Late rally comes up short as CCU women fall to Longwood

Trailing by 17 points early in the fourth quarter against a Longwood team off to a slow start this season, it looked like nothing was going right for the Coastal Carolina women’s basketball team Monday night.

And then the Chanticleers reeled off the next 11 points to make the game suddenly very interesting down the stretch – one big shot at a time, one defensive stop at a time.

It simply wasn’t enough to erase that sizable hole they had dug for themselves, though, and the visiting Lancers were eventually able to close out a 56-48 win inside The HTC Center.

“I’m very proud of my teammates at the end. We all were hustling and I thought we did a great job at the end. We just came up a little short,” junior guard Ced Gibson said.

Gibson scored a game-high 16 points for Coastal Carolina (6-8, 1-4 Big South) and was the driving force down the stretch while scoring nine of the team’s final 10 points.

Overall, though, it was a rough offensive outing for the Chants as they shot just 25 percent from the field and 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from 3-point range.

“Bad shooting night, for sure. It was very, very uncharacteristic of our team,” coach Jaida Williams said.

Longwood (5-9, 2-3), meanwhile, came into the game ranked ninth in the Big South in scoring and 10th in defense, but the Lancers were in full control of this one for most of the night. They built a 29-21 halftime lead and pushed that advantage as high as 18 points late in the third quarter.

Daeisha Brown, who led the Lancers with 13 points, scored early in the fourth quarter to make it a 50-33 game before the Chants started mounting their rally.

Junior forward Yasmin Miller scored on a layup, sophomore guard Jas Adams soon dropped in a 3 and a few possessions later Gibson sank a short floater. After Dionne Parker hit one of two free throws, Gibson worked her way to the line on back-to-back possessions while making 3-of-4 foul shots to cut Longwood’s lead to 50-44 with 2:19 remaining.

“I was really proud of their intensity, their effort, their ability to lock down defensively [down the stretch]. They did a really good job,” Williams said.

Gibson followed a Longwood basket with two more floaters to make it 52-48 with 38.9 seconds left, but that’s as close as it would get.

“I knew what coach wanted and I just tried to do it to the best of my ability with the help of my teammates,” Gibson said.

Longwood closed out the game at the foul line as Deborah Headen and Brown hit two free throws each to seal the win.

Despite the strong fourth quarter, the Chants finished 20.5 points below their season scoring average. They don’t play again until Jan. 12 at High Point so they’ll have plenty of time to prepare for their next challenge while looking to bounce back.

“[The break will involve] a lot of player development, a lot of skill development, just getting Coastal basketball better. Just getting us better as athletes and getting our team better as a whole,” Williams aid.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Late rally comes up short as CCU women fall to Longwood."