Chanticleers get postseason win over Mercer in CIT opener

For any questions as to whether the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team would be properly motivated for its CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament game Tuesday night, the answer came during the second half.

After a sluggish opening 20 minutes, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw and junior guard Elijah Wilson took turns draining momentum-swinging 3-pointers to get the Chanticleers going and the defense held strong from there on the way to a 65-57 win over Mercer before a crowd of 940 at The HTC Center.

Wilson finished with a game-high 18 points with three 3s, Shaw dropped in 16 points with three 3s of his own and senior forward Badou Diagne tallied nine points and eight rebounds as the Chants (19-11) advanced to the second round of the CIT. They will host their next game Saturday at 2 p.m. against an opponent still to be determined.

“We’re just fortunate to be able to play in this postseason,” Wilson said. “A lot of teams aren’t playing at this time of the year so we just use that as motivation. Obviously we fell short of our ultimate goal, but it’s still a blessing just to be able to play again. And especially for the seniors, they get another couple games on their home floor.”

The Chants had reached the NCAA tournament the last two seasons and were contenders to make it three in a row before losing to Gardner-Webb in the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament.

Beyond the NCAA tournament and NIT, the tertiary postseason tournaments – the CIT and the CBI – are a mix of teams in various states of health, fatigue and drive. Some programs opt to decline the opportunity altogether, and the CIT was actually unable to fill out its intended 32-team bracket this year, settling for a 26-team event with some byes worked in after the opening round.

But Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis had touted the importance of postseason play of any kind, especially for a program that was still seeking its first official postseason victory (as the Chants’ NCAA tournament play-in game win in 1991 didn’t count as a tournament victory).

This was the Chants’ sixth postseason appearance in the last seven seasons, and finally they had their breakthrough Tuesday night.

“It just means that you’re getting experience, your guys are getting the feel of postseason play, you’re trying to lay some groundwork for the future of the program. Coastal has not won postseason tournament games,” Ellis said. “There’s nerves involved in that. Maybe there were some nerves tonight. I told our guys, ‘You need to relax a little bit more.’ Maybe we were on edge, but maybe they were too. We seemed to have been looser in the NCAA tournament games than we were tonight, if you think back on the games that we played. So I want to get our guys to relax.

“But your energy level is tested by your defense and how you rebound, and that was there. So good win, we got the first game behind us, now it’s time to move on.”

It wasn’t pretty for much of the evening as the Chants shot just 31 percent in the first half and trailed Mercer, 26-25, at halftime.

The Bears (19-15) won the CIT championship in 2012, but they came into this postseason after trying few months after one player was killed in a shooting and two others – including the team’s leading scorer – were suspended in early February and did not return.

Still, they gave the Chants a stern test and held a four-point lead in the opening minutes of the second half. The lead changed a couple more times after that before Shaw scored on a short floater to tie the game at 36-36 with about 12 minutes remaining.

Then came the surge Coastal Carolina needed.

Shaw soon followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing and on the Chants’ next possession drained another 3 from the top of the arc. Mercer was scoring as well to keep it tight, but then Wilson delivered a 3 to give the hosts a 45-40 lead and force the Bears to call timeout with 8:04 remaining.

Coastal Carolina never trailed again, later peaking the lead at nine points a few different times.

The Chants were just 1-of-11 from 3-point range in the first half and 7-of-30 for the game, but Shaw and Wilson combined for those six big 3s after halftime that made the difference.

Mercer got it within five points in the final minute, but the Bears couldn’t get any closer while shooting just 36.1 percent for the game and 18.2 percent from 3-point range (4-of-22).

“The first half we couldn’t draw iron. I mean, it was obvious,” Ellis said. “But the key for us is Jaylen and Elijah made some shots in the second half. The defense stayed the same, the rebounding stayed the same on both ends, but Jaylen and Elijah stepped up and made some shots.”

Said Mercer coach Bob Hoffman: “They didn’t really hit that many 3s when you look at the stats. It was just a barrage of them and they were in a row. ... It was a huge momentum [swing].”

Aside from winning a postseason game, the other story line Tuesday night was the return of Diagne, who missed the last three games with a partial tear of the fascia in his foot. He missed his Senior Night and the Big South tournament, and he made it clear after this win what it meant to him to have another chance to play with the Chants.

“It felt great, and just by the feeling of this game I can tell what I want to do for the rest of my life – basketball,” he said. “Just everything, the feeling of the game, being out there with my teammates, enjoying it, the fans [getting into] it. It was just a great feeling. ... And I’m thankful for the crowd. They cheered when I got back in, so I’m thankful for that, I really appreciate it.”

Ellis had said coming into the game that Diagne, who had made 75 consecutive starts prior to the foot injury, was probably at about 65 percent. He looked better than that, though.

“It’s just so good to have him back,” Ellis said. “I don’t know how many rebounds he got, he’ll be sore tomorrow and we’ll try to get him fresh, but his presence just makes a difference. He was rusty to start with, but his rebounding and his blocked shots, that presence inside is a huge difference, huge factor.”

The Chants don’t know their next opponent yet because the CIT reseeds after each round to try to maintain regional matchups and minimize travel, but they know they have at least one more game.

“It’s good to win, but we’ve got to focus on the next game and keep on rolling,” Wilson said.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Chanticleers get postseason win over Mercer in CIT opener."