Matchup preview: CCU hosts Alabama State

Who: Alabama State at Coastal Carolina

Where: The HTC Center, Conway

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Radio: WSEA-FM 100.3

About the Chanticleers (6-5): Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis said his team isn’t in the market for moral victories, but the Chants’ 83-77 loss at Wake Forest on Friday night was nonetheless an encouraging showing as they rallied back from a 14-point deficit to make it a 2-point game in the final minutes against an ACC program on the rise. Before that, the Chants had won three straight games and seem to be finding their stride as they head into their final non-conference game. Depth will continue to be an obstacle with junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr (broken wrist) and senior forward Michel Enanga (knee surgery) out of the rotation. Sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw plugged into Ray-St Cyr’s starting spot just fine, though, scoring a season-high 21 points and dishing seven assists on Friday.

About the Hornets (4-5): Alabama State opened the season with a nice win at Virginia Tech, but the Hornets have been up and down since and are coming off a 91-74 loss at Elon. In fact, in their five defeats they’ve lost by an average margin of 21.8 points. That said, this is a program that went 19-10 last season. Senior point guard Jamel Waters leads the Hornets in scoring at 14.4 points per game while 6-foot-6 junior forward Tony Armstrong made his season debut last game with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Matchup preview: CCU hosts Alabama State."