CCU women open Big South tournament play for last time

The thought has been with the Coastal Carolina women’s basketball team down the stretch of this season and it will be even more prominent this week, that this is the end for the Chanticleers in the Big South Conference.

Chants coach Jaida Williams said that was something her team thought about during its last trip to Liberty a couple weeks ago when they finally ended the program’s 45-game losing streak to the Flames in what might have been their last chance to do so.

And this now will be their last chance to make a mark in the Big South tournament as the No. 9-seeded Chants (12-17) open against No. 8 Campbell (12-17) on Thursday afternoon at Kimmel Arena in Asheville, N.C., before they move to the Sun Belt Conference next season.

“I absolutely think it’s a thought,” Williams said. “… We’ve worked all year for four games, and these are the four games that matter. And we’re really excited for the opportunity.”

Said junior point guard Ced Gibson: “I feel like it crosses everybody’s mind that we’re going to the Sun Belt next year and this is the last time we can win this Big South tournament and hang a banner in The HTC [Center].”

They have quite a bit of work to do to make that happen, though.

First, the Chants have to find a way to get past Campbell after losing both regular-season meetings with the Fighting Camels, 83-70 at home in December and 73-52 on the road back in January.

“We’ll have Ced for a whole game, which will be good. She hurt herself when we were up there in Buies Creek,” Williams said. “The game plan is to limit them from getting to the foul line. That’s in our control. They had an average of 30 free throws per game every time we played them so that’s completely within our control, and just taking care of the ball and taking good shots. It’s really hard to beat a team three times, and we’re really excited about the opportunity to play Campbell.”

As noted, Gibson only played 17 minutes in that last meeting while finishing 0-for-5 from the field.

For the season, she has averaged a team-high 12.1 points and 3.7 assists per game and was named a second-team All-Big South selection. And she’s averaged 18.6 points over the last nine games.

The other source of encouragement for the Chants, meanwhile, is the way they closed the season in general, winning five of their final eight games.

“I can’t say there was any one thing. I think there comes a moment when things finally come together, especially with so many news faces, such a new system both offensively and defensively. I think they just started getting it,” Williams said. “... It just took time. I think they’re finally understanding the system from an offensive and a defensive perspective, being able to make reads, make up for each other on the defensive end. It’s been really fun to watch them grow together.”

Williams retooled her coaching staff in the offseason and tweaked the Chants’ style on the court, but even still, she admits the growing pains were tough to endure in her third year as head coach – especially as the team endured a five-game losing streak in the middle of the season before its strong finish.

“I think it would be tough for any coach. I’m not going to pretend like it’s easy,” she said. “When you’ve seen a system that’s worked for different places that I’ve been and even for my associate head coach [Heather Kearney], who’s done nothing but win. We’ve both seen what we’ve implanted here work. My entire staff wants it to happen overnight, but it’s a process. Unfortuantely, no matter how fast we want it to go, it’s a process.”

The Chants have been eliminated in their first game of the Big South tournament in four of the last five seasons and the program has never won the event while reaching the finals three times.

But they are nonetheless optimistic this week.

“I think we have a great attitude about it, and I think we’re just going to go out there and show what we can do,” Gibson said. “I think everybody knows what Coastal is capable of doing. ... We’re just ready to get out there. This is our last go-round in the Big South before we move to the Sun Belt so everybody is just ready to get out there and just make a statement.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 10:13 PM with the headline "CCU women open Big South tournament play for last time."