky NC Wesleyan for win

For much of the evening Wednesday, the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team found itself in a much closer game than most would have expected.

The Chanticleers were coming off an encouraging conference win and hosting a Division III North Carolina Wesleyan team that had already lost to one Big South opponent by 24 points earlier this season.

But about midway through the second half the teams were still separated by single digits on the scoreboard. If there were any concerns about the Chants in that moment, though, they assuaged them rather thoroughly the rest of the way.

Coastal Carolina reeled off 12 straight points and finished strong, setting up the kind of late-game victory march the home crowd of 1,538 was expecting on the way to a 98-73 win inside The HTC Center.

“We knew they were a good team, but it was a little closer than we expected. They made a lot of shots,” junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins said.

Junior guard Elijah Wilson led the Chants (5-4) with 22 points, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw contributed 18 points and seven assists off the bench, Wiggins chipped in 14 points, senior forward Badou Diagne had 11 points and 11 rebounds and junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr scored 10.

The Chants had scored the final seven points of the first half to build a 44-31 halftime lead, but North Carolina Wesleyan (4-4) trimmed the margin to seven points in the opening minutes of the second half.

The Battling Bishops, led by 23 points and seven 3-pointers from D.J. Weaver, later drew to within 59-51 with a little more than 11 minutes remaining before the Chants finally seized control of the game.

Shaw started the response with a dunk, Wilson followed with a layup, Diagne dropped in two free throws, Wilson then followed with a 3-pointer and Ray-St Cyr completed a contested layup and free throw to push the Coastal Carolina lead to 71-51 with 8:32 left to play.

“We knew they could shoot the 3. We knew that. We knew it from two years ago. It was almost the same game as two years ago and we stretched it out at the end,” Chants coach Cliff Ellis said. “They did the same thing with High Point earlier [this season in a 93-69 loss], made it a seven or eight-point game in the second half. That was a good team. They shoot the three, they play hard, they defend you. So anyway, we dug it out and we did what we needed to do.”

While it wasn’t as convincing a win as perhaps the Chants would have liked, there were encouraging signs nonetheless as Shaw followed up one of his best performances of the season Sunday against Radford with another incredibly efficient game, hitting 6-of-8 shots overall and 3-of-4 from 3-point range while posting a 7-to-2 assist-to-turnover margin and also tallying three steals.

The Chants did also manage to get some extra playing time for freshman guard Christian Adams (three points in four minutes) and freshman forward Kevin Holmes Jr., who made his collegiate debut with seven points and five rebounds in 14 minutes. The coaching staff was considering redshirting Holmes this season, but senior forward Michel Enanga’s lingering knee injury has become a real concern for the team’s depth. The veteran reserve did not play Wednesday night.

“Michel Enanga’s knees are just about to go on him,” Ellis said. “I hate it for Michel and I hate it for Kevin because we’re having to pull him out of a redshirt. I don’t know how much longer [Enanga] can go this year, to be honest with you. So we’ll make a read on that, talk to doctors, but it’s been that kind of year. It’s just been tough.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina holds off pesky NC Wesleyan for win."