Coastal Carolina faces pivotal matchup with Big South leader UNC Asheville

No matter what happens Wednesday night, the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team will still have eight regular-season games remaining and plenty of season left to unfold.

But what happens in this next game may well determine if the Chanticleers still have a shot at winning a regular-season Big South championship in the process.

The Chants’ three-game winning streak has made them one of the hottest teams in the conference and has them sitting two games back of league-leader UNC Asheville as they prepare to host the first-place Bulldogs on Wednesday night at The HTC Center.

It’s the first of two meetings set between the teams over the next four and a half weeks and a chance to either close the gap or leave what would likely be too much ground to make up the rest of the way.

“It’s big for us from that standpoint and it’s big for us for confidence,” sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw said. “If we get this win it will just give us that edge to think we’re supposed to be No. 1.”

Since shaking out of a mini slump earlier this month, Coastal Carolina (11-8, 5-4 Big South) has reeled off a 29-point win over Presbyterian, a tough road victory at preseason league favorite High Point and a 15-point win at Charleston Southern on Saturday.

Now comes a Bulldogs team that holds a one-game lead atop the standings over Winthrop and High Point and a two-game margin over the Chants, Radford and Gardner-Webb.

UNC Asheville (14-7, 7-2) was voted seventh in the Big South’s preseason coaches and media poll and entered the season as something of an unknown after leading scorer Andrew Rowsey transferred to Marquette in the offseason, but Chants coach Cliff Ellis says he isn’t at all surprised to see the Bulldogs atop the standings at this point.

Especially after they won at Georgetown earlier in the season and narrowly lost at Tennessee.

“I always like their team. … I knew they’d be in the top,” he said. “High Point was picked to be No. 1, but Asheville has surpassed everybody. They’ve proven that they’re good. You just go back to the Georgetown win. That tells you a lot right there.”

Dylan Smith, a 6-foot-5 freshman guard, leads the Bulldogs in scoring at 13.6 points per game, but sophomore guard Kevin Vannatta (12.4), fellow 6-foot-5 freshman guard Dwayne Sutton (11.0), senior forward Sam Hughes (10.3) and sophomore guard Ahmad Thomas (10.0) round out a balanced offensive attack.

It’s an intriguing matchup for the Chants, who have also leaned on the strength of their backcourt this season.

Junior guard Elijah Wilson leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw is averaging 12.1 points and coming off a career-high 22-point effort against Charleston Southern and junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins is averaging 11.0 and coming off a 23-point game in that win Saturday.

Shaw in particular has really come on strong of late, averaging 17 points during the Chants’ three-game winning streak, and he now ranks second in the Big South at 4.5 assists per game.

He says he’s simply becoming more comfortable in the offense in his first season with the team after transferring from South Carolina and sitting out last year.

“In the preseason I didn’t know what was considered good shots, where should I shoot the ball, I was kind of choosing the wrong thing to do and being more passive, but now I understand the offense and when I need to be aggressive,” Shaw said.

The Chants also got junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr back last game after he missed five weeks with a broken wrist. Ray-St Cyr only played eight minutes against Charleston Southern and is being eased back into the rotation, but his return further strengthens that balanced backcourt and gives Ellis another option to counteract UNC Asheville’s effective small-ball lineups.

“He’ll play some, but we just have to manage it and see how it goes,” Ellis said. “We’ve got this week to kind of get him into it and keep going. Like we said, it will be a couple weeks before we think he’s back where he needs to be.”

The Chants, meanwhile, could be right back where they need to be with a big win Wednesday night.

Even if that isn’t the way Ellis is framing this matchup for his team.

“I think they’re all big. They’re all big,” he said. “They’re in first place for a reason. They’ve deserved it and what a job they’re doing. They shoot the ball well, they’ve got good inside play, they play good defense, their coaches are doing a great job. They’ve earned the right during the first half to be where they are. I don’t like to put any game more important than another game. You just play them one at a time and then the outcome takes care of itself.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina faces pivotal matchup with Big South leader UNC Asheville."