Chants hold off UNC Asheville at the buzzer

What had once ballooned as large as a 20-point lead for the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team had been whittled all the way to one as junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins went to the free throw line with 7.8 seconds on the clock Saturday.

Wiggins had delivered time and again for the Chanticleers on the way to a team-high 24 points, but he would hit just one of those final two foul shots, setting up a tense finish as UNC Asheville’s Kevin Vannatta hoisted up a potentially devastating 3-pointer at the other end.

The suspense ended soon enough, though, as that final shot missed and the Chants held on for an 81-79 win over the host Bulldogs before a loud crowd of 3,269 inside Kimmel Arena to close out the regular season.

It was Coastal Carolina’s first win in five tries in this building, and with that the Chants (18-10, 12-6) locked up the No. 3 seed for the Big South tournament next week, finishing one game out of first place.

“I’m just proud of this team and what they’ve done to come in here one game out of first place with all the stuff they’ve gone through,” coach Cliff Ellis said. “To come in here without Badou Diagne and do what they did. That just speaks of the kind of season that we’ve had. There’s no doubt in my mind had we been [injury-free] we would have been the No. 1 seed. But that’s not the circumstances that are there, and I’m proud of our team for not folding up the tent at any point of time.

“From start to finish we’ve had nothing but setbacks, but this team has fought through it and this was a culmination of what we’ve seen throughout the course of the year.”

Diagne, the Chants’ best forward and leading rebounder, missed his second straight game with a strained ligament in his foot, and his status remains uncertain for the conference tournament next week in Buies Creek, N.C.

As Ellis said, it’s just the latest in a string of injuries that has helped define the narrative of this season, but the Chants’ depth delivered for them again Saturday.

Wiggins scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half and also added a team-high four steals, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw chipped in 14 points, junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr had 13 off the bench and junior guard Elijah Wilson scored 10.

Meanwhile, Dwayne Sutton had 24 to lead UNC Asheville, which shot 58.3 percent from 3-point range after halftime (7-of-12) to climb back in the game and have a chance at the end.

Even though the Chants had led 49-29 early in the second half, the players said they weren’t surprised in the least that the game went down to the final seconds.

“Not at all,” Wiggins said. “They were at home and we know there’s two halves to a basketball game. We started out fast, and in the second half they started out and punched us. We held up, though.”

After seeing their deficit peak at 20 points, the Bulldogs (19-11, 12-6) scored the next nine points and went on a 16-3 run overall to start narrowing the gap.

They would then cut Coastal Carolina’s lead to 56-52 with 8:35 remaining, but Wiggins continually had answers for the Chants.

He followed that surge with a 3 from the top of the key and two possessions later turned a steal into a fast-break layup, drew a foul and sank the free throw to keep the hosts at bay for the moment.

When UNC Asheville made it 66-62, Wiggins again responded with a layup, a steal and another layup to push the lead back to eight points.

“Shivaughn, he always goes hard down the stretch,” Shaw said. “He plays with a lot of heart. He does everything he can not to lose. He keeps me going at the end of the game. He did his job tonight.”

Another Wiggins layup made it 74-67 with 1:39 remaining, but the Bulldogs just kept hitting big shots.

After UNC Asheville stole the ball from Wilson on an inbounds play, a pair of free throws from Ahmad Thomas cut the lead to 76-74 with 52.3 seconds on the clock.

On the other end Wiggins missed a jumper, but a rebound by senior Tristian Curtis reset the shot clock and the point guard eventually ended up back at the line for two more free throws with 20.9 seconds left. He made both to make it 78-74.

But Dylan Smith drained a 3 for the Bulldogs to make it a one-point game with 12.8 seconds to go. Wilson and Smith then traded points with a pair of free throws apiece before Wiggins went back to the line one last time with 7.8 seconds on the clock, making the first and missing the second for an 81-79 lead.

Vannatta would get a clean look at the other end, albeit from well beyond the arc, but the ball went off the back iron to end the comeback bid.

“You see why Asheville is as good as they are,” Ellis said. “They made shots, they made big plays. Both teams are going at each other. The zone bothered them early and I thought that was a big factor, but once they got into it, they got momentum going, got the crowd behind them, started making shots and it just went down to the finish. We felt that was going to happen. I’m just proud that our team was able to hang on and do what we did.”

Said Shaw: “It just says we never quit. We’re going to keep playing, we’re going to fight with all we’ve got. We’re going to leave everything on the court. But we’ve got to give them credit. Those guys played hard on their home court for senior night and we’ve got to give them credit for that.”

Now the Chants get a little break with a bye into the Big South quarterfinals Friday night, where they will play either No. 6 Gardner-Webb or No. 11 Campbell, the tournament host, in the late game. They split 1-1 with both teams during the regular season.

“Well, Campbell’s the home team, that’s tough. We didn’t beat them there early. Nothing [is] going to be easy,” Ellis said.

Regardless of who they play, the Chants will have plenty of momentum after winning 10 of their final 12 regular-season games as they look to win their third straight Big South tournament championship and make it back to the NCAA tournament.

“Our confidence has never been an issue – we’ve always been confident,” Wiggins said. “We’re trying to get Badou back as quick as we can to get all our pieces together and we’ll be even more confident.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Chants hold off UNC Asheville at the buzzer."