Chants win seventh straight with strong showing at Radford

Make it seven in a row for the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team.

The Chanticleers are officially the hottest team in the Big South at this point, turning a slow start in conference play into a timely surge up the standings as they stretched their season-best winning streak Saturday with a 72-60 win at Radford.

Junior guard Elijah Wilson bounced back from a rough game Wednesday to lead the way with 19 points, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw scored 14 and senior forward Badou Diagne dropped in 13 points and 16 rebounds while reaching the 1,000-career point milestone in the win for the Chants (15-8, 9-4 Big South).

“Oh man, this wasn’t a good win – this was a great win,” coach Cliff Ellis said by phone afterward. “I’m just proud of our team. There’s so many things you can point to, but you have to give some credit to Badou Diagne. Elijah hit some big shots. ... [And] we just withstood every rally they tried to make, and it’s just at tremendous win.”

Rashun Davis scored a game-high 22 points for Radford, which drops to 13-11 overall and 6-6 in the league. The Highlanders shot just 37.1 percent from the field for the game while the Chants knocked down an even 50 percent of their shots.

Diagne became the 21st player in program history to score 1,000 career points, and his 16 rebounds are five more than he’s had in any games this season and two off of his career high

It was also an encouraging performance for Wilson, who went 0-for-10 from the field while totaling just four points in Coastal Carolina’s win over Presbyterian earlier in the week.

“I think it’s huge,” Ellis said. “I think just staying positive has been the key. We’ve got great leadership on the team. They’re very positive with one another, they know every game is not going to be perfect.”

Coastal Carolina entered the day one game behind Big South leader UNC Asheville – which defeated Campbell – and tied for second with Winthrop, which had the day off.

It’s been quite a turnaround for the Chants after a 2-4 start to the league race, especially while managing a couple of key injury losses. The team is still without senior forward Marcus Freeman (foot sprain) and has had to rely on more small ball of late.

“Nobody thought we’d be in this position,” Ellis said. “I’m real giddy about this team right now because they’ve been faced with so much. ... I haven’t coached a lot of small ball, but we’re dealing with the cards that have been dealt to us. There’s nothing that’s been thrown in front of this team they haven’t been able to handle, and it’s really a tribute to them and their character.

“We’re down to five games, and that’s almost like a tournament itself. We’re in a position now where we play these five games and we’ve got to handle them.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Chants win seventh straight with strong showing at Radford."