CCU

Men's Basketball Grinds Out 47-37 Win Over Charleston Southern

Chanticleers tie school record for single-season win with 24th victory.

       

Freshman Kierre Greenwood was 5-of-6 from the floor as part of his team-high 11 points.

Freshman Kierre Greenwood was 5-of-6 from the floor as part of his team-high 11 points.

Feb. 20, 2010

 

Final Stats

CONWAY, S.C. -- Coastal Carolina University's men's basketball squad tied a school record with its 24th win in a scrappy 47-37 Big South Conference victory over visiting Charleston Southern, Feb. 20. With the victory, the Chanticleers moved to 24-5 overall and 13-3 in the conference, while the Buccaneers fell to 12-15 and 6-10 in the league. Coastal’s 13th league victory also tied a school record for Big South wins, sharing the mark with the 1990-91 squad that eventually won the league title and the program’s first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The 37 points by Charleston Southern is the fewest points given up by Coastal since 11-30-05 in a 70-35 victory over Coker. It also tied the fewest scored by the squad in the series, tying the record set in 1992-93 in a 45-37 CSU loss in Charleston. The 47 points scored by Coastal was a season low and the fewest scored since a 65-43 loss at Winthrop in 2008.

The game was a grind, with both teams working to find their offensive flow, as the first bucket didn’t go on the board until almost three minutes into the contest on a jumper by Coastal freshman Kierre Greenwood. CSU answered a minute later for one of two ties in the contest, the last coming with 12 minutes to go in the half at 6-all. However, the Chants got the lead to eight at 17-9 late in the first and extended it to 10 at 21-11 with 1:51 to play in the half before settling for a 21-13 halftime margin. Coastal shot 47.6 percent (10-of-21) from the floor in the first half, while CSU was just 19.4 percent (6-of-31).

The second half continued to be a battle, as the visitors opened the half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to just one at 21-20 with less than four minutes gone, but redshirt-senior Mario Edwards three-pointer stretched it back to four. CSU’s Jamarco Warren hit his own triple on the next possession to make it 24-23 with 16:01 to play, but that was as close as the visitors would get. The Chanticleers scored the next six points of the game, including another triple by Edwards and a bucket by Greenwood to make it 30-23. Three straight points by Kelvin Martin trimmed it back to 30-26, but another short burst of four by Coastal on a pair of freshman Danny Nieman free throws and an alley-oop dunk by Chad Gray from Greenwood pushed it back to eight with just over 10 minutes remaining. The game continued to be a back-and-forth battle, with the Bucs handing around and cutting it to 39-37 with 3:02 to go on Kelvin Martin’s jumper. However, the home squad sealed the deal by scoring the final eight points of the game, four by Nieman including a critical inbounds pass steal and layup in the final minute.

Coastal was just 36.7 percent (18-for-49) from the floor in the game, while CSU hit on just 26.3 percent (15-for-57) of its shots in the tough battle. The Chants won the battle of the glass 41-37, but a big difference was the free throw line, where the home squad was 9-of-14 as compared to just 4-of-7 for the Bucs.

Greenwood and Nieman each tallied a Coastal-best 11 points as the only two players in double figures, while senior Joseph Harris grabbed a season and game-high 19 rebounds. Martin posted a double-double for CSU with 14 points and 10 boards, but was the only Buccaneer in double figures.

Coastal returns to action on Thu., Feb. 25, hosting Liberty at 7 p.m., while Charleston Southern will return home to host VMI on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.