Wilson scores final eight points as Chants rally past Grand Canyon in CIT quarterfinals

Elijah Wilson has always been a streaky player for the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball team. That goes both ways, but when he’s on it can be quite a show to watch.

The junior guard was not only very much on down the stretch Wednesday night, but his timing couldn’t have been any better or more dramatic.

With the Chanticleers down six points and less than two and a half minutes to play Wilson took over, scoring the final eight points of the game and contributing a clutch blocked shot on the defensive end to will Coastal Carolina to a 60-58 win over Grand Canyon in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament quarterfinals.

His block on a 3-point try from the Lopes came with 22.7 seconds left in a tied game, and with 2.2 seconds remaining he tossed in the go-ahead layup to push the Chants (21-11) into the CIT semifinals Sunday at home with the game time and opponent still to be determined.

“We were down a couple points and being in that situation with not that much time left everybody knows that something big needs to happen and luckily I had the confidence enough and my teammates had enough confidence in me to find me so I could make the right play on the offensive end and on the defensive end,” Wilson said. “I was actually late [coming off] that screen. I kind of got lucky on that block, but I was fortunate enough to get it and luckily it paid off in our favor to get the win.”

It was a terrific series of possessions for Wilson, who scored eight of his team-high 16 points in the final 2:23. Senior forward Marcus Freeman, meanwhile, finished with 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench, junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr added 10 points and seven boards off the bench and senior forward Tristian Curtis chipped in 10 rebounds.

Wilson was the star of the show, though.

In a game with five lead changes, it looked like Grand Canyon (27-7) might have swung the momentum for good after scoring 11 straight points to go up 58-52 with 3:37 remaining.

But a couple of possessions later Wilson drained a long 3 from the right wing to cut the deficit in half. After the Lopes missed two shots on the other end, Wilson then grabbed the rebound and worked his way to the foul line. He only hit one of the two free throws, but the ball went out of bounds off a Grand Canyon player and Wilson capitalized on the extended possession with a game-tying layup with 45.2 seconds on the clock.

The junior guard then came through with the block on the other end on a 3-point attempt by Joshua Braun after fellow junior Shivaughn Wiggins had blocked an earlier shot on the possession, and during a timeout the Chants worked out a plan to get the ball back in Wilson’s hands.

“Elijah wanted the ball so we wanted to clear it out, but we cleared it out on the baseline,” Chants coach Cliff Ellis said. “It’s what we call ‘drag’. Our bigs were up top and we told Shivaughn, ‘Look, show the screen at the top and at the 6-second mark just whip it to Elijah.’ He wanted the ball and I said, ‘OK, make a play.’ And the rest of it was up to him.”

Wilson took the pass on the left wing and drove along the baseline, eluded a leaping defender and tossed the ball off the glass with his right hand to put Coastal Carolina ahead 60-58 with only those 2.2 seconds left on the clock, and Grand Canyon wasn’t able to get another shot off before the buzzer.

“I really wanted it. I hit the 3 and the other 2 and I just felt confident enough and luckily my teammates felt confident in me as well to get me the ball and fortunately I made the right play to score at the end,” Wilson said. “... We all believe in each other. We all know that we’ll find a way and find a way to make the right play. We’re so close as a team and that makes a big difference when it comes down to crunch time of games because everybody trusts each other.”

Grandy Glaze led Grand Canyon with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The problem for the Lopes was they shot just 5-of-26 from 3-point range in the game, and they didn’t score in the final 3:37.

“[Coastal Carolina was] just aggressive going to the basket, getting to the foul line. We just continued to not make a whole lot of shots. It was just one of those nights were we had good looks and couldn’t make any,” said Lopes coach Dan Majerle, a former NBA All-Star. “... I thought we battled, I thought we played really hard. It was just one of those games where we couldn’t find a basket, with a lot of credit going to that team. They’re a good defensive team that played really hard and they did what it takes to win a game.”

Said Ellis: “Sometimes it’s going to work your way; sometimes it doesn’t. We were able to make the play. You’ve got to be good, but you’ve also got to be fortunate and things like that. It’s March Madness. It’s crazy, it worked our way. Anything could have happened in that game. That team could have won easily. I think the big thing is in the last three and a half minutes or so we kept them from scoring. That was the big thing.”

Since bowing out in the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament to miss out on their goal of a third straight NCAA tournament berth, the Chants have recovered to win three games in the CIT – the first official postseason victories in program history.

They know they’ll play Sunday evening at home in the semifinals of the 26-team tournament, but they don’t know who they’ll be playing yet.

“It’s wonderful,” Ellis said of this CIT run. “Right now I’m just kind of a little bit in shock. That game was just ... I feel like I’ve been in a punching bag. But three straight wins in [the] postseason, that’s never happened here. And whoever we play is going to be a monster like this team, and it’s good for our team.”

Said Freeman, one of four active seniors on the team: “It means a lot just to continue to play. You’ve got to take advantage of every second of every game you get to play. It’s a blessing.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Wilson scores final eight points as Chants rally past Grand Canyon in CIT quarterfinals."