Chants head to CSU with little margin for error in Big South race

Yet again the race for the Big South men’s basketball title is setting up to be a muddled slugfest until the end, and although Coastal Carolina dug itself quite an early hole the Chanticleers have just as quickly climbed back within striking distance.

The Chants (10-8, 4-4 Big South) head into a road game at Charleston Southern (8-11, 4-4) on Saturday evening two games back in the standings and already with wins over two of the strongest challengers for the regular-season title in current co-leader High Point and a Winthrop team tied for third to this point.

It was the Chants’ impressive 71-68 win at High Point on Saturday that thrust them back into the mix, but coach Cliff Ellis has not allowed his team much opportunity to bask in that victory with each remaining game so pivotal.

“We tried to put it behind us,” Ellis said. “I would think it would give you inner confidence, but you better put it behind you or the next one is going to slap you.”

The next one is a trip to Charleston Southern to face a team with a good bit of momentum.

The Buccaneers started slow this season with a significantly retooled roster, but have won their last three games to move into a tie for fifth in the standings with the Chants and Radford.

Those wins haven’t been dominant as the Bucs slid past Liberty and Presbyterian by one point each sandwiched around a seven-point win at Campbell, but it was enough to grab Ellis’ full attention – especially considering Coastal Carolina has lost its last three trips to CSU Field House.

“Charleston Southern, it’s just a tough place. It’s one game, they’ll have all their athletic teams in there crowing, it’ll be hot. It’s just a tough game,” Ellis said. “They’ve won three in a row, and I don’t know anybody [else] that has a three-game winning streak in our league right now so they’re playing probably as good as anybody.”

Gone for the Bucs is the veteran backcourt led by 2014-15 Big South Player of the Year Saah Nimley that challenged the Chants in some memorable duels the last few years.

Freshman guard Armel Potter leads the team in scoring at 12.7 points per game, while junior guard Patrick Wallace (10.6), junior guard Raemond Robinson (10.2), senior forward Aaron Wheeler (10.1) and senior guard Demetrius Pollard (9.5) form a well-balanced core.

Potter, a 6-foot-1 rookie, averaged 26 points per game as a senior at Sprayberry High School in Georgia last year to rank third in the state. Meanwhile, the Bucs added an influx of experienced newcomers as Wallace (NC State), Robinson (The Citadel) and Pollard (Northeastern) were all transfers into the program.

“They always have weapons. They’re playing faster, they’re trying to score, they have that [old] VMI approach where they’re trying to score in the first 10-15 seconds. So they want you in that game,” Ellis said.

Charleston Southern attempted 34 3-pointers (making 12) in its win over Presbyterian on Wednesday night and is averaging long-range 27.9 attempts per game while converting at a 37.1-percent clip.

“Yeah, they had a rough start, but they’ve got some really good players, they play with a lot of confidence and they look to push the ball so we need to focus on our transition defense,” Chants junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins said.

As for Coastal Carolina, at two games back in the standings with 10 league contests remaining, the Chants don’t have much margin for error the rest of the way. But Wiggins said the players aren’t looking at any of that at this point.

“We try not to get caught up in the standings, we’ve got to take it game by game,” he said. “But obviously it’s a close race so we need to win as much as possible, put a win streak together and just keep going.”

Ray-St Cyr nearing return for Chants

Junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr has been cleared to return to practice after recovering from a broken wrist, and he could play for Coastal Carolina as soon as Saturday.

Ray-St Cyr started nine of the Chanticleers’ first 10 games, averaging 8.1 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 51.8 percent from the field. He hasn’t placed since sustaining the injury in a Dec. 14 game at Wofford, but coach Cliff Ellis said it was possible the 6-foot-5 guard could see some action Saturday at Charleston Southern.

“He will start practicing. The [cast] has just come off. Whether he’ll play Saturday, I don’t know. If he does, it will be very limited. But he gets to practice today,” Ellis said Thursday. “The doctor said he could practice for 20 minutes just to test it out, and as I’ve said all along we’re gradually fixing to get him back, but I think it’s still going to be a couple of weeks before he’s full-boat ready. But if we can get a few minutes, that’s a few minutes we didn’t have last week.”

The Chants (10-8, 4-4 Big South) have been down two key players over the last five-plus weeks, having also lost senior forward Michel Enanga to knee surgery. The team has been up and down in that stretch, but it is coming off a highly-encouraging 71-68 win at High Point.

It’s unclear if Ray-St Cyr will eventually move back into the starting lineup – his spot was filled by sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw – or come off the bench once he does return. Either way, it will be a significant boost to the team’s depth.

“I would say in a couple of weeks we ought to be back in good shape if everything goes right,” Ellis said. “We’ve got to see how it goes with the cast off, and he’s got to get range of movement. Anytime you have something in a cast, there’s atrophy, so you’ve got to build that up. So let’s don’t think for one minute he’s going to walk out there and be what he was back in November, December. That’s going to take a while.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Chants head to CSU with little margin for error in Big South race."