Coastal Carolina dealt another setback as Freeman sidelined

With four straight wins the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team has surged back into contention for the Big South regular-season championship, but the Chanticleers can’t seem to outrun the injury bug this season.

While discussing his team’s latest impressive victory Wednesday night, a 68-66 overtime thriller against UNC Asheville, Chants coach Cliff Ellis also revealed that senior forward Marcus Freeman will be out an estimated two to four weeks with what he termed a “severe mid sprain” in his foot.

The injury occurred near the end of practice Tuesday and comes as a significant loss to the Chants as Freeman was averaging 9.0 points and 8.5 rebounds over his last four games as the team’s top forward off the bench.

“They’re saying two to four weeks so it all depends on rehab and things of that type. It is what it is,” Ellis said after the game.“... It happened with five minutes to go in practice yesterday. He and Colton [Ray-St Cyr] went for a ball, he stepped on Colton’s foot and turned it. It’s a mid-sprain avulsion. It really is a severe mid sprain. It’s not broken. Some say four weeks with a minimum of two, and I say as tough as Marcus is he’ll be back.”

The Chants (12-8, 6-4 Big South) had just welcomed back Ray-St Cyr the previous game after he missed five weeks with a broken wrist. They’ve already lost senior forward Michel Enanga to knee surgery and have dealt with other maladies along the way, including a preseason car accident that shook up four players and a hamstring strain that slowed junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins at the start of the season.

“I want to get my team. I just want to have my team one time this year, and I thought we were there. I really thought we were there,” Ellis said. “... I’m telling you, we played with a lineup we had not practiced. It was ugly, but it was a win and that’s all that matters.”

Ellis explained that Ray-St Cyr had not practiced playing at the “four” position before being used there Wednesday night.

Ray-St Cyr was a starter when he went down in mid-December, but the Chants’ depth is in the backcourt and they weathered his absence as sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw grew more comfortable and junior guard Ron Trapps started to break out as a potent perimeter shooter.

The team doesn’t have many alternatives in the frontcourt, though. The coaches took a planned redshirt off freshman forward Kevin Holmes Jr. after Enanga was lost to his knee injury. Aside from senior starters Badou Diagne and Tristian Curtis, the only other forward/center on the roster is true freshman Josh Coleman, who has played only 23 minutes over eight games this season.

Overall in conference play, Freeman is averaging 8.0 points and 7.1 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per game.

Ellis said his team will have to get used to playing more small ball for the time being and hope Freeman can return before the Big South tournament. The Chants have eight regular-season games remaining.

“It’s how you respond to circumstances that really prove whether you’re a winner or not,” he said. “You can’t control what has happened, but what a winner is is someone who responds in the right way to whatever is facing them. ... Every time we’ve been faced with [adversity], we’ve met it.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 2:48 AM with the headline "Coastal Carolina dealt another setback as Freeman sidelined."