Chants win sixth straight while topping PC

The Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team couldn’t sustain its recent dominant play Wednesday night at Presbyterian, but more importantly the Chanticleers still managed to extend their season-best winning streak.

Junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins matched his season high with 24 points to lead the Chants to a 69-66 win over the Blue Hose inside the Templeton Center in Clinton.

It’s the sixth straight win for the Chants (14-8, 8-4 Big South), who are now tied for second in the conference standings with Winthrop a game behind UNC Asheville and a half game ahead of High Point.

“Any road win is going to be tough,” Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis said by phone afterward.

And this one was as junior guard Elijah Wilson, the reigning Big South Player of the Week, shot 0-for-10 from the field while finishing with four points and sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw finished with just five points on 1-of-3 shooting.

That left Wiggins to pick up the slack for his backcourt mates, and he did just that while making 6-of-8 shots from the field, 4-of-5 from 3-point range and 8-of-13 from the foul line.

Junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr also pitched in, notching his first career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

“Defensive win,” Ellis said. “I think the big difference in the game was our defense and rebounding. Colton-Ray was a big factor for us. Shivaughn had a great game. ... Usually Jaylen and Elijah are knocking some shots down, but it was Shivaughn tonight.”

In regard to that defense, Coastal Carolina once again clamped down on the Big South’s leading scorer while holding Presbyterian’s DeSean Murray to nine points on 3-of-8 shooting. He had just 10 points in the teams’ first meeting – an 87-58 Chants win.

The Blue Hose drop to 9-14, 3-8 with the loss.

Coastal Carolina, meanwhile, continues to keep pace in the Big South race and faces a tough test on the road Saturday at Radford.

“We’ll just take them one at a time and let the outcome take care of itself,” Ellis said of the standings. “We have a tough game on Saturday. That’s all that’s on my mind.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "Chants win sixth straight while topping PC."