CCU

Chants Rout Radford For Ninth Straight Win

       

Danny Nieman had 14 points and three steals Friday.

Danny Nieman had 14 points and three steals Friday.

Dec. 31, 2010

CONWAY, S.C. - Desmond Holloway scored 18 points and had seven rebounds to lead Coastal Carolina to its ninth straight win with a 77-59 victory over Radford Friday afternoon from Kimbel Arena. 

Holloway leads the Chants and ranks second in the Big South with 18.8 points per game and has scored at least 13 points in all 13 games thus far this season. 

Mike Holmes poured in 18 points of his own to go along with six rebounds to help Coastal hold a 44-24 edge in points in the paint. 

Anthony Raffa added 14 points and three steals, while fellow guard Danny Nieman finished with 13 points, three assists and three steals.  Chad Gray nearly missed a double-double as he finished with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds. 

Blake Smith led Radford with 12 points and five rebounds, while both Evan Faulkner and Jareal Smith scored 11 points apiece for the Highlanders. 

Coastal Carolina (11-2, 2-0) opened up an early 9-0 lead over the first 3:18 of the game capped as the Chants hit four of their first six shots.  Radford, however, answered with an 18-6 run of its own capped by a three-point from Smith to take an 18-15 lead midway through the half

Radford (3-10, 0-3) took its final lead of the game with 5:28 left to play in the first half when Jareal Smith put the Highlanders ahead 22-21 following a pair of free throws.  The Chanticleers used a 13-0 run thereafter to take a 34-22 lead with just under two minutes left on the clock. 

Faulkner pulled Radford within 10 points with two free throws in the final minute, but Coastal quickly upped its lead to 13 points when Raffa's heave from half court found the bottom of the net with 0.1 seconds left before halftime. 

Radford trimmed the Coastal lead back to 10 points over the first four minutes of the second half, but the Chanticleers answered with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to up their advantage to 18 points at 49-31.

Coastal would go on to lead by as many as 23 points and hold Radford under 60 points for the 10th time this season. 

The win gave the Chanticleers its 15th straight win in the month of December and its 29th consecutive win when scoring at least 70 points.  Head coach Cliff Ellis won his 597th career NCAA Division I game and is just three victories shy of becoming the 26th coach in NCAA history with 600 Division I wins.

Coastal returns to action Sunday at 2 p.m. when the Chanticleers host High Point from Kimbel Arena.