For the second straight year, Coastal Carolina falls one win short of reaching the NCAA Tournament. UNC-Asheville led wire to wire at Kimbel Arena and scored a 60-47 win over the Chanticleers. The Bulldogs are in the field of 68 for the first time since 2003. Coastal Carolina is on its way to the NIT for the second straight year. The Chanticleers will find out who and where they are playing one week from Sunday.
The Bulldogs came out of the gates with a 6-1 start and built a 19-8 advantage on a JP Primm three pointer. Coastal was plagued by 10 first half turnovers. John Williams slam put UNCA in front 29-22 at the half. In the second half, CCU would come within one possession of the lead on numerous occasions. Anthony Raffa got CCU within two at 39-37. Later, Chad Gray's three point play made it a 50-47 game near the four minute mark. But Coastal never got closer. A John Williams blocked shot led to a Matt Dickey three up the other way delivered the knockout punch.
Chad Gray had 13 points to lead CCU. Chris Stephenson scored 14 points, John Williams had 10 points and nine rebounds for UNCA. The Bulldogs Matt Dickey was named Big South Tournament MVP.
WPDE Sports Director Rich Chrampanis, host of the Cliff Ellis Show, was courtside for the Big South title game
Deja Vu
This was eerily similar to last year's Winthrop game. The Eagles were physical and CCU was tight and tentative looking for foul calls and not getting them. The same thing happened on Saturday against UNCA. Coach Ellis said that the two Big South title games were the two most physical in his time at Coastal. There were some uncharacterstic mistakes. Danny Nieman getting a 10 second call and slipping on another key possession and Anthony Raffa getting an intentional foul call during crunch time were just two signs that it wasn't meant to be for CCU.
Turnovers, too
Physical and turnovers. It was talked about over and over in post-game. Coastal turned the ball over 21 times to Asheville's 10. Sometimes it's easy to boil a game down to one thing. Turnovers fits the bill to sum up why CCU isn't in the NCAA Tournament.
They weren't out of gas
There was a lot of buildup about the Great 8 and perhaps running out of gas. That wasn't the case. UNCA with their full array of player only played eight players themselves in the title game. The energy was there. I just think that CCU played tight and could never get over the hump. They were one possession away on so many occasions from getting even in the second half. I really feel if they were ever to have drawn even they would have figured out a way to win. It was more of a psychological block than anything throughout that second half. Whenever they got close, a mistake would follow.
The season's not over
The Chants have a week to get over the heartbreak and see where they are going to play in the NIT. The players and coaching staff have to be emotionally spent considering everything they have gone through over the past two weeks. A couple of days of downtime and a chance to be loose heading into the NIT is what this team needs to do. The most cruel irony could be if Desmond Holloway were to be reinstated for post-season play. There's no rhyme or reason to the NCAA's timetable. It would be bittersweet to say the least if Holloway was eligible to play in the NIT.
